I have a client who wants to install R and a custom package on a machine with no internet connection, so he wants to put everything needed on a CDROM and install from there. I've told him how to work out what is needed, but it seems that too much manual work is needed: he needs to install the packages from .zip files (this is Windows) in the right order so dependencies are met, etc. Is there an automated tool to do this? That is: - start from an R installation that's working, and then follow the dependency tree from a specified list of packages to generate a list of packages to download - download all the .zip or .tar.gz files for those from CRAN (possibly listing the ones that don't exist there, because they are local custom ones) - produce a script that can be run to install all of them on a new R install. Duncan Murdoch
On Nov 19, 2008, at 15:52 , Duncan Murdoch wrote:> I have a client who wants to install R and a custom package on a > machine with no internet connection, so he wants to put everything > needed on a CDROM and install from there. > > I've told him how to work out what is needed, but it seems that too > much manual work is needed: he needs to install the packages > from .zip files (this is Windows) in the right order so dependencies > are met, etc. >Why would that be necessary? The order is plays no role, since all it's just unpacking, so you can as well burn the content of the installed library and you're set... Or am I missing something? Cheers, S> Is there an automated tool to do this? That is: > > - start from an R installation that's working, and then follow the > dependency tree from a specified list of packages to generate a list > of packages to download > - download all the .zip or .tar.gz files for those from CRAN > (possibly listing the ones that don't exist there, because they are > local custom ones) > - produce a script that can be run to install all of them on a new R > install. > > Duncan Murdoch > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > >
On Wed, 19 Nov 2008, Duncan Murdoch wrote:> I have a client who wants to install R and a custom package on a machine with > no internet connection, so he wants to put everything needed on a CDROM and > install from there. > > I've told him how to work out what is needed, but it seems that too much > manual work is needed: he needs to install the packages from .zip files > (this is Windows) in the right order so dependencies are met, etc.I don't think the install order matters for binary packages (on Windows or elsewhere). install.packages() certainly does not optimize it.> Is there an automated tool to do this? That is:The easiest way is to copy a repository to the CD-ROM, and point repos at that (as a file::// URL). You can even add files and rebuild the PACKAGES file (using tools::write_PACKAGES). But if the list of packages never changes, why not just install them in a separate library and burn that on the CD-ROM?> - start from an R installation that's working, and then follow the > dependency tree from a specified list of packages to generate a list of > packages to download > - download all the .zip or .tar.gz files for those from CRAN (possibly > listing the ones that don't exist there, because they are local custom ones) > - produce a script that can be run to install all of them on a new R > install. > > Duncan Murdoch > > ______________________________________________ > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel >-- 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