RFC install.packages() changes
On Sun, 7 Nov 2004, Kjetil Brinchmann Halvorsen wrote:
Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
install/update.packages() in R-devel has been enhanced in a few ways, notably to handle multiple repositories, and to allow packages to be reinstalled under the current version of R. 1) Currently they will ask if you want to delete the downloaded files (if any) *provided* destdir was not specified. In that case it uses a subdirectory of the per-session temporary directory, so the files will be deleted at the end of the R session anyway. We had a request to make the questioning optional. I propose to remove it altogether, and either a) delete the downloaded files at the end of install.packages or b) leave them in the per-session directory to be deleted at the end of the session. that is to force answer 'y' or 'n' respectively. Does anyone see any problems with a)?
I would prefer b), as I am downloading from the Rgui menu and then moves downloaded packages to a c:\download... area which I use to burn CD-roms I distribute to many people. If a) is choosen I guess I could learn to use it from the command line, though. What is the problem with b)?
Potentially leaving 1Gb or so of files in a temporary directory. So probably no big deal. Brian
Brian D. Ripley, ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595