Problem with foreign package

I tried to use write.foreign() to export to SAS this morning and got an 
error.

When I looked at the code for writeForeignSAS() I saw this line:

dfn < -df

which I think should be

dfn <- df

So, I tried to run update.packages() to see if there was an updated 
version and got the following result.

 > update.packages(c("foreign"))

Warning message:
In list.files(lib) : list.files: 'foreign' is not a readable directory

I ran the above command as root.

Is this because the foreign package is a core package and not a CRAN one?

My sessionInfo() is

R version 2.8.0 (2008-10-20)
i686-pc-linux-gnu

locale:
LC_CTYPE=en_US;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=en_US;LC_COLLATE=C;LC_MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=en_US;LC_PAPER=en_US;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;LC_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_2.8.0

and my version of foreign is 0.8-30

On 2/2/2009 8:46 AM, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:

I tried to use write.foreign() to export to SAS this morning and got 
an error.

When I looked at the code for writeForeignSAS() I saw this line:

dfn < -df

which I think should be

dfn <- df

So, I tried to run update.packages() to see if there was an updated 
version and got the following result.

That bug was fixed a few weeks ago, but a new version has not been 
released yet.  You can get the latest source from svn:

https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/foreign

 > update.packages(c("foreign"))

Warning message:
In list.files(lib) : list.files: 'foreign' is not a readable directory

I ran the above command as root.

Is this because the foreign package is a core package and not a CRAN one?

It is a "recommended" package, which means it is on CRAN, but is also 
included in binary distributions of R.  But the reason you got that 
error is because update.packages() doesn't take a package name as the 
first arg, the first arg is lib.loc.  You need to answer the interactive 
questions if you don't want to update everything.

Duncan Murdoch

My sessionInfo() is

R version 2.8.0 (2008-10-20)
i686-pc-linux-gnu

locale:
LC_CTYPE=en_US;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=en_US;LC_COLLATE=C;LC_MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=en_US;LC_PAPER=en_US;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;LC_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C 


attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_2.8.0

and my version of foreign is 0.8-30

On 2/2/2009 8:46 AM, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:

I tried to use write.foreign() to export to SAS this morning and got an 
error.

When I looked at the code for writeForeignSAS() I saw this line:

dfn < -df

which I think should be

dfn <- df

So, I tried to run update.packages() to see if there was an updated version 
and got the following result.

That bug was fixed a few weeks ago, but a new version has not been released 
yet.  You can get the latest source from svn:

https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/foreign

On Mon, 2 Feb 2009, Duncan Murdoch wrote:

On 2/2/2009 8:46 AM, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:

I tried to use write.foreign() to export to SAS this morning and got 
an error.

When I looked at the code for writeForeignSAS() I saw this line:

dfn < -df

which I think should be

dfn <- df

So, I tried to run update.packages() to see if there was an updated 
version and got the following result.

That bug was fixed a few weeks ago, but a new version has not been 
released yet.  You can get the latest source from svn:

https://svn.r-project.org/R-packages/trunk/foreign

Yes, and there is a good reason.  No less than 3 people reported 
problems in 0.8-29 without reproducible examples.  When I releaseed 
0.8-30, I asked them to test it.  Despite reminders, I am still waiting 
for any answer, and will wait another week.

It really is unhelpful to report problems and not be prepared to answer 
follow-up questions nor test solutions.