R-exts says
Both install.R and R_PROFILE.R should be viewed as experimental; the
mechanism to execute code before attaching or installing the package may
change in the near future. With the other facilities available as from R
2.0.0 they should be removed if possible.
Every usage of these on CRAN is unnecessary. If you want to save the
image, say so in the SaveImage field in DESCRIPTION (but why not LazyLoad
instead?). If you require methods, say so in Depends in DESCRIPTION.
I propose that we deprecate/remove this mechanism (as it makes
installation a lot convoluted than it needs to be). Does any one know of
(a) A usage that requires one of these files to do something which cannot
now be done more simply via fields in DESCRIPTION, or
(b) A package that requires a saved image (and lazy loading is
insufficient)?
If so, please let us know.
I am also minded to deprecate/remove the following command-line flags to
INSTALL
-s, --save[=ARGS] save the package source as an image file, and
arrange for this file to be loaded when the
package is attached; if given, ARGS are passed
to R when creating the save image
--no-save do not save the package source as an image file
--lazy use lazy loading
--no-lazy do not use lazy loading
--lazy-data use lazy loading for data
--no-lazy-data do not use lazy loading for data (current default)
since these have been superseded by the DESCRIPTION fields (and Windows
does not support --save=ARGS).
--
Brian D. Ripley, ripley at 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