set no-multiarch as a default option for install.packages()

[lhunsicker]

The sysop for the virtual desktops at my university insists on installing R and RStudio to support both 32 and 64 bit R, despite the fact that the whole cluster is running only 64-bit Windows 10. The consequence is that when I have to update a package from source, I have to build both 32 and 64 bit versions. Further, if there is a 32 bit dependency that isn't installed (such as Java), update of both versions fails. I know that I can append "INSTALL_opts=c("--no-multiarch") to the update.packages() and install.packages() calls, and I suppose that I could create a personal version of update.packages() to include this option, but there is probably a way that I could set a startup default to set this option automatically. But I haven't been able to find the magic to do this.
Thanks to anyone that can tell me if and how such a start-up option can be set.

[andresrcs]

Set the option on your startup files (Rprofile.site or .Rprofile).

[lhunsicker]

I don't know how the R INSTALL command works. Entering:

options(INSTALL_opts = c("--no-multiarch"))
install.packages("SqlRender)

doesn't work, while executing:

install.packages("SqlRender", INSTALL_opts=c("--no-multiarch"))

does work. What do I have to put into my .rprofile to get install.packages to include this option for every invocation?

[andresrcs]

You are right for some reason setting the option globally is not considered a good idea, here is a work around if interested.

Install.packages() without data sets.

I don't think there's a way to set an option in .Rproj files, but R does look for and run "profile" code when it starts a session. It will run any file named .Rprofile in the working directory on start-up. Run ?Startup for the documentation. In the file, you can replace the function: # .Rprofile install.packages <- function(..., INSTALL_opts = NULL) { utils::install.packages(..., INSTALL_opts = c(INSTALL_opts, "--no-data")) } Note: R will look for and run an .Rprofile file in the working directory and then your home directory, but will stop once it finds one. So, if you have an .Rprofile file in both directories, only the one in the working directory will be run. So it might be a go…

[lhunsicker]

OK. Based on andresrcs's suggestion, I put the following line into the .rprofile of the working directory of my "base" project where I do all my package maintenance:

install.packages <- function(pkgs) utils::install.packages(pkgs, INSTALL_opts = '--no-multiarch')

This in essence replaces the native install.packages() with a personal version that includes the "--no-multiarch' option. It works for initial packages installs, and since update.packages ultimately calls install.packages(), it works for update.packages() as well. So I can finally get rid of the 32 bit versions that I never use.