Automating package updates after major version change

On the contrary... that is the use case in which it makes the least sense
to muck with system files. System files are maintained using system
package management tools which at best lag terribly, while R packages are
much easier to manage using R's internal package tools with no elevated
privileges.

Jeff,

I must not be following your thoughts. The slackbuilds.org group maintains a
package for the current R distribution (when the maintainer gets around to
checking that the build script works with the source.) Every library not
provided in the core R distribution I download and install from the local
CRAN mirror.

All Slackware distribution executables are stored in /usr/bin/. Most of the
SBo application packages are also installed there.

Application-specific functions are the province of the user and I let root
download, build, and install R packages.

Regards,

Rich