Hi all, I hit a small snag. Here is my workaround (copied verbatim from my aide memoire) in case it helps others. (or anyone knows a better way... ;-) Best regards, Keith Jewell. ------------------------ The site library file is defined (in Renviron.site R_LIBS_SITE=//Server02/stats/R/library/%v) via a UNC name something like "//Server02/stats/R/library/2.10". As of now [Feb 2010, R version 2.10.1 (2009-12-14)] the menu Packages|Update Packages... [=update.packages(ask='graphics')] fails at the last step when it can't copy files to a directory named like that. It works if the site library is defined via a mapped drive like "L:\\R\\library\\2.10", but we don't want to require all users to have this drive mapped. The workaround is thus: In order to update packages: a) have an appropriate mapped drive (e.g. Stats on 'server02') b) start R-Gui from that mapped drive. This will give the site library via the UNC and the base library via the mapped drive thus:> .libPaths()[1] "//Server02/stats/R/library/2.10" "L:/R/R-Current/library" c) use .LibPaths(new= ) to add the drive mapped path to the beginning of the list> .libPaths(new=choose.dir()) # navigate to folder on mapped drive > .libPaths()[1] "L:\\R\\library\\2.10" "//Server02/stats/R/library/2.10" "L:/R/R-Current/library" update.packages(ask='graphics') will now work