What to do when a package is not available for our R version?

Question

Very often, when I try to download a package, I've got the following message :

Warning in install.packages :
  package ‘XXXX’ is not available (for R version 3.0.1)

Is it not possible to simulate an old version of R to use the package ?

I believe you also get this message when the package is on Bioconductor (Bioconductor.org). — Bryan Hanson, Aug 01 '13 at 17:24
[This answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/25721890/752843) would be my recommendation. — Richard, Jul 22 '15 at 21:32

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '13 at 18:43

10

Try something like:

packageurl <- "http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/XXXX/XXXX_A.B.C.tar.gz"
install.packages(packageurl, contriburl=NULL, type="source")

where XXXX is your package name and A.B.C is the version of the package (not R).

answered Aug 01 '13 at 18:43

Ellis Valentiner

12

How do you find the package version needed to install on a version of R? – highBandWidth Sep 28 '17 at 19:29
1

@highBandWidth, there is a label usually on CRAN, eg. 'Package source: ' and then below ' Old sources: ' which if you click it, gives you the list of the previous versions from the most recent. If the error messages don't direct you, some trial and error may be necessary. I do not know of a precise way to identify the A.B.C version correspondence for each package with the R version – Vass Jun 12 '21 at 00:31

1 Answers1