R devel - Mar 2009 - help.search(): "Error in .readRDS(hs_file) : error reading from connection" (PR#13591)

Full_Name: Don Maszle
Version: R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22)
OS: Linux hood.mendelbio.com 2.6.18-128.el5 #1 SMP Wed Dec 17 11:41:38 EST 2008
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Submission from: (NULL) (206.86.87.3)


I have resolved the problem, but this is a possible regression to a problem
listed in the bug fixes for 2.3.1.

After a new installation, help.search() on any search string without a package
restriction issued:

  "Error in .readRDS(hs_file) : error reading from connection"

With a package restriction, it would work fine.  (See two probable but not
directly observed exceptions below.)

I installed 2.8.1 from an RPM from CRAN.  While installing additional packages,
my installation crashed due to me underestimating the required disk space.  An
apparent result of that was that one or two Meta/hsearch.rds files were not
created properly.  The ones in R.cache and Depela existed, but were of zero
size.  Once I re-installed those packages the problem went away.
>From the 2.3.1 comments, I assume this should not break the entire
help.search
system, unless the R.cache index file is needed to cache other files!

Also, before reinstallation, I tried to run help.search('',
package='R.cache',
rebuild=T) but it did not seem to have any effect.

~drm