Package full install log

[Andrzej]

What should I do to create full package installation log ?

[HanOostdijk]

I assume that your talking about install.packages .

See

?install.packages

The argument verbose is mentioned. Did you try that one? Did it help?

[Andrzej]

Yes I am talking about install.packages. I want to have a full console output saved into a text file ot whatever is possible.
This output sometimes is so huge that I can't scroll back to the beginning (to the command prompt in console up there) in order to copy it as a whole. How do I do it ? Is it some kind of limit in R console that limits a display's output ? I also have read about sink() function but I can't get it to work. For example:

install.packages("sf", type="source")

gives me an error about non-zero exit status and I want to save all that output, not a part of it because of print lines limit in the console.

[HanOostdijk]

You could try

capture.output(install.packages('package_name','other arguments'), 
    file = "install.log", append = FALSE,
    type = c("output", "message"), split = FALSE)

with type one of the two options output or message

I hope that this gives you already enough information.

At one time I thought I needed both output and message so I extended the function above to HOQCutil::capture.output.both to be able to specify both :

HOQCutil::capture.output.both(install.packages('package_name','other arguments'), 
    file = "install.log", append = FALSE, 
    type = "both", split = FALSE)

You can install the package from GitHub with

devtools::install_github("HanOostdijk/HOQCutil") 

or just copy the single function from
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HanOostdijk/HOQCutil/master/R/cap.out.R

[Andrzej]

Thank you for your help, but it doesn't work. It gives only info that:
installation of package ‘...’ had non-zero exit status. I do not need a one-liner, I need full output.

[HanOostdijk]

Did you try the "both" version?
Please show the full call.

[Andrzej]

Here you are:

HOQCutil::capture.output.both(install.packages('sf',type="source", verbose=TRUE),
    file = "install.log", append = FALSE, 
    type = "both", split = FALSE)

and

HOQCutil::capture.output.both(install.packages('sf',type="source"),
    file = "install.log", append = FALSE, 
    type = "both", split = FALSE)

both do not work

[HanOostdijk]

That is a pity.

Then google for it.
With search words R install packages capture output I found
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9206932/capture-output-of-install-packages
An old one, but maybe it helps.
No more time today to have a look

[Andrzej]

So is it beyond R capabilities to provide full console output ? It is definitely beyond my possibilites now , but I hope someone can provide a hint or working solution.