R help - Jan 2004 - (no subject)

Recently I tried to install a package in R version 1.8.1 for Windows. First I 
un".tar.gz"ed it and ".zip"ed it back in to be able to use
the option Install
package(s) from local zip files...

Unfortunately tis error message appeared:
Error in unpackPkg(pkgs[i], pkgnames[i], lib, installWithVers) : 
         Malformed bundle DESCRIPTION file, no Contains field


It's correct that the DESCRIPTION file does not have a Contains field, but I
can't figure out why it's mandatory and what values it may contain. The
manual
Writing R Extensions doesn't even mention this field in paragraph 1.1.1

Any clues how I can make this package running? 
Note that it's not CRAN but self written, but as I'm told it have worked
before
(probably in a Linux environment).

W. Beldman

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, W. Beldman wrote:
> Recently I tried to install a package in R version 1.8.1 for Windows. First
I
> un".tar.gz"ed it and ".zip"ed it back in to be able to
use the option Install
> package(s) from local zip files...
> 
> Unfortunately tis error message appeared:
> Error in unpackPkg(pkgs[i], pkgnames[i], lib, installWithVers) : 
>          Malformed bundle DESCRIPTION file, no Contains field
> 
> 
> It's correct that the DESCRIPTION file does not have a Contains field,
> but I can't figure out why it's mandatory and what values it may
> contain. The manual Writing R Extensions doesn't even mention this
field
> in paragraph 1.1.1
> 
> Any clues how I can make this package running?  Note that it's not CRAN
> but self written, but as I'm told it have worked before (probably in a
> Linux environment).
You have taken a *source* package, changed it from a tar.gz archive file
to a zip archive file, but are trying to install it as a Windows 
zip archive of a *binary* package. See the R Windows FAQ:

http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/rw-FAQ.html#Packages 

or Help > FAQ on R for Windows

within R on Windows

To proceed, you can install the tools needed to make and install a binary
package from a source package under Windows. This is documented with links 
in the FAQ under "Can I install packages (libraries) in this version?"
The
important file "readme.packages" is in the directory R lives in, 
usually rw1081 for the current version.

Roger

> 
> W. Beldman
> 
-- 
Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Breiviksveien 40, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 93 93
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, W. Beldman wrote:
> Recently I tried to install a package in R version 1.8.1 for Windows. First
I
> un".tar.gz"ed it and ".zip"ed it back in to be able to
use the option Install
> package(s) from local zip files...
So it was not a binary package, but a source package?  No wonder it
failed.  Please let us know from which document you got the idea that your
procedure would produce a valid package, so we can correct it.
> Unfortunately tis error message appeared:
> Error in unpackPkg(pkgs[i], pkgnames[i], lib, installWithVers) : 
>          Malformed bundle DESCRIPTION file, no Contains field
Note `Bundle' here.  Your file format is completely wrong.
> It's correct that the DESCRIPTION file does not have a Contains field,
but I
> can't figure out why it's mandatory and what values it may contain.
The manual
> Writing R Extensions doesn't even mention this field in paragraph 1.1.1
> 
> Any clues how I can make this package running? 
> Note that it's not CRAN but self written, but as I'm told it have
worked before
> (probably in a Linux environment).
You have to INSTALL source packages even on Windows: it is all explained 
in the rw-FAQ.

-- 
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