install_version breaks symlinks in the renv library

Question

I use renv to manage R package dependencies. The global cache works great for all packages that are installed with install.packages command; however, if I install the same package with devtools::install_version command it only installs it locally. As a result, any changes in the version number require manual installations again and again. Do you have any idea how to address this issue?

Answer 1

I found the problem with my approach. Instead of using install_version, I should have used renv::install(). Here is an example:

Instead of using:

devtools::install_version(package="BART", version = "2.2")

Use

renv::install("BART")
renv::install("BART@2.2")