I am trying to use Rpy2 and ggplot2 but I get an error. After some searching for the error online, I found that the error occurs because there are changes in the ggplot2 package that are not yet reflected in Rpy2 (for example, see this post (Edit: Link is now dead)).
So I now need to install an older version of ggplot2. Here is pseudo-code for what I want:
install.packages("ggplot2", version='0.9.1')
But install.packages does not have a version argument. How do I do it?
To install an older version of a package from source (within R):
packageurl <- "http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/ggplot2/ggplot2_0.9.1.tar.gz"
install.packages(packageurl, repos=NULL, type="source")
If this doesn't work for you and you're on Windows, the reason is probably the lack of an appropriate tool chain for building/compiling packages. Normally you would install a pre-compiled binary from CRAN but they only archive package sources, not binaries.[1] This means you need to install Rtools so that you can compile everything locally. (Note: Rtools is not an R package.)
#shadow's answer below also makes the case that you can use devtools::install_version(). That's also a good idea, but is also subject to needing Rtools on Windows.
As of September 18, 2015, a new package versions has appeared on CRAN. This relies on the Revolution Analytics MRAN server to install packages for specific versions or dates:
# install yesterday's version of checkpoint, by date
install.dates('checkpoint', Sys.Date() - 1)
# install earlier versions of checkpoint and devtools
install.versions(c('checkpoint', 'devtools'), c('0.3.3', '1.6.1'))
That has the advantage of not requiring Rtools to install binary packages on Windows, but only works going back to 2014-09-17 (when MRAN was launched).
To install an older version from the command line (outside of R):
You can also install a package by using R CMD INSTALL on the command line (Terminal, Command Prompt, etc.) once you have the package source ("tarball") locally on your machine, for example using wget (if you have it):
wget http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/ggplot2/ggplot2_0.9.1.tar.gz
or, if you're on Windows, an equivalent using PowerShell would be:
(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/ggplot2/ggplot2_0.9.1.tar.gz", "./ggplot2_0.9.1.tar.gz")
or you can just download the source from the CRAN archive via your web browser.
To install from the local file, you can just do:
R CMD INSTALL ggplot2_0.9.1.tar.gz
That should work on any platform (with the same caveat - as above - about needing a tool chain for building packages).
[1]This is no longer entirely true. From March 2016, CRAN has started hosting a "CRAN Archive" server that contains Windows and Mac binaries for very old versions of R (> 5 years old). You can now install directly from this server using install.packages(). See new R FAQ 7.44 for some details.
The remotes package offers an install_version function that can do this directly.
require(remotes)
install_version("ggplot2", version = "0.9.1", repos = "http://cran.us.r-project.org")
Previously, this answer pointed to the devtools package, which also re-exports the install_version function. Thanks #MichaelChirico for pointing out that the remotes package is preferable.
You can download your appropriate version from the link below as a zip file.
http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/ggplot2/
In R Studio:
Tools >> Install packages >> Install from: (select drop down)
Package Archive File(.zip, .tar.gz).
Choose your newly-downloaded-package-zip-file and install the package
Pure install.packages method
See this thread on the r-devel mailing list. In reply to Kurt Wheeler, Kurt Hornik reveals an undocumented feature of the CRAN website to specify the specific version of a package.
This method will work as long as you have all required dependencies already installed:
package = "https://cran.r-project.org/package=svglite&version=1.2.1"
utils::install.packages(pkgs = package, repos = NULL)
Note the URL structure above. This addresses the issue that CRAN has a different URL structure for the latest version than for archived versions:
# Latest version (not available at Archive/svglite)
https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/svglite_1.2.1.tar.gz
# Archived version
https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/svglite/svglite_1.2.0.tar.gz
remotes::install_version method
Another option is to use the remotes::install_version function. However, you will need to install the remotes package.
Using install.packages as described in another answer does not work for me.
The best alternative I found is to use function install_url from package devtools.
Another possibility that I have not explored further:
Download the older .tar.gz source file from the package archives.
Follow the steps documented on http://rtm.wustl.edu/writings/htrtargz.pdf to install it locally.
There is a versions package that simplifies this task considerably, for package versions released since 2014-09-17. It uses snapshots of the MRAN server at Revolution Analytics to:
show release dates and MRAN availability of any CRAN package (available.versions),
install specified versions of one or more packages(install.versions), or
install package versions available as of any specified date (install.dates). It does the installation from the MRAN server via the standard install.packages function, so available binary versions can be installed instead of having to compile from source, and package dependencies as of the specified date can be included.
There might of course be compatibility issues with combinations of package versions and R versions. For running different R versions, see for example this page.
Found a good solution, which worked for me (the details are at the link).
Command in "repmis" library:
# Install old versions of the e1071 and gtools packages.
# Create vectors of the package names and versions to install
# Note the names and version numbers must be in the same order
Names <- c("e1071", "gtools")
Vers <- c("1.6", "2.6.1")
# Install old package versions into the default library
InstallOldPackages(pkgs = Names, versions = Vers)
Another option is the {groundhog} package. It helps install an older package Version from CRAN by specifying a date. This is especially helpful when one doesn't remember the specific package version, but rather the time the script was still working. In case of {ggplot2} version 0.9.1 was loaded on CRAN in May 2012 so we can take a date from June.
library("groundhog")
groundhog.library("ggplot2", "2012-06-01")
This question already has answers here:
Installing older version of R package
(8 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
Quick question, I'm using an older version of R Studio - R 3.2.3 - and some newer packages require a newer version. Specifically, I want the wordcloud package, so is there a way to install an older version that is compatible with my version of R? I couldn't find a simple straight-to-the-point answer online and I'm on a bit of a time crunch since I need to create some wordclouds.
I'm using a Windows machine.
There are two ways you can install older packages in R.
Using devtools
Use the following code, updating the 2.2 with the version of wordcloud that you require.
require(devtools)
install_version("wordcloud", version = "2.2", repos = "http://cran.us.r-project.org")
Installing older packages from source
Equally you can install older packages directly from a URL as below.
wordcloudURL <- "https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/wordcloud/wordcloud_2.2.tar.gz"
install.packages(wordcloudURL, repos=NULL, type="source")
The URLs for older versions of wordcloud are available here.
I'd like to install the latest version of R in RHEL 5 as I tried to install some library (plyr) but it complained a dependency could not be used with my installed version of R: package ‘Rcpp’ is not available (for R version 2.15.2)
2.15.2 is the latest precompiled R binary available for RHEL5 from epel. I guess they stopped updating it. Is compiling from source to get R 3.x my only solution here or there is some binary installer somewhere else? I much rather use something like yum since it take care of all the R dependency packages as well.
Installing older version of R package shows how to install a different version of an R package.
Can that be automated so I can have it install the newest (older) version that is compatible with my R installation?
In my case I need it for Rcpp, but a general solution working for any package would be preferred.
This question already has answers here:
Installing older version of R package
(8 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
I get
package ‘rJava’ is not available (for R version 2.15.0)
Warning: unable to access index for repository http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/macosx/leopard/contrib/2.15
when using install.packages() if the repository does not have a version of the given package for my version of R, 2.15.0--the latest Mac binary. Is there a way to get R to check in for older versions, e.g. rJava for R 2.14?
I know that I could download the tar.gz file and then use R CMD INSTALL in terminal, but I was wondering if there was a way to do this using install.packages(). Thank you.
Try a different CRAN mirror repository (e.g. install.packages("rJava", repos = "http://cran.us.r-project.org/"), or simply try installing again with the UCLA repository. The CRAN mirror monitor report suggests there has been some sporadic downtime at the UCLA mirror recently. An Rjava binary for R 2.15.0 should be available. I can access it directly on the UCLA mirror at http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/macosx/leopard/contrib/2.15/rJava_0.9-3.tgz .
You could install the old version of R, which has the compatible version of the package. If rJava is only available for 2.14, I'd just run that version.