R devel - Mar 2009 - suggestion/request: install.packages and unnecessary file modifications

Dear R-devel

When 'install.packages' runs, it updates all html files in all packages.
Mostly, there seems to be no actual change to the html file contents, but the
date/time does change. This has causing been me a bit of trouble, because I keep
synchronized versions of R on several different machines, and whenever I install
a package, many MB of file transfers are required; my slow upload link can't
cope.

The culprit appears to be 'utils:::fixup.package.URLs'. Adding the
commented lines below, near the end of the function, avoids the unnecessary
rewrite.

Mark Bravington
CSIRO
Hobart
Australia

    for (f in files) {
        page <- readLines(f)
        old.page <- page # MVB
        page <- gsub(olddoc, doc, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(oldbase, base, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(oldutils, utils, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(oldgraphics, graphics, page, fixed = TRUE, 
            useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(oldstats, stats, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(olddata, datasets, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(oldgrD, grD, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        page <- gsub(oldmeth, meth, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
        if( identical( page, old.page)) # MVB
    next # MVB
        out <- try(file(f, open = "w"), silent = TRUE)
        if (inherits(out, "try-error")) {
            warning(gettextf("cannot update '%s'", f), domain
= NA)
            next
        }
        writeLines(page, out)
        close(out)
    }
    return(TRUE)
}

Thank you, Mark,

I've now committed (a version of) your suggestion to R-devel
(destined to become R 2.9.0 on April 17).

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich
>>>>>   <Mark.Bravington at csiro.au>
>>>>>     on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:52:30 +1100 writes:
    > Dear R-devel
    > When 'install.packages' runs, it updates all html files in all
packages. Mostly, there seems to be no actual change to the html file contents,
but the date/time does change. This has causing been me a bit of trouble,
because I keep synchronized versions of R on several different machines, and
whenever I install a package, many MB of file transfers are required; my slow
upload link can't cope.

    > The culprit appears to be 'utils:::fixup.package.URLs'. Adding
the commented lines below, near the end of the function, avoids the unnecessary
rewrite.

    > Mark Bravington
    > CSIRO
    > Hobart
    > Australia

    > for (f in files) {
    > page <- readLines(f)
    > old.page <- page # MVB
    > page <- gsub(olddoc, doc, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(oldbase, base, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(oldutils, utils, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(oldgraphics, graphics, page, fixed = TRUE, 
    > useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(oldstats, stats, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(olddata, datasets, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(oldgrD, grD, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > page <- gsub(oldmeth, meth, page, fixed = TRUE, useBytes = TRUE)
    > if( identical( page, old.page)) # MVB
    > next # MVB
    > out <- try(file(f, open = "w"), silent = TRUE)
    > if (inherits(out, "try-error")) {
    > warning(gettextf("cannot update '%s'", f), domain =
NA)
    > next
    > }
    > writeLines(page, out)
    > close(out)
    > }
    > return(TRUE)
    > }

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