README.md

In mtmorgan/pkgserver: Serve Binary R / Bioconductor Packages for Fast Installation

pkgserver

THIS IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS

Use install() for fast binary package installation. This 'front-end' must connect with an archive server capable of building and providing binary package versions. When the archive server is first asked for a versioned package, it must install and build the binary of the package so the process is no faster than a standard installation. On second and subsequent requests, the archive server provides a binary package for fast installation. Currently, the only archive server is in fact the package itself, so it is only capable of serving binary package versions to itself.

Installation

Install from github with

```{r, eval = FALSE} BiocManager::install("mtmorgan/pkgserver")

## Example

Ask to install package(s)

```{r, eval = FALSE}
pkgs <- c("ShortRead", "Rsamtools")
pkgserver::install(pkgs)

This will determine the packages and dependencies needed for installation, and forward the request to the archive server. The archive server will either discover already-available binary versions of the required packages, or will build the binary versions. The binary versions will be returned to the requesting session for fast installation.

The archive server is no faster when the package and version are first requested. Subsequent requests are fast. For instance, I have

> .libPaths()
[1] "/Users/ma38727/Library/R/4.0/Bioc/3.11/library"
[2] "/Users/ma38727/bin/R-devel/library"

where the last element of .libPaths() contains only base packages. Thus

pkgs <- c("ShortRead", "Rsamtools")
lib <- tempfile()
dir.create(lib)
pkgserver::install(pkgs, c(lib, tail(.libPaths(), 1)))

installs pkgs and their dependendcies in a library lib. The first time is slow, but the second time

lib <- tempfile()
dir.create(lib)
pkgserver::install(pkgs, c(lib, tail(.libPaths(), 1)))

is faster (some binary packages, BH in the example here, are still large and a little slow to install).

mtmorgan/pkgserver documentation built on Feb. 25, 2020, 3:54 a.m.