pkginstaller

An R Studio Add-in to make it easier to install packages from an internal server.

For locked down IT environments where cannot install packages from CRAN directly, but where packages are stored on an internal server.

Installation

You can install pkginstaller from GitHub using the remotes library:

remotes::install_github("DataScienceScotland/pkginstaller", upgrade = "never")

If security settings prevent you installing this package from GitHub directly, download its zip file and use the code below to install (after replacing <FILEPATH OF ZIPPED FILE> with the directory of the downloaded zip):

remotes::install_local(
  "<FILEPATH OF ZIPPED FILE>/pkginstaller-main.zip",
  upgrade = "never"
)

Using the add-in

Once the package is installed, use pkginstaller from the Addins menu found in R Studio.

Installing a package with the add-in

Select “Install package internal” from the pkginstaller Addin menu. A pop-up will open where should specify the name of the package to install. If you wish to install multiple packages you can enter their names separated by commas.

Check the directory shown is the correct location of the R packages. If it’s not correct see next section.

Updating the current packages server directory

If the packages directory needs changing, then run “Update server packages directory” from the Addin menu. A pop-up will open and should specify the updated directory containing packages to install.

When specifying the server directory, please note:

1. Use forward slashes not back slashes in the directory as would be used in R code.

2. It is not necessary to specify file: at the start of the directory as this will be added automatically.

Checking installed package versions match the server versions

A check is available in the Addin menu “Check package versions”. This extracts the name and version of each package currently available on the server and compares it with the locally installed version of that package.

If there are locally installed packages at a version lower than the versions available on the server, then this offers the chance to upgrade those packages if say yes to the prompt.

Similarly, if there are locally installed versions of packages greater than the version on the server, then it offers the chance to downgrade them, ensuring you are using the version on the server.

If you wish to use different server directory for this check, change this first using the “Update server packages directory” option available in the Addin.

The underlying package installation command

This package installation process makes use of the contriburl argument of install.packages. contriburl is used to specify the server directory containing compiled Windows binary zip files for each R package. The command it uses is like the following:

install.packages("tidyr", repos = NULL, type = "win.binary", contriburl = "file://internal_server/R_4_2_2_Packages")

The type argument is currently hard coded as "win.binary", therefore the server directory should contain Windows binaries, not source tarballs or macOS builds. The server directory also needs index files. See below.

Setting up the server directory

A pre-requisite is the directory containing the packages has PACKAGES index files, created with:

tools::write_PACKAGES(dir = "packages_dir", type = "win.binary")

The index files allow a package to be installed and its dependent packages to be installed automatically.