Building R packages Sren Hjsgaard Department of Mathematical - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Building R packages Søren Højsgaard Department of Mathematical Sciences Aalborg University, Denmark September 24, 2012 Printed: September 24, 2012 File: package-slides.tex

2 Contents 1 Why build R packages 3 2 Getting started 4 3 EXERCISES: Writing R packages 5

3 1 Why build R packages To have R –work made publically available on CRAN http://cran.r-project.org/ are, the work must be put into an R package. Another reason for creating an R package is that it is a simple way of organizing your own work – and of sharing work among collaborators. Windows users must download and install Rtools from http://cran.r-project.org/ . For linux users, no particular steps are necessary. For Mac users, I do not know.

4 2 Getting started A skeleton of a package called ASC can be created with R> package.skeleton("ASC") The ASC directory contains an R directory (where R functions are put) and a man directory (where documentation files are put).

5 To install the package, do R CMD INSTALL ASC To build the package (create a tar–ball which can be distributed), do R CMD build ASC To create a zip file (the easiest way to install a package on windows) do R CMD INSTALL --build ASC To check that the package meets the requirements of CRAN to R CMD check ASC Then there are many additional bells and whistles that can be added. See“Writing R Extensions”for details: http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.html

6 3 EXERCISES: Writing R packages 1. Create a template for a package called ASC . Make sure that you can compile and install the package. 2. Put the R functions you have created so far in the course into the package. Create documentation files for your functions. (Hint: prompt() is your friend). Create documentation files for your datasets. (Hint: promptData() is your friend).