install packages with missing pkg argument
Are you running that command in RStudio? And do you get the documented results when you run utils::install.packages() rather than just install.packages() If yes, then the function is likely working as advertised and you've mixed up the R and RStudio versions
On 29/07/2019, Ant F <antoine.fabri at gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all, The help for `?install.packages` decribes, in the `pkg` argument description :
If this is missing, a listbox of available packages is presented where
possible in an interactive R session. In fact running it with a missing argument triggers an error : install.packages()
Error in install.packages : argument "pkgs" is missing, with no default
What however doesn't trigger an error is callinginstall.packages on a zero length character : install.packages(character(0)) On my colleague's R 3.5.1 windows installation it shows the listbox of available packages, on my 3.6.0 installation it pauses for a couple seconds and doesn't do anything. A character vector of length zero is what you get when you compute an empty `setdiff` or `intersection`, so it was very surprising to us to see something popup where we were expecting a vector of missing packages to be installed (or none if there was no missing package). I believe having the function work as advertised with a proper missing argument, and having it do nothing silently when the argument is of length zero, would make more sense. Best regards, Antoine [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
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