R `parallel` package does not exist on CRAN?

Question

I tried to google "r package parallel" but I have not found it on CRAN. I also tried the following links, but they do not work:

http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/parallel/index.html

http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/parallel

http://cran.r-project.org/package=parallel

It is also absent in the list of available.packages().

But apparently the package parallel does exist! :-) I have it in the list of my packages and it even has its own tag here :-)

Solution

Is this because it is inside r-core since 2.14.0 ?

http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/parallel/doc/parallel.pdf

Comments

[Tomas]

What does this mean? I still have to do require(parallel), whereas I don't have to do it e.g. for package base or graphics.

[Darren Cook]

@TMS graphics is being automatically included for you. Try export R_DEFAULT_PACKAGES='utils,grDevices,graphics,stats,parallel' then run R, and you will see parallel is automatically included too. (The list of default packages can be specified in /etc/R/Renviron.site (for instance), and the default default list is decided when compiling.)

[Carl Witthoft]

You can also type library() to see what packages are currently available (and loaded).

[Tomas]

Thanks. It's a bit contra-intuitive that it is still a package which must be loaded, but it is not on CRAN and is inside the core, but not within the monolytic app, but still as a package... If something must be loaded, then I would expect it to be a regular package on CRAN (which might be installed by default, but should exist there). It's some kind of contra-intuitive hybrid between being a package and not being a package :-)

[Darren Cook]

@TMS I think "core" can be thought of like a Linux distro (or a jQuery UI custom build), where everything is a package, even the kernel. The other bit of intuition you need is loading each package takes us memory, slows down help search, etc. so you configure /etc/R/Renviron.site (or the per-user override) to only include the "core" core that you always want. If you feel all core packages should always be pre-loaded in every session, change your Renviron.site file to match.

[Darren Cook]

@TMS I agree with you, though, it would be nice if CRAN also listed entries for the core packages, where it could say it is "core", but still have links to the reference PDF, etc.