[R] Packages sometimes don't update, but no error or warning is thrown

[Duncan Murdoch]

Those three references are about RStudio and Bioconductor (or at least 
they start out that way, I didn't read through the long threads). 
Neither of those is relevant here, but from my quick scan it appears the 
issue is that those systems detect a package in source form is 
available, then install an older binary instead.

If you have an example where update.packages() does this, that would be 
on topic on this list.  Please post just that here:  your calls, and all 
the output you received.  In my experience update.packages() asks 
whether you want the source or binary install and respects your choice.

Duncan Murdoch

On 13/02/2024 3:59 a.m., gernophil--- via R-help wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>   
> this question is related to this (https://community.rstudio.com/t/packages-are-not-updating/166214/3), this (https://www.biostars.org/p/9586316/#9586323) and this (https://support.bioconductor.org/p/9156283/#9156308). The two latter ones are pots from myself.
>   
> To sum it up: If I am updating packages (be it via Bioconductor or CRAN) some packages simply don’t update, but they also don’t throw any warning or error that they have not been updated. The reason behind this is most likely that there is an update, but it’s not yet available as a binary – in my case as a "mac.binary.big-sur-arm64", since I am on Apple Silicon. My pkgType is set to "both" (default), but my .Platform$pkgType is "mac.binary.big-sur-arm64" (also default).
>   
> If the system shows an update is available and I click update (or update via install.packages()), but the package will not be updated, I would expect any kind of message that the package will not be updated, since no newer binary is available or a prompt, if I want to compile from source. However, the only message I get is:
> ```
> trying URL '<url_to_package>'
> Content type 'application/x-gzip' length XXXXXXX bytes (X.X MB)
> ==================================================
> downloaded X.X MB
>   
>   
> The downloaded binary packages are in
>                  /var/folders/ws/XXX/T//YYY/downloaded_packages
> ```
> To see, if the package was actually updated, I have to check for updates again (or check the version of the installed package). Is this the expected behavior and if so, why? (Also, why is there a double slash in the path to the downloaded packages?)
>   
> Thanks for your help.
>   
> Best,
> Philipp
> 
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