[R] xts zoo "cannot remove prior installation of package"

[David Winsemius]

On Jul 8, 2013, at 10:21 AM, Pooya Lalehzari wrote:

> Hello,
> Some how, my xts/zoo package ran into trouble. I tried to re-install the packages, I get an error that it cannot remove the prior installation.
> I uninstalled R and the deleted all the libraries and reinstalled everything fresh. It still complains the same thing. I try to remove.packages("zoo"), it tells me there is no such package. I am really baffled. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

If you look at the help page for remove.packages(), it states that the second argument is taken to be the first element in .libPaths(). You have not told us what .libPaths() is returning and you should do so (even though it wasn't mentioned in the Posting Guide.)  It seems possible that you set up an additonal library location which your new installation of R is "finding" but which is not the first item in the list of directories with library entries. 

I have found that having two locations for libraries is an annoyance, and have removed all "user library" locations.

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> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
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> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

Let me second Prof. Ripley's suggestion that you do more reading of the /listinfo/ page and the  Posting Guide.

-- 

David Winsemius
Alameda, CA, USA