R help - Feb 2005 - HTML help index generation problem with R under Windows

Hi,

I recently encountered a similar problem to
http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch/msg31960.html

One conclusion from that thread seems to be
that if XP users need to update the index, 
after installing a package,
they have to install R into a directory 
for which they have got write access,
either a network or local drive.
This is in order to update the files
'C:Program Files\R\rw2001\doc\html\search\index.txt' and
'C:Program Files\R\rw2001\doc\html\packages.html'

Most R users in my institution do not have admin rights 
to their local drive, for security reasons,
and software has to be installed on the local drives, 
not on remote servers (presumably for networking efficiency).
If just these two files were moved to an area where 
the user has write permission, such as a remote server, 
is it possible to tell R to look for them there?

Otherwise, it seems that users 
who dont have admin permission (the majority), 
will not be able to update their 'index.txt' file,
after installing packages.
While this isnt a major issue, 
suggestions for a workaround would be welcome.

Regards,

John.

John Gavin <john.gavin at ubs.com>,
Quantitative Risk Models and Statistics,
UBS Investment Bank, 6th floor, 
100 Liverpool St., London EC2M 2RH, UK.
Phone +44 (0) 207 567 4289
Fax   +44 (0) 207 568 5352

Visit our website at http://www.ubs.com

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On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 john.gavin at ubs.com wrote:
> I recently encountered a similar problem to
> http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch/msg31960.html
>
> One conclusion from that thread seems to be
> that if XP users need to update the index,
> after installing a package,
> they have to install R into a directory
> for which they have got write access,
> either a network or local drive.
That's stated in the rw-FAQ Q3.3: please read the relevant FAQ before 
posting as the posting guide asks.
> This is in order to update the files
> 'C:Program Files\R\rw2001\doc\html\search\index.txt' and
> 'C:Program Files\R\rw2001\doc\html\packages.html'
>
> Most R users in my institution do not have admin rights
> to their local drive, for security reasons,
> and software has to be installed on the local drives,
> not on remote servers (presumably for networking efficiency).
That is not necessary, especially not in R-devel (2.1.0 to be) unless 
your network is very slow (slower than USB 1.1, for example).
> If just these two files were moved to an area where
> the user has write permission, such as a remote server,
> is it possible to tell R to look for them there?
No.  The relative location is hardcoded into the other HTML files and the 
search engine.
> Otherwise, it seems that users
> who dont have admin permission (the majority),
> will not be able to update their 'index.txt' file,
> after installing packages.
> While this isnt a major issue,
> suggestions for a workaround would be welcome.
Get packages installed by those who do have permission (which was the 
solution given by Uwe Ligges in that thread).

-- 
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