Package Installation and Troubleshooting

Objective: You will practice installing R packages from CRAN using different methods and troubleshooting installation issues.

Main Task

Install all the packages listed in the “Datasets” page of “DAiR_2024” under the “Import Data” section on the website.

Load the installed packages into your R session.

Verify the installation and loading of these packages by printing their version numbers.

Problem Statement:

Download and install the latest available versions of the caret package and tidymodels from CRAN. Perform the following tasks:

  1. Attempt to install the packages through the command line using R.

  2. Identify any issues encountered during installation.

  3. Check dependencies of the packages using the pkgnet library.

  4. Analyze if there is any relationship between installation errors and the results from step 3.

  5. If any issues arise, use the RStudio Console to install packages, specifying the install.packages arguments explicitly.

  6. Finally, attempt to install the packages using the Install tab in the Packages section of the Environment Pane in RStudio.

Hints:

  • Use the install.packages() function in R to install packages from CRAN.

  • Monitor the R console for any error messages during installation attempts.

  • Adjust installation parameters such as dependencies, repos, or type as needed to troubleshoot installation issues.

  • The CRAN repository URL is “https://cran.r-project.org”.

  • You can specify type = "source" if needed.

Challenge Question: What steps would you take if the installation fails due to dependency issues? How can you resolve these issues effectively?