How to suppress warnings globally in an R Script

I have replaced the printf calls with calls to warning in the C-code now. It will be effective in the version 2.17.2 which should be available tomorrow night. Then you should be able to avoid the warnings with suppressWarnings() or any of the other above mentioned methods.

suppressWarnings({ your code })

You want options(warn=-1). However, note that warn=0 is not the safest warning level and it should not be assumed as the current one, particularly within scripts or functions. Thus the safest way to temporary turn off warnings is:

oldw <- getOption("warn")
options(warn = -1)

[your "silenced" code]

options(warn = oldw)

You could use

options(warn=-1)

But note that turning off warning messages globally might not be a good idea.

To turn warnings back on, use

options(warn=0)

(or whatever your default is for warn, see this answer)