R Housekeeping
July 14, 2017
R tutorial howtoR Housekeeping
Updating packages
# do any packages have an update available?
old.packages()
# update ALL of your old packages
update.packages()
# only update a specific package
install.packages("tidyverse")Backing up packages (esp. before updating R)
This was documented well in a recent R-bloggers post. Below is merely the process as outlined in that tutorial with some slight touchups I got from another blog post I read.
1. Save a list of your current R packages
## Backup location
list_dir <- '/Users/Sami/Documents/Research/R/'
## Get the list of installed packages
installed <- dir(.libPaths())
## Save the list for later use
save(installed, file = file.path(list_dir, paste0(Sys.Date(), '-installed.Rdata')))
## Explore the list
head(installed) # make sure list of packages returns
length(installed) # gives number of packages
2. Update R
Nothing special here
3. Restore your packages to the new R install
## Call your backup location
list_dir <- '/Users/Sami/Documents/Research/R/'
## Call up the Rdata files w/ all your R packages
previous <- dir(path = list_dir, pattern = 'installed.Rdata')
## Load the latest Rdata file w/ your packages
load(file.path(list_dir, previous[length(previous)]))
## Install each package
for (count in 1:length(installedpackages)) install.packages(installedpackages[count])
## Check which packages are missing
current_post_installation <- dir(.libPaths())
installed[!installed %in% current_post_installation]