Installing R packages on Windows 7 - r

On Windows 7 x64, I've got version 3.0.0 of R installed. Further, I've also set the environment variable R_LIBS_USER to point to a network drive. In rgui.exe, executing:
Sys.getenv("R_LIBS_USER")
outputs the same value that I previously set above. Also from R, installing packages into the personal library pointed to by R_LIBS_USER works fine. So far, so good.
With version 0.97.551 of RStudio installed, executing the same code above through RStudio also outputs the same value (as expected). However, from RStudio, my attempts at installing packages into the personal library fails. The error message effectively states that RStudio is unable to write to the personal library defined by R_LIBS_USER.
Before posting to stackoverflow, I checked the support forum for RStudio (http://support.rstudio.org/help/discussions/problems/4608-change-personal-library-for-installing-packages) where an admin states that the problem has to do with R and not RStudio. The admin goes on to reference the RStudio document generated by code
?.libPaths
in the RStudio IDE. The admin also provides additional guidance through link http://support.rstudio.org/help/kb/troubleshooting/getting-help-with-r.
After reviewing the IDE-generated document and forum link, I've determined that my environment is set up correctly. And yet, RStudio still fails.
Has anyone been able to get RStudio personal library working with a filesystem location other than the defaults?
I should clarify my needs a bit more. The environment to which this application will eventually be deployed prohibits normal users from running RStudio as administrators, hence the focus on R_LIBS_USER personal library. So although I know this would work, it is not a realistic option for me.
What I need is for RStudio to exclusively write to R_LIBS_USER and not attempt to also write to R_HOME (my assumption of what I think it is actually attempting to do.)

Add a line .libPaths("~/your-lib-path-here") to your .Rprofile and restart R. .libPaths() lets you write as well as read the the set of default libraries.
Alternately, if you can control the installation commands (i.e. you need your library to be available but it doesn't have to be the default), most R commands such as install.packages have a lib parameter that lets you manually specify the library to install to.
You might consider using an R package management system such as Packrat, which automates the job of installing your application's dependencies to a private library without you having to set it up manually. (Full disclosure, I'm a contributor to this package.) It works under RStudio.

Related

Which runtime is getting referenced

I have installed R at following location C:\E_Drive\ProgramFiles\R-3.4.3, so I think R environment installed at C:\E_Drive\ProgramFiles\R-3.4.3 will be used when I run the R console, right? Please correct me if I am wrong.
Now, I install a package using the R console.
Now, I download and install RStudio and from the R console of RStudio if I check whether that package is available or not then I see that it is available. I am wondering, how RStudio's R console reported that package is available, I didn't expect that since C:\E_Drive\ProgramFiles\R-3.4.3 is not on my PATH and in no way is linked RStudio with C:\E_Drive\ProgramFiles\R-3.4.3, so I thought RStudio would be referring its own R environment.
Can you please help me understand how my RStudio is referencing the C:\E_Drive\ProgramFiles\R-3.4.3 R environment.
R normally installs packages in the same directory tree as its own binary, but it can also install them elsewhere. On Windows, this generally happens because regular users often don't have write permission in the Program Files directory. The standard Windows installer also records R's location in the registry, so that it doesn't need to be on the PATH to be found by RStudio.
You can find out where Windows or RStudio found R by running R.home() within R. You can find out where R is finding packages in a particular session by running .libPaths().

how to read a SAS data (.sas7bat) in R [duplicate]

I am trying to embed RInside to my application on win7 64-bit system but when I initialize an RInside:
Rin = new RInside(argc, argv);
the following message appears:
Error in loadNamespace(name) : there is no package called 'Rcpp'
This error only occurs with Windows.
I think you get that issue when your .libPaths() differ--in other words run the .libPaths() function to see the paths stored by R for its use. Then check where RInside is installed, and make sure Rcpp is installed there too. It is a setup issue.
In other words, it should work if you have Rcpp and RInside installed where the basic R libraries are. Otherwise you have to tell the (embedded) R session about the other location (and before it starts).
There are more Windows users on the list, so you could try asking on rcpp-devel.
First get your default library locations by command ".Library" in R.
Get Rcpp package from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcpp/index.html.
Unzip and copy folder "Rcpp" to your default library locations obtained from step1.
Now you are ready to install packages which have dependencies on Rcpp.
Dirk is right in this case, BUT if the .libPaths() does not work, then please also check if you have the latest packages.
I am posting this as an ancillary answer backup which I ran into with the shiny package backend switch of their code needing Rcpp!
In this case of getting the "no package" error message, I fixed it by:
Selecting devtools package and then using this line below. (if you don't have devtools then get it with install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("rstudio/shiny")
The development version of the package handled this better, and added the package as a dependency.
Mods - I realize this is an answer to an old question, but I might help others not wasting an hour like I just did.
You might find it easy if the answers are for both R studio users and non R studio users.
R Studio users
First get your default library locations by command ".Library" in R.
Get Rcpp package from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcpp/index.html.
Unzip and copy folder "Rcpp" to your default library locations obtained from step 1, you will find another folder named library, paste the unzip folder in it.
Non R studio Users
First get your default library locations by command ".libPath" in R.
Get Rcpp package from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcpp/index.html.
Unzip and copy folder "Rcpp" to your default library locations obtained from step 1, you will find another folder named library, paste the unzip folder in it.
I was also getting this error while trying to run the 'ggplot' function from the ggplot2 package. After trying the suggestions posted here and elsewhere (checking file paths, restarting R, clearing out my environment, etc.) and encountering several other cryptic error messages, it turned out that I needed to download the latest version of base R for Windows (v3.4.1) and update my version of R-Studio to the latest version also (v1.0.153).
After doing this my 'ggplot' function was working again and I was able to render my figure from R Studio without any further issues.
I was also getting this message when trying to use ggplot. I first updating both my R for Windows to 3.4.3. Then updating R studio to version 1.1.423; then, updating all of the packages and being sure to access the R version 3.4.3 from R studio, I still got the message. None of these things fixed the error. I was ready to give up until I noticed that I was calling library(ggplot) and had ggplot::ggplot in my code. THIS WAS THE PROBLEM. I changed it to library(ggplot2) and the instance to ggplot2::ggplot(...). THIS FIXEd the problems.
I was facing a similar issue, and I simply installed the said package. It's working perfectly for me.

RStudio and devtools do not install static vignettes

I created an R package for an introductory course in remote sensing with R (github link) and want to provide the handouts as as static PDF vignettes (copy protected) as described here. With the standard Linux commandline "R CMD build FEglobaleOekologie && R CMD INSTALL FEglobaleOekologie_0.0.1.tar.gz" everything works fine. However, when I install it from within my RStudio project or under MS Windows with devtools::install_github" there are no vignettes. The later one is the target platform, where I would like to have them.
Sadly I could not find any thread, that solves my problem. Can anyone tell what's going wrong here or what I am doing wrong?
I've run into problems like this, too. I've found that build doesn't always build my vignettes (that generally happens with using build in the RStudio menu, since I believe that doesn't include the vignettes by default ). You might want to try also running build_vignettes() before uploading to GitHub; and when installing from GitHub, explicitly including build_vignettes = TRUE in the install_github function. Otherwise, you may have a path issue for the installed package.

Error in loadNamespace(name) : there is no package called 'Rcpp'

I am trying to embed RInside to my application on win7 64-bit system but when I initialize an RInside:
Rin = new RInside(argc, argv);
the following message appears:
Error in loadNamespace(name) : there is no package called 'Rcpp'
This error only occurs with Windows.
I think you get that issue when your .libPaths() differ--in other words run the .libPaths() function to see the paths stored by R for its use. Then check where RInside is installed, and make sure Rcpp is installed there too. It is a setup issue.
In other words, it should work if you have Rcpp and RInside installed where the basic R libraries are. Otherwise you have to tell the (embedded) R session about the other location (and before it starts).
There are more Windows users on the list, so you could try asking on rcpp-devel.
First get your default library locations by command ".Library" in R.
Get Rcpp package from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcpp/index.html.
Unzip and copy folder "Rcpp" to your default library locations obtained from step1.
Now you are ready to install packages which have dependencies on Rcpp.
Dirk is right in this case, BUT if the .libPaths() does not work, then please also check if you have the latest packages.
I am posting this as an ancillary answer backup which I ran into with the shiny package backend switch of their code needing Rcpp!
In this case of getting the "no package" error message, I fixed it by:
Selecting devtools package and then using this line below. (if you don't have devtools then get it with install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("rstudio/shiny")
The development version of the package handled this better, and added the package as a dependency.
Mods - I realize this is an answer to an old question, but I might help others not wasting an hour like I just did.
You might find it easy if the answers are for both R studio users and non R studio users.
R Studio users
First get your default library locations by command ".Library" in R.
Get Rcpp package from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcpp/index.html.
Unzip and copy folder "Rcpp" to your default library locations obtained from step 1, you will find another folder named library, paste the unzip folder in it.
Non R studio Users
First get your default library locations by command ".libPath" in R.
Get Rcpp package from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/Rcpp/index.html.
Unzip and copy folder "Rcpp" to your default library locations obtained from step 1, you will find another folder named library, paste the unzip folder in it.
I was also getting this error while trying to run the 'ggplot' function from the ggplot2 package. After trying the suggestions posted here and elsewhere (checking file paths, restarting R, clearing out my environment, etc.) and encountering several other cryptic error messages, it turned out that I needed to download the latest version of base R for Windows (v3.4.1) and update my version of R-Studio to the latest version also (v1.0.153).
After doing this my 'ggplot' function was working again and I was able to render my figure from R Studio without any further issues.
I was also getting this message when trying to use ggplot. I first updating both my R for Windows to 3.4.3. Then updating R studio to version 1.1.423; then, updating all of the packages and being sure to access the R version 3.4.3 from R studio, I still got the message. None of these things fixed the error. I was ready to give up until I noticed that I was calling library(ggplot) and had ggplot::ggplot in my code. THIS WAS THE PROBLEM. I changed it to library(ggplot2) and the instance to ggplot2::ggplot(...). THIS FIXEd the problems.
I was facing a similar issue, and I simply installed the said package. It's working perfectly for me.

How to install and manage many versions of R packages

I am developing a framework for reproducible computing with R. One problem that I am struggling with is that some R code might run perfectly in version X.Y-Z of a package, but then why you try to reproduce it 3 years later, the packages have updated, some functions are changed, and the code doesn't run anymore. This problem affects also for example Sweave documents that use packages.
The only way to confidently reproduce the results is by installing the R version and version of the packages that were used by the original author. If this was a single case, one could pull stuff from the CRAN archives and install appropriate versions. But for my framework this is impractical, and I need to have the package versions preinstalled.
Assume for now that I restrict myself to a single version of R, e.g. 2.14. What would be a practical way to install many versions of R packages, so that I can load them on the fly? I suppose I can do something like creating separate library directories for every version of every package and then using custom lib.loc arguments while loading them. This is going to be messy though. Any tips or previous attempts to do something similar?
My framework runs on Ubuntu server.
You could install packages with versions (e.g. rename to foo_1.0 directory instead of foo) and softlink the versions you want to re-create a given R + packages snapshot into one library. Obviously, the packages could actually live in a separate tree, so you could have library.projectX/foo -> library.all/foo/1.0.
The operating system gives you even more handles for complete separation, and the Debian / Ubuntu stack as a ton of those available. Two I have played with are
chroot environments: We use this to complete separate build environments from host machines. For example, all Debian uploads I produced are built in a i386 pbuilder chroot hosted on my amd64 Ubuntu server. Chroot is a very powerful Unix system call. Chroots, and particularly the pbuilder system built on top of it (for Debian package building) are meant to operate headless.
Virtual machines: This gives you full generality. My not-so-powerful box easily handles three virtual machines: Debian i386, Ubuntu i386 as well as Windoze XP. For this, I currently use KVM along with libvirt; this is Linux specific. I have also used VirtualBox and VMware in the past.
I would try to modify the DESCRIPTION file, and change the field "Package" there by adding the version number.
For example, you download the package source a from CRAN page (http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/pls/). Unpack the compressed file (pls_2.3-0.zip) to a directory ("pls/"). The following steps are to change the package name in DESCRIPTION ("pls/DESCRIPTION") and installation with R command 'R CMD INSTALL pls/', where 'pls/' is a path to the package source with modified DESCRIPTION file.
Playing with R library paths seems a dangerous thing to me.

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