The R Project SVN R

\name{update.packages}
\alias{update.packages}
\alias{installed.packages}
\alias{CRAN.packages}
\alias{old.packages}
\alias{download.packages}
\alias{install.packages}
\alias{contrib.url}
\alias{newerVersion}
\title{Download Packages from CRAN}}
\description{
  These functions can be used to automatically compare the version
  numbers of installed packages with the newest available version on
  CRAN and update outdated packages on the fly.}
}
\usage{
update.packages(lib.loc = .lib.loc, CRAN = options("CRAN"),
                contriburl = contrib.url(CRAN),
                method = "auto", instlib = NULL,
                ask=TRUE, available=NULL, destdir=NULL)

installed.packages(lib.loc = .lib.loc)
CRAN.packages(CRAN = options("CRAN"), method = "auto",
              contriburl = contrib.url(CRAN))
old.packages(lib.loc = .lib.loc, CRAN = getOption("CRAN"),
             contriburl = contrib.url(CRAN),
             method = "auto", available = NULL)

download.packages(pkgs, destdir, available = NULL,
                  CRAN = options("CRAN"), 
                  contriburl = contrib.url(CRAN), method = "auto")
install.packages(pkgs, lib, CRAN = options("CRAN"),
                 contriburl = contrib.url(CRAN),
                 method = "auto", available = NULL, destdir = NULL)
newerVersion(a, b)
}
\arguments{ 
  \item{lib.loc}{A character vector describing the location of R
    library trees to search through (and update packages therein).}
  \item{CRAN}{The base URL of the CRAN mirror to use, i.e., the URL of a
    CRAN root such as \code{"http://www.r-project.org"} (the default) or
    its Statlib mirror, \code{"http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/R/CRAN"}.}
  \item{contriburl}{URL of the contrib section of CRAN. Use this argument
    only if your CRAN mirror is incomplete, e.g., because you burned
    only the contrib section on a CD.  Overrides argument \code{CRAN}.}
  \item{method}{Download method, see \code{\link{download.file}}.}
  \item{pkgs}{A character vector of the short names of
    packages whose current versions should be downloaded from \code{CRAN}.}
  \item{destdir}{Directory where downloaded packages are stored.}
  \item{available}{List of packages available at CRAN as returned by
    \code{CRAN.packages}.}
  \item{lib,instlib}{A character string giving the library directory where to
    install the packages.}
  \item{ask}{If \code{TRUE}, ask before packages are actually downloaded
    and installed.}
  \item{a, b}{Version strings of R packages, valid seperators are
    \code{.} and \code{-}.}
}
\details{
  \code{installed.packages} scans the \file{DESCRIPTION} files of each
  package found along \code{lib.loc} and returns a list of package
  names, library paths and version numbers.  \code{CRAN.packages}
  returns a similar list, but corresponding to packages currently
  available in the contrib section of CRAN, the comprehensive R archive
  network.  The current list of packages is downloaded over the internet
  (or copied from a local CRAN mirror). Both functions use
  \code{\link{parse.dcf}} for parsing the description files.
  \code{old.packages} compares the two lists and reports installed
  packages that have newer versions on CRAN.

  \code{download.packages} takes a list of package names and a
  destination directory, downloads the newest versions of the package
  sources and saves the in \code{destdir}.  If the list of available
  packages is not given as argument, it is also directly obtained from
  CRAN.  If CRAN is local, i.e., the URL starts with \code{"file:"},
  then the packages are not downloaded but used directly.

  The main function of the bundle is \code{update.packages}.  First a
  list of all packages found in \code{lib.loc} is created and compared
  with the packages available on CRAN.  Outdated packages are reported
  and for each outdated package the user can specify if it should be
  automatically updated.
#ifdef unix
  If so, the package sources are downloaded from
  CRAN and installed in the respective library path (or \code{instlib}
  if specified) using the \R \code{\link{INSTALL}} mechanism.
#endif
#ifdef windows
  If so, the pre-compiled packages are
  downloaded from CRAN and installed in the respective library path (or
  \code{instlib} if specified).
#endif
  
  \code{install.packages} can be used to install new packages, it
  takes a vector of package names and a destination library, downloads
  the packages from CRAN and installs them. If the library
  is omitted it defaults to the first directory in \code{.lib.loc}, with
  a warning.
%  The first argument can be an unquoted name, as in
%  \code{install.packages(nlme)}.
#ifdef windows
  Argument \code{pkgs} can also be a character vector of file names of
  zip files if \code{CRAN=NULL}. The zip files are then unpacked directly.
#endif

  For \code{install.packages} and \code{update.packages}, \code{destdir}
  is the directory to which packages will be downloaded. If it is
  \code{NULL} (the default) a temporary directory is used, and the user
  will be given the option of deleting the temporary files once the
  packages are installed.

  \code{newerVersion(a, b)} is a helper function that returns
  \code{TRUE} when version \code{a} is newer than version \code{b}.
}
#ifdef windows
\note{
  \code{wget.exe} is available from
  \url{http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/wget.zip}.
  \code{lynx.exe} is available from
  \url{http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm}.
}
#endif
\seealso{
#ifdef unix
  \code{\link{INSTALL}}, \code{\link{REMOVE}},
#endif
  \code{\link{library}}, \code{\link{.packages}},
  \code{\link{parse.dcf}}, \code{\link{download.file}}
}
\keyword{utilities}