[R] Question regarding different R versions on an enterprise network server

[Jeff Newmiller]

Assaf: they are named differently when you run different versions. 3.1 and 3.2 are different, but 3.1.1 and 3.1.2 are both in the 3.1 directory.
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Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

On May 21, 2015 11:09:25 AM PDT, "Assaf P. Oron" <assaf at uw.edu> wrote:
>Thanks for the quick response.
>
>@Duncan: The IT person says he cannot rename the binary. Naturally
>that's
>the first suggestion I made to him. I found it odd but he's the IT
>person
>not me.
>OTOH if I have authoritative word from the R team that it's perfectly
>doable, I can get back to him :)
>
>@Jeff: Since it's a network app, on their side it doesn't sit in a
>'folder'
>so there's no way for the different Rgui.exe's to reference different
>folders. If they are called the same, they will all read off of the
>same
>initialization files.
>
>Assaf
>
>
>
>On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 9:54 AM, Duncan Murdoch
><murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>> On 21/05/2015 12:21 PM, Assaf P. Oron wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I represent R users vs. IT dept. at my workplace (yes, an enviable
>task :)
>>>
>>> We've managed to get a workable network-based R application, for
>people
>>> who
>>> work remotely, or don't have a machine (i.e., they use a VDI
>terminal).
>>> Everything in this organization is staunchly Windows and Microsoft.
>>>
>>> We've agreed to upgrade only once yearly, to save IT resources. Now
>we're
>>> upgrading, and I would like users to be able to keep their old R
>3.1.0
>>> directory trees like it's available on a single Windows machine. At
>least
>>> for a few months, so that people can evaluate back-compatibility if
>they
>>> need. In fact, we have an even older server-based 3.0.1, which
>happens to
>>> be  the only R version for which the Tableaux-R connection works (at
>least
>>> according to my colleagues, I don't use Tableaux).
>>>
>>> Anyway, long story short. That was just the motivating example. The
>>> problem
>>> I'm dealing with is whether a network application that has several
>>> versions
>>> of R (3.1.z, 3.2.z), etc., all available, and each reading and
>installing
>>> libraries to a different folder tree.
>>>
>>> The libraries right now are installed into each user's "personal"
>share
>>> drive. It's pretty stable. However, obviously the 3.2.z libraries
>will now
>>> overwrite the 3.1.z.
>>>
>>> My IT contact says it's impossible, because the Windows app name is
>always
>>> just Rgui.exe, and they can only have one set of instructions
>associated
>>> with the same app name (i.e., what folders to go to, etc.)
>>>
>>
>> If you are doing the install, you can rename Rgui.exe to something
>else,
>> e.g. rename the old one to Rgui31.exe.
>>
>> The default setup already installs user packages into a local
>directory
>> with a versioned name, so that shouldn't be a problem.
>> See ?R_LIBS for details on that.
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
>>
>>
>>> I wonder whether anyone has had experience with this, or I should
>just
>>> give
>>> up and alert people that if they want to explore various historical
>layers
>>> of R and the associated packages, they will have to work around
>and/or
>>> install and uninstall lots of packages each time.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Assaf
>>>
>>>
>>