[R] its time for an update for install.packages!

[Uwe Ligges]

On 03.02.2026 22:22, Jeff Newmiller via R-help wrote:
> My non-core vote is to discard this suggestion.
> 
> FWIW R-Core doesn't pay much attention to this volunteer helpers list anyway...

R-Core does. Several R-Core members are reading this list carefully.

install.packages() installs from CRAN and BioC standard repositories by 
default and allows for more CRAN-style repositories optionally.
If other kinds of repositories are requested, one can easily provide 
code in add on packages such as the pak package which already happened 
for the mentioned problem below, apparently.

Best,
Uwe Ligges




  I suggest to OP that you spend a little more time with the official 
documentation before suggesting significant changes.
> 
> On February 3, 2026 12:30:05 PM PST, Yann Coh <yannco5 using gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hey Core,
>> followed by my Bluesky post
>> <https://bsky.app/profile/yannco.bsky.social/post/3mdy4rlios226>,
>> I felt like this was such a simple, yet required change!
>> Let's default to using pak when prompted or when running old scripts with
>> install.packages.
>> ```r
>> .utils_install_packages <- utils::install.packages
>> install.packages <- function(pkgs, ...) {
>> if (requireNamespace("pak", quietly = TRUE)) { pak::pkg_install(pkgs, ...)
>> }
>> else { .utils_install_packages(pkgs, ...) }
>> }
>> ```
>> btw, util's home help page shows the r-core email address as maintainer,
>> and the description file shows r-help
>> -- 
>> Yann Cohen
>> 🌐 www,yann-dev,io <https://iamyannc.github.io/Yann-dev>
>> 📞 +596 696 66 58 93 <https://wa.me/596696665893>
>>
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>>
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> 
> --
> Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.
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> 
> ______________________________________________
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