[R] plotmath not available on R 3.2.2

[Marc Schwartz]

> On Dec 12, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Ranjan Maitra <maitra.mbox.ignored at inbox.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 12 Dec 2015 10:51:16 -0600 Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz at me.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> On Dec 12, 2015, at 10:47 AM, Ranjan Maitra <maitra.mbox.ignored at inbox.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I recently needed to install a fresh OS (Fedora 23, where R 3.2.2 is the latest), and which meant everything has to be installed from scratch. In so doing, I got the somewhat familiar:
>>> 
>>>> install.packages('plotmath')
>>> Installing package into ‘/usr/lib64/R/library’
>>> (as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
>>> Warning message:
>>> package ‘plotmath’ is not available (for R version 3.2.2) 
>>> 
>>> Is there a way to get around this, other than to download the tarball and install locally?
>>> 
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Ranjan
>> 
>> plotmath is not a package, it is a function:
>> 
>>  ?plotmath
> 
> Sorry, you are right -- my mistake: the package is grDevices. 
> 
>> install.packages('grDevices')
> Installing package into ‘/usr/lib64/R/library’
> (as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
> Warning message:
> package ‘grDevices’ is not available (for R version 3.2.2) 
> 
> However, this is no longer an issue for me: I seem to have it installed on this new install (of last week). 
> 
> Sorry about the false alarm.
> 
> Best wishes,
> Ranjan 


A couple of things:

First, there is a SIG list specifically for R on Fedora and RHEL distributions and their derivatives:

  https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-fedora

Second, how did you install R? If you used the precompiled binary RPMS for Fedora that are available by using 'yum':

  sudo yum install R

then the standard R components and their dependencies, that are part of the default distribution, would be installed via the precompiled binary RPMS.

There is no need to install the base or recommended packages separately.

That is the easiest way to install R on Fedora. Yes, it may be a version release or two out of date, especially since 3.2.3 was just released this past week. It will typically take a few days or perhaps a bit longer, before the RPM maintainers release a new binary.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz