[R] install.packages and dependencies=TRUE

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 17/12/2013 11:26 AM, Gábor Csárdi wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am trying to install a private package, with its dependencies. However, both
>
> install.packages("sand_1.0.tar.gz", dependencies=TRUE, repos=NULL,
> type="source")
>
> and
>
> install.packages("sand_1.0.tar.gz", dependencies="Suggests",
> repos=NULL, type="source")
>
> fail to install suggested packages:
>
> > packageDescription("sand")$Suggests
> [1] "network, sna, ape, ergm, mixer, vioplot, ROCR, fdrtool, huge"
>
> Based on the docs, I got the (obviously wrong) impression, that it was
> possible to install suggested packages. From ?install.packages,
> dependencies argument:
>
>            ‘TRUE’ means to use ‘c("Depends", "Imports", "LinkingTo",
>            "Suggests")’ for ‘pkgs’ and ‘c("Depends", "Imports",
>            "LinkingTo")’ for added dependencies: this installs all the
>            packages needed to run ‘pkgs’, their examples, tests and
>            vignettes (if the package author specified them correctly).
>
> > library(ergm)
> Error in library(ergm) : there is no package called ‘ergm’
> > library(huge)
> Error in library(huge) : there is no package called ‘huge’
>
> What am I doing wrong, and more importantly, what is the correct way
> to install _all_ dependencies of a package?

The problem is with repos=NULL (i.e. a local install).  Since none of 
those dependencies are local, they aren't found and won't be installed.

I imagine some package has a function that does what you want, but I 
don't know it.  It wouldn't be hard to put one together as follows:

1.  install your package without its dependencies.
2.  use tools::package_dependencies() to find the (non-recursive) 
dependencies.
3.  install those, with their dependencies.

You could add a step to filter the list in 2 so that you don't 
re-install something that is already there.

Duncan Murdoch