R-Devel,
I note from the CHANGES log accompanying the Windows version of R-2.2.0 that
the behaviour with respect to the Windows registry has changed. It says:
"If the user chooses to register R during installation, a registry entry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\{version}\InstallPath will be added.
Users require administrative privileges to create this key. For others,
the same key will be put under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER root."
The old behaviour was to add or modify the registry entry at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath
(ie the same entry, but without the extra {version} key). Having installed
R-2.2.0, I notice that the entry at this location, which used to say
C:\Program Files\R\R-2.1.1
now says
C:\Program Files\R\R-2.2.0
I also tried deleting the \R-core\R key, and re-installing R, and it added
both the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\R-2.2.0\InstallPath
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath
entries
In other words, the new behaviour seems to be to *both* modify/add an entry
under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath
*and*
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\{version}\InstallPath
I note also that it adds another entry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\Current Version
My questions are:
(1) Am I correct that this is the new behaviour?
(2) Can the appropriate developer confirm that this behaviour will be
continued in future versions (at least for a while)? I ask, because I
distribute software that uses R, and it uses the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath
to find R. (It will also now look under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, as documented in
CHANGES.) If future versions will not update this entry, then I'll switch
the behaviour of my software.
(3) Might it be worth documenting this behaviour somewhere? I've searched
all the files in the R-2.2.0 distribution and didn't find it, as well as
looking in the recent r-devel and r-help archives.
There is one out-of-date entry: in R-2.2.0\doc\manual\R-exts.html it says:
[...]
Find and set the R home directory and the user's home directory. The
former may be available from the Windows Registry: it will normally be
in <code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath</code> and can be
set there by running the program <span class="file">R_HOME\bin\RSetReg.exe
</span>
Perhaps I missed it elsewhere?
Thanks for any help,
- Len Thomas
--
Len Thomas [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.creem.st-and.ac.uk/len/
Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling
The Observatory, University of St Andrews, Scotland KY16 9LZ
Tel. (0)1334-461801 Fax. (0)1334-461800 Secretary (0)1334-461842
______________________________________________
R-devel@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
