| INSTALL {utils} | R Documentation |
Install Add-on Packages from Sources
Description
Utility for installing add-on source packages.
Usage
R CMD INSTALL [options] [-l lib] pkgs
Arguments
pkgs |
A space-separated list with the path names of the sources 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, and paths including spaces should
be quoted.
Use |
Details
If used as R CMD INSTALL pkgs without explicitly specifying
lib, packages are installed into the library tree rooted at the
first directory in the library path which would be used by R run in
the current environment.
To install into the library tree lib, use
R CMD INSTALL -l lib pkgs. This prepends lib to
R\_LIBS for duration of the install, so required packages in the
installation directory will be found (and used in preference to those
in other libraries).
Windows Perl and the files for installing from source packages need to be installed.
Both lib and the elements of pkgs may be absolute or
relative path names of directories. pkgs may also contain
names of package archive files of the form ‘pkg\_version.tar.gz’
as obtained from CRAN—these are then extracted to a temporary
directory ‘R.INSTALL.????’ of the current directory.
Which forms of help are produced is controlled by the --docs
option which takes values none or normal (text and HTML)
or chm (the default, text, HTML and CHTML).
If the attempt to install the package fails, leftovers are removed. If the package was already installed, the old version is restored. This happens either if a command encounters an error or if the install is interrupted from the keyboard.
Use R CMD INSTALL --help for more usage information.
Packages using the methods package
Packages that require the methods package, and that use functions such
as setMethod or setClass,
should be installed either (preferably) using lazy-loading or by
creating a binary image: use the flags LazyLoad and
SaveImage in the ‘DESCRIPTION’ file to ensure this.
See Also
REMOVE and library for information on
using several library trees;
update.packages for automatic update of packages using
the internet (or other R level installation of packages, such as by
install.packages).
The section on “Add-on packages” in “R Installation and
Administration” and the chapter on “Creating R packages” in
“Writing R Extensions” (see the Help menu in RGui,
RShowDoc and the ‘doc/manual’ subdirectory of the
R source tree).