Richard Cotton <richiero...@gmail.com> writes: > Today while running update.packages(ask = FALSE), R stopped to ask me > a question: > > There are binary versions available but the source versions are later: > binary source needs_compilation > KernSmooth 2.23-13 2.23-14 TRUE > mixture 1.2 1.3 TRUE > > Do you want to install from sources the packages which need compilation? > y/n: > > > update.packages calls install.packages which calls getDependencies, > which was where there question originated. > > It seems to me that if I've set ask = FALSE, stopping to ask questions > is a bug. There are a few possible interpretations of the best > behaviour though, so I thought I'd put it up for discussion here > before (maybe) submitting as a bug. > > 1. The existing behaviour is correct: the case of out-of-date binaries > causes a special situation, and R is right to ask. > > 2. ask = FALSE means I want all updates, so don't ask me any > questions, just install all possible updates. > > 3. ask = FALSE means that I don't want any interactivity, but > out-of-date binaries is a special case, so R should just fail to > update these packages, with an error message stating that they need to > be manually updated. > > 4. There should be an extra argument that decides between the some or > all of the behaviours described in 1, 2 and 3. > > Which of these options is best? (Or have I missed an option?)
I am with R (and youre first option). If I ask for binaries, I want binaries (because I can not install from source, because I want them fast, because I have locally different compilers, ...). So to silently try to install sources instead of binaries could be completely wrong. Although unlikely, the same applies the other way round, when I ask for source. THe other possible option would be 4, but instead of failing (the binaries might still be newer then the installed versions) to give a warning - as it is not more: For the settings asked for, these are, the newest versions are installed - but be warned that there are newer versions from source. Thinking about it now, option 4 with warning should be the way to go. Cheers, Rainer > -- Rainer M. Krug email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de PGP: 0x0F52F982
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
