Dear R People: Here is yet another strange problem. I'm using R in one of my classes. However, the computer lab has something called "Deep Freeze" and the students cannot save anything to the hard drive. I had R installed and things were working well. They would save their .Rdata files to disks. Now, we need to add more packages. We can't download and we can't bring them in via zip files (already tried both!) When the zip files are expanded, of course they build new directories...... I'm completely annoyed because learning to download packages and installing them from local zips are actually important tasks! We're also losing good teaching/learning time! Anyhow, what I would like to do is produce a sort of combination R installation exe with our extra libraries as part of the package. Does anyone have any suggestions on how this could be done, please? This is R for Windows, Version 2.2.1 Thanks for any help! Sorry about the totally weird problem! Sincerely, Erin Hodgess Associate Professor Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences University of Houston - Downtown mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu
On 2/20/2006 8:07 PM, Erin Hodgess wrote:> Dear R People: > > Here is yet another strange problem. > > I'm using R in one of my classes. However, the computer lab has something > called "Deep Freeze" and the students cannot save anything to the hard drive. > > I had R installed and things were working well. They would save their > .Rdata files to disks. > > Now, we need to add more packages. We can't download and we can't > bring them in via zip files (already tried both!) When the zip files > are expanded, of course they build new directories......You can probably use .libPaths() to add a new install location that is writeable. You'll likely get a few error messages because R can't update the help indices, but the packages should be available.> > I'm completely annoyed because learning to download packages > and installing them from local zips are actually important tasks! > We're also losing good teaching/learning time! > > Anyhow, what I would like to do is produce a sort of combination R > installation exe with our extra libraries as part of the package.You could also do this, if you have the tools installed to do a build. See the R Installation and Administration manual, Installing R Under Windows, Building from Source, Building the Installer (section 3.1.9 in the PDF version). You can either build with extra packages from source, or make an image from an installed copy. In either case you'll need to install a lot of build tools, but fewer for the second option. Duncan Murdoch> > Does anyone have any suggestions on how this could be done, please? > > This is R for Windows, Version 2.2.1 > > Thanks for any help! Sorry about the totally weird problem! > > Sincerely, > Erin Hodgess > Associate Professor > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > University of Houston - Downtown > mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
On 2/20/2006 8:07 PM, Erin Hodgess wrote: > Dear R People: > > Here is yet another strange problem. > > I'm using R in one of my classes. However, the computer lab has something > called "Deep Freeze" and the students cannot save anything to the hard drive. > > I had R installed and things were working well. They would save their > .Rdata files to disks. > > Now, we need to add more packages. We can't download and we can't > bring them in via zip files (already tried both!) When the zip files > are expanded, of course they build new directories...... You can probably use .libPaths() to add a new install location that is writeable. You'll likely get a few error messages because R can't update the help indices, but the packages should be available. > > I'm completely annoyed because learning to download packages > and installing them from local zips are actually important tasks! > We're also losing good teaching/learning time! > > Anyhow, what I would like to do is produce a sort of combination R > installation exe with our extra libraries as part of the package. You could also do this, if you have the tools installed to do a build. See the R Installation and Administration manual, Installing R Under Windows, Building from Source, Building the Installer (section 3.1.9 in the PDF version). You can either build with extra packages from source, or make an image from an installed copy. In either case you'll need to install a lot of build tools, but fewer for the second option. Duncan Murdoch > > Does anyone have any suggestions on how this could be done, please? > > This is R for Windows, Version 2.2.1 > > Thanks for any help! Sorry about the totally weird problem! > > Sincerely, > Erin Hodgess > Associate Professor > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > University of Houston - Downtown > mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
You want to take the sysad by the hairy of his chinny-chin-chin and explain the issue in short sentences. He or she ought to be able produce a solution without difficulty, and should not have any problems about doing so. It IS their job. JD On Monday 20 February 2006 17:07, Erin Hodgess wrote:> Dear R People: > > Here is yet another strange problem. > > I'm using R in one of my classes. However, the computer lab has something > called "Deep Freeze" and the students cannot save anything to the hard > drive. > > I had R installed and things were working well. They would save their > .Rdata files to disks. > > Now, we need to add more packages. We can't download and we can't > bring them in via zip files (already tried both!) When the zip files > are expanded, of course they build new directories...... > > I'm completely annoyed because learning to download packages > and installing them from local zips are actually important tasks! > We're also losing good teaching/learning time! > > Anyhow, what I would like to do is produce a sort of combination R > installation exe with our extra libraries as part of the package. > > Does anyone have any suggestions on how this could be done, please? > > This is R for Windows, Version 2.2.1 > > Thanks for any help! Sorry about the totally weird problem! > > Sincerely, > Erin Hodgess > Associate Professor > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > University of Houston - Downtown > mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
On Mon, 20 Feb 2006, Erin Hodgess wrote:> Dear R People: > > Here is yet another strange problem. > > I'm using R in one of my classes. However, the computer lab has something > called "Deep Freeze" and the students cannot save anything to the hard drive. > > I had R installed and things were working well. They would save their > .Rdata files to disks. > > Now, we need to add more packages. We can't download and we can't > bring them in via zip files (already tried both!) When the zip files > are expanded, of course they build new directories......I would suggest making this the system administrator's problem. Either your site really has a policy that would prohibit R packages (in which case trying to subvert it may not be a good idea) or it is exactly the sort of problem that system administrators are supposed to solve. Distrust for R binary (and even source) packages is not a completely unreasonable attitude. They can execute arbitrary code on your computer and, in contrast to R itself, you usually have no real knowledge of who wrote them. -thomas> I'm completely annoyed because learning to download packages > and installing them from local zips are actually important tasks! > We're also losing good teaching/learning time! > > Anyhow, what I would like to do is produce a sort of combination R > installation exe with our extra libraries as part of the package. > > Does anyone have any suggestions on how this could be done, please? > > This is R for Windows, Version 2.2.1 > > Thanks for any help! Sorry about the totally weird problem! > > Sincerely, > Erin Hodgess > Associate Professor > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > University of Houston - Downtown > mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics tlumley at u.washington.edu University of Washington, Seattle
From: Thomas Lumley> > On Mon, 20 Feb 2006, Erin Hodgess wrote: > > > Dear R People: > > > > Here is yet another strange problem. > > > > I'm using R in one of my classes. However, the computer > lab has something > > called "Deep Freeze" and the students cannot save anything > to the hard drive. > > > > I had R installed and things were working well. They would > save their > > .Rdata files to disks. > > > > Now, we need to add more packages. We can't download and we can't > > bring them in via zip files (already tried both!) When the > zip files > > are expanded, of course they build new directories...... > > I would suggest making this the system administrator's > problem. Either > your site really has a policy that would prohibit R packages > (in which > case trying to subvert it may not be a good idea) or it is > exactly the > sort of problem that system administrators are supposed to solve. > > Distrust for R binary (and even source) packages is not a completely > unreasonable attitude. They can execute arbitrary code on > your computer > and, in contrast to R itself, you usually have no real > knowledge of who > wrote them. > > -thomas > > > > > I'm completely annoyed because learning to download packages > > and installing them from local zips are actually important tasks! > > We're also losing good teaching/learning time! > > > > Anyhow, what I would like to do is produce a sort of combination R > > installation exe with our extra libraries as part of the package. > > > > Does anyone have any suggestions on how this could be done, please? > > > > This is R for Windows, Version 2.2.1In case the sysadmin refuses to make it his/her problem, this would be a good alternative. It's not hard to build a custom R installer that includes packages of your choice. It's all documented. Look in the R-admin manual (e.g., http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-admin.html) and search for EXTRA_PKGS. Andy> > Thanks for any help! Sorry about the totally weird problem! > > > > Sincerely, > > Erin Hodgess > > Associate Professor > > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > > University of Houston - Downtown > > mailto: hodgess at gator.uhd.edu > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > > > Thomas Lumley Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics > tlumley at u.washington.edu University of Washington, Seattle > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >