We are having an issue using install.versions to install packages that were last updated many years ago. We are unable to compile a source version and thus require a binary version. Binary versions are specific to the version of R. See reprex below:
library(versions)
sessionInfo()
#> R version 3.4.1 (2017-06-30)
#> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0 (64-bit)
#> Running under: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
#>
#> Matrix products: default
#> BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
#> LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib
#>
#> locale:
#> [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8
#>
#> attached base packages:
#> [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base
#>
#> other attached packages:
#> [1] versions_0.4
#>
#> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
#> [1] compiler_3.4.1 backports_1.1.2 magrittr_1.5 rprojroot_1.3-2
#> [5] tools_3.4.1 htmltools_0.3.6 yaml_2.1.18 Rcpp_0.12.17
#> [9] stringi_1.2.2 rmarkdown_1.9 knitr_1.20 stringr_1.3.1
#> [13] digest_0.6.15 evaluate_0.10.1
# The following requires compilation, which I cannot do.
install.versions("bitops", "1.0-6", type = "mac.binary")
#> Warning: unable to access index for repository https://cran.microsoft.com/snapshot/2014-09-17/bin/macosx/contrib/3.4:
#> cannot open URL 'https://cran.microsoft.com/snapshot/2014-09-17/bin/macosx/contrib/3.4/PACKAGES'
#>
#> package 'bitops' is available as a source package but not as a binary
#> Warning: package 'bitops' is not available (as a binary package for R
#> version 3.4.1)
available.versions("bitops")
#> $bitops
#> version date available
#> 1 1.0-6 2013-08-17 TRUE
#> 2 1.0-5 2012-11-12 FALSE
#> 3 1.0-4.2 2012-11-03 FALSE
#> 4 1.0-4.1 2012-10-29 FALSE
#> 5 1.0-4 2005-01-31 FALSE
#> 6 1.0-3 2005-01-28 FALSE
# The latest version of bitops was first published on 2013-08-17, though version_to_date
# returns 2014-09-17. At that time, the latest version of R was 3.3
versions:::version_to_date("bitops", "1.0-6")
#> [1] "2014-09-17"
The problem is only in the URL that is being generated by version_to_dateand install.dates. By default, version_to_date appears to use the earliest date that a package version existed to generate the URL. We'd like to propose that it uses the last date to generate a URL to give the highest chances of that URL existing.
We are having an issue using
install.versionsto install packages that were last updated many years ago. We are unable to compile a source version and thus require a binary version. Binary versions are specific to the version of R. See reprex below:The problem is only in the URL that is being generated by
version_to_dateandinstall.dates. By default,version_to_dateappears to use the earliest date that a package version existed to generate the URL. We'd like to propose that it uses the last date to generate a URL to give the highest chances of that URL existing.Created on 2018-09-17 by the reprex package (v0.2.0).