Can I install a package without installing dependencies?

Question

Can I install a package without installing dependencies?

When executing the following command:

install.packages("package",dependencies=FALSE) 

if the dependencies are not installed in advance, does the package installation fail?

My question comes from this post Install local package R with CRAN mirror dependencies . Why does it install a local package installation without installing dependencies?

if I set repos = NULL, it correctly tries to install the local package file (as documented), but obviously it does not find package dependencies.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You cannot install and receive a package to work without its dependencies. The dependencies= parameter dependencies= indeed an indicator if you want R to automatically install dependencies. If set to FALSE, R still stops and warns you so you can decide what you would like to do; if TRUE, R will automatically try to load the CRAN repository from your current mirror. With repos=NULL (local file installation) no longer look for dependencies, so the dependencies= parameter dependencies= ignored.