Errata / Additions

  • Installing older versions of packages
    • can install older versions from the source code
    • for example: https://cran.r-project.org/package=lavaan
    • install.packages("https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/lavaan/lavaan_0.6-2.tar.gz", repos=NULL, type="source")
    • note: if there are unmet dependencies, then have to chase those down yourself
    • this will work if the packages does not contain C/C++/Fortran code that needs compilation
    • otherwise you will need the appropriate tools (i.e., compilers) to do so
    • for example: https://cran.r-project.org/package=lme4
    • install.packages("https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/lme4/lme4_1.1-20.tar.gz", repos=NULL, type="source")
    • even if you have those tools, compilation may fail (if other packages are in a conflicting state)
    • CRAN only keeps pre-compiled versions of packages (‘binaries’) for Windows and macOS for the current version
    • Microsoft makes daily snapshots of CRAN: https://cran.microsoft.com/snapshot/
    • could try installing binary version from there
    • install.packages("https://cran.microsoft.com/snapshot/2019-02-10/bin/windows/contrib/3.6/lme4_1.1-20.zip")
    • could also look into the ‘checkpoint’ package: https://cran.r-project.org/package=checkpoint