How to install development version of R packages g

Question

How can I install a package that is under development directly from a github repository and once installed how can I switch between development and CRAN versions?

The specific package I am interested in installing from git is ggplot2.

Answer 1

for compile binaries install:

install.packages('xxx', repo='http://repo_adress')

for source install :

install.packages('xxx', repo='http://repo_adress', type='source')

Answer 2

via Hadley at https://github.com/hadley/ggplot2

install.packages("devtools")

library(devtools)

dev_mode(on=T)

install_github("hadley/ggplot2")

# use dev ggplot2 now

# when finished do:

dev_mode(on=F)  #and you are back to having stable ggplot2

Answer 3

devtools::install_github("ggplot2")

Answer 4

I have the feeling that both previous answers miss the point of your question.

Consider this:

• You can control where to install packages via arguments to both R CMD INSTALL (via -l) and install.packages().

• At run-time, you can control where to load packages from via .libPaths().

So it really is just a matter of setting a few variables in your .Rprofile (or alike) to control this.