How to force older packages to install on newer versions of R?

r

Solution

(upgraded from a comment)

Download the relevant package (zip, tarball, whatever) from the archives and install it locally, e.g.

install.packages("proj4string_x.y.z.zip",repos=NULL)

(this is not literal: `x.y.z` represents the package version)

Problem

I cannot install `proj4string` into my current version of R (2.15.1): ``` Warning message: package ‘proj4string’ is not available (for R version 2.15.1) ``` I assume this is because 2.15.1 is fairly new and the package just hasn't been updated. Is there a general mechanism for forcing R to install an older version of a binary package (realizing that there may be bugs that result)?

Original source