serializeEnv            package:annotate            R Documentation

_A _F_u_n_c_t_i_o_n _T_o _S_e_r_i_a_l_i_z_e _E_n_v_i_r_o_n_m_e_n_t

_D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n:

     This function will serialize an environment in R to an XML format
     stored in a compressed file.

_U_s_a_g_e:

     serializeEnv(env, fname)
     serializeDataPkgEnvs(pkgDir)

_A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s:

     env: The name of the environment to serialize.

   fname: The name of the output file.

  pkgDir: The directory where a data package is

_D_e_t_a_i_l_s:

     The environment is converted into an XML format and then outputted
     to a gzipped file (using 'gzfile').  The values in the environment
     are serialized (using 'serialize') in ASCII format although the
     keys are stored in plain text.

     The format of the XML is very simple, with the primary block being
     'values', which contain blocks of 'entries', and each entry having
     a 'key' and a 'value'.  For instance, if we had an environment
     with one value in it, the character 'c' with a key of 'a' (e.g.
     'assign("a", "c", env=foo)'), this is what the output would look
     like.


          <?xml version="1.0"?>
          <values xmlns:bt="http://www.bioconductor.org/RGDBM">
             <entry>
                <key>
                  a
                </key>
                <value>
                   A\n2\n131072\n66560\n1040\n1\n1033\n1\nc\n
                </value>
             </entry>    
          </values>


_A_u_t_h_o_r(_s):

     Jeff Gentry

_S_e_e _A_l_s_o:

     'gzfile', 'serialize'

_E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s:

        z <- new.env()
        assign("a", 1, env=z)
        assign("b", 2, env=z)
        assign("c", 3, env=z)
        serializeEnv(z, tempfile())

