[R-SIG-Mac] install.packages default type change? mac.binary vs source

James Wettenhall wettenhall at wehi.EDU.AU
Thu Jul 21 11:59:27 CEST 2005


Hi,

I have a local website where I host an R package which I build on Windows,
so I can easily create a source (.tar.gz) version and a Win32 binary
(.zip).  My package doesn't contain any compiled code (e.g. C, Fortran),
so installing from the source package should be fine for MacOS X users. 
In the past, I believe that MacOS X users could use install.packages()
successfully without any package 'type' specification, even though there
is no .tgz file, but now it seems that they need to explicitly say:

install.packages(..., type="source")

Right?

Is this a permanent change?  Are there any tricks like creating a .tgz
which is really the same as the .tar.gz (source) package, or creating a
symbolic link from .tgz to .tar.gz?

Or are these the only choices?
1. Build a Mac binary every time I update the version number in the PACKAGES
file.
  OR
2. Tell all users that they need to use type="source", now.
  OR
3. Submit my package to a repository where Win32 and Mac binaries are
built for me.

Regards,
James



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