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Failure loading library into second R 2.3.1 session on Windows XP

6 messages · Talbot Katz, Henrik Bengtsson, Brian Ripley +1 more

Talbot Katz
# 
Hi.

I am using R 2.3.1 on Windows XP.  I had installed a library package into my 
first session and wanted the same package in my second session, so I went 
out to the CRAN mirror and tried to install the package, and got the 
following message:

*********************************************************************
trying URL 
'http://cran.ssds.ucdavis.edu/bin/windows/contrib/2.3/corpcor_1.4.4.zip'
Content type 'application/zip' length 133068 bytes
opened URL
downloaded 129Kb

package 'corpcor' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
Warning: cannot remove prior installation of package 'corpcor'

The downloaded packages are in
        C:\Documents and Settings\Talbot\Local 
Settings\Temp\RtmplCxarb\downloaded_packages
updating HTML package descriptions
Error in library(corpcor) : there is no package called 'corpcor'

*********************************************************************


After rebooting my machine, I dug into this a little further.  Upon 
installing a package from a CRAN mirror, it seems to stay on my hard drive, 
and I can load it in subsequent sessions from the "Load package..." menu 
without going back to get it from a CRAN mirror.  However, if I do happen to 
retrieve it again from a CRAN mirror, it appears that may corrupt the 
version that was saved, and it no longer will be available from the "Load 
package..." menu.  A reboot and re-retrieval of the package makes it 
available again; I don't know whether there's any less drastic solution.

This behavior doesn't occur with every package, but I have experienced it 
with two different packages (corpcor and copula), so there seems to be 
something going on.  I didn't see anything in the FAQ page about this, I 
wonder if anyone can tell me more about this issue.

Thanks!


--  TMK  --
212-460-5430	home
917-656-5351	cell
Uwe Ligges
# 
You can only expect that update / reinstall a ***package*** works if you 
have not yet loaded it into your R session.
Hence close R, start it without loading the relevant package and then 
update/reinstall.

Best,
Uwe Ligges
Talbot Katz wrote:
Talbot Katz
# 
Hi Uwe.

Thank you so much for responding!  I guess I wasn't entirely clear about the 
problem.  If I make the mistake of trying to install a package from CRAN in 
a second session after I've already installed it in a previous session, it 
won't install in the second session, and even if I close the second session 
and open a subsequent newer session, it won't install in that one either.  
At least, I can't figure out how to do it, because it's no longer in the 
"Load packages..." menu, and if I load it from CRAN, I get that funny error 
message:
	Warning: cannot remove prior installation of package 'corpcor'

Now, after having gone through this, I know enough not to reload a package 
from CRAN.  But it appears that the only ways to solve the problem, if it 
occurs, are pretty drastic, either reboot the machine (which is what I did) 
or reinstall R (which seems to be what you're suggesting?).  I was hoping 
that there might be a better alternative, or at least that the development 
team might look into this issue for future releases.  This doesn't affect 
every package, but I've seen it in the first two packages I tried it with.

--  TMK  --
212-460-5430	home
917-656-5351	cell
Henrik Bengtsson
# 
Hi,

it sounds like you mixing up the words "install" and "load".
Basically, you only have to *install* a package once on your computer,
but have to load it for every R session which you are going to use it
in.

So, in your case install it once, using either

 install.packages("corpcor")

or the corresponding menu in RGui (on Windows), and then use

 library(corpcor)

every time you want to *load* the package (typically once per R session).

See "An Introduction to R" for further explainations.

Details: When you try to install a package a second time the previous
installation is overwritten. However, if another R session has the
same package loaded, some of the files of the package might be looked,
and won't be released until the package is unloaded or you quit the R
session.  Thus, when you try to install the package a second time (in
another R session or even the same) it will not work.  This is
expected.

Hope this helps

Henrik
On 12/30/06, Talbot Katz <topkatz at msn.com> wrote:
Brian Ripley
#
On Fri, 29 Dec 2006, Uwe Ligges wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
And for the record, this is answered in rw-FAQ Q4.8.

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Uwe Ligges
    

    

      
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Talbot Katz wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
No, you just have to close all running R processes, restart R and 
reinstall the package (without having it loaded by any R process). There 
is no reason to reboot the machine.

Please distinguish between installing and loading a package.

Uwe Ligges