| INSTALL {utils} | R Documentation |
Utility for installing add-on packages.
R CMD INSTALL [options] [-l lib] pkgs
pkgs |
A space-separated list with the path names of the packages to be installed. |
lib |
the path name of the R library tree to install to. |
options |
a space-separated list of options through which in
particular the process for building the help files can be
controlled. Options should only be given once.
Use R CMD INSTALL --help for the current list of options.
|
If used as R CMD INSTALL pkgs without explicitly specifying
lib, packages are installed into the library tree rooted at the
first directory given in the environment variable R_LIBS if
this is set and non-null, and to the default library tree (which is
rooted at ‘$R_HOME/library’) otherwise.
To install into the library tree lib, use
R CMD INSTALL -l lib pkgs.
Both lib and the elements of pkgs may be absolute or
relative path names of directories. pkgs may also contain
names of package/bundle archive files of the form
‘pkg_version.tar.gz’ as obtained from CRAN: these are then
extracted in a temporary directory. Finally, binary package/bundle
archive files (as created by R CMD build --binary can be supplied.
Some package sources contain a ‘configure’ script that can be
passed arguments or variables via the option --configure-args
and --configure-vars, respectively, if necessary. The latter
is useful in particular if libraries or header files needed for the
package are in non-system directories. In this case, one can use the
configure variables LIBS and CPPFLAGS to specify these
locations (and set these via --configure-vars), see section
“Configuration variables” in “R Installation and
Administration” for more information. (If these are used more than
once on the command line, only the last instance is used.) One can
bypass the configure mechanism using the option --no-configure.
If --no-docs is given, no help files are built. Options --no-text, --no-html, and --no-latex suppress creating the text, HTML, and LaTeX versions, respectively. The default is to build help files in all three versions.
If the option --save is used, the installation procedure creates a binary image of the package code, which is then loaded when the package is attached, rather than evaluating the package source at that time. Having a file ‘install.R’ in the package directory makes this the default behavior for the package (option --no-save overrides). You may need --save if your package requires other packages to evaluate its own source. If the file ‘install.R’ is non-empty, it should contain R expressions to be executed when the package is attached, after loading the saved image. Options to be passed to R when creating the save image can be specified via --save=ARGS.
Options --lazy, --no-lazy, --lazy-data and --no-lazy-data control where the R objects and the datasets are made available for lazy loading. (These options are overridden by any values set in the ‘DESCRIPTION’ file.) The default is --no-lazy --no-lazy-data except that lazy-loading is used for package with more than 25kB of R code and no saved image.
If the attempt to install the package fails, leftovers are removed. If the package was already installed, the old version is restored.
Use R CMD INSTALL --help for more usage information.
Packages that require the methods package, and that use functions such
as setMethod or setClass,
should be installed by creating a binary image.
The presence of a file named ‘install.R’ in the package's main directory causes an image to be saved. Note that the file is not in the ‘R’ subdirectory: all the code in that subdirectory is used to construct the binary image.
Normally, the file ‘install.R’ will be empty; if it does contain
R expressions
these will be evaluated when the package is attached, e.g. by a call to
the function library. (Specifically, the source code
evaluated for a package with a saved image consists of a suitable
definition of .First.lib to ensure loading of the saved
image, followed by the R code in file ‘install.R’, if any.)
Some binary distributions of R have INSTALL in a separate
bundle, e.g. an R-devel RPM.
REMOVE and library for information on
using several library trees;
update.packages for automatic update of packages using
the internet;
the section on “Add-on packages” in “R Installation and
Administration” and
the chapter on “Creating R packages” in “Writing R
Extensions”
(see the ‘doc/manual’ subdirectory of the R source tree).