[R] Updating to R 3.1.1. - impacts on existing packages

[Henrik Bengtsson]

On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 4:49 PM, Sun Shine <phaedrusv at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi list
>
> I've signed up for a Coursera course on exploratory data analysis, and the
> recommendation is to update to R base 3.1.1. I'm currently on 3.0.2.
>
> If I do upgrade, what is the best way for me to upgrade all my packages for
> compatibility? Would this be accomplished through the command:
>
>> update.packages()
>
> Also, any ideas what percentage of the packages have been updated to work
> with 3.1.1. ? I'm just wanting to do a risk evaluation because I don't want
> to lose access to packages such as ggplot2, sna, statnet, FactoMineR, and
> several others through upgrading.

All package on CRAN should be up-to-date (that's almost the definition
of CRAN; if a package is not updated in time it's likely to be
archived due to lack of maintenance).  When in doubt, have a look at
their individual CRAN pages, e.g.
http://cran.r-project.org/package=ggplot2.  Look for the "r-release".

Note that "r-release" always refers to the latest stable official R
release, which currently is R 3.1.2.  You should upgrade to that
version and not 3.1.1.  It's pretty safe to always install the most
recent stable release version of R.  If you're using an old version of
R, like you do, it's more likely that you run into problems in general
than if you use the most recent version.  So, avoid sticking with old
version and make to upgrade whenever a new release come out.

/Henrik

>
> Thanks for any steers
>
> Sun
>
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