If I don’t update packages through this function, I use the packages tab in RStudio. Mostly this happens because I am asked if I want to do so when using the install_github() function from the remotes package to install a package that is not on CRAN but is on GitHub. I update packages quite often (probably every few days).

I don’t like to be a guinea pig in case there are issues so I let others find them and update once they’re fixed. I update R several weeks after a new version is released. I upgrade RStudio whenever I hear about something new and exciting in the most recent version (you better believe I’m excited about rainbow parentheses). I may have strayed from the original question a bit because the user was asking how I handle updating my tools.

And Chapter 8 of Jenny Bryan and Jim Hester’s What They Forgot to Teach You About R has something similar. Others point you to the updateR and installr packages, which each have functions to copy your existing packages to your new version of R.Ĭolin Gillespie and Robin Lovelace have a chapter on keeping everything up to date in their book Efficient R Programming. Following the copy with a rebuild only fixes packages that are in your repository list for the new version of R… any packages that have already failed compatibility testing will remain broken, and they are the ones you are most at risk from. is NOT a safe thing to do, since the whole reason R sets up a new library is to avoid mixing incompatible packages. Indeed, others, including Jeff Newmiller, suggest this approach is problematic. Some people suggest copying your old personal library to a new location and ensuring that the new version of R recognizes it (others take the opposite view, saying that a new version of R is a good time to start with a clean slate and only install packages that you need moving forward). There are multiple approaches to dealing with this:

When I upgraded to R 4.0, all of the packages I had downloaded while using version 3.61 were no longer recognized. When you update R, the biggest challenge is that your personal library of packages no longer works. No matter which method you use, for most people, the challenge comes not in updating R, but in what comes as a result. There are also packages to do the updating: updateR for Mac, and installr for Windows. Install that, and it will overwrite your current version. The easiest way to update R is to simply download the newest version. HAPPY FRIDAY! The daily build has 🌈rainbow parentheses!!!! 😍🙌👏🥳🎉🎊 /HrgGEaH1SO- Lucy D’Agostino McGowan JHow to Update R

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