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debian /etc/apt/sources.list for CRAN?

5 messages · Michael Friendly, Julien Damon, Dirk Eddelbuettel +1 more

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When I set up my debian linux (unstable) system, the only R debian 
packages were on CRAN, so I
followed directions and added the last line to my /etc/apt/sources.list

euclid: # m /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb http://debian.yorku.ca/debian/non-US unstable/non-US main contrib 
non-free
deb http://hexamon.ccs.yorku.ca/ unixteam-debs/
deb http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian woody main

But now, when I try to update the local package cache I get errors (below).
Should I just delete the cran.r-project.org line
above, or are there debian R packages elsewhere on CRAN that I should 
include instead?

 # apt-get update
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/main Packages
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/main Release
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-free Packages
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-free Release
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/contrib Packages
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/contrib Release
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-US/main Packages
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-US/main Release
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-US/contrib Packages
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-US/contrib Release
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-US/non-free Packages
Hit http://debian.yorku.ca unstable/non-US/non-free Release
Hit http://hexamon.ccs.yorku.ca unixteam-debs/ Packages
Ign http://hexamon.ccs.yorku.ca unixteam-debs/ Release
Err http://cran.r-project.org woody/main Packages
  404 Not Found
Ign http://cran.r-project.org woody/main Release
Failed to fetch 
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/dists/woody/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz  
404 Not Found
Reading Package Lists... Done
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old 
ones used instead.
#
I think the debian packages are now maintened in the official debian 
repository.

http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=r-cran&searchon=names&subword=1&version=unstable&release=all
http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=r-base&searchon=names&subword=1&version=unstable&release=all

So you don't need a specific entry in your source.list anymore.
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On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 01:39:23PM -0500, Michael Friendly wrote:
I think so.  Plus, if you already point to Debian unstable, CRAN has nothing
you wouldn't have otherwise.
Not that I know of. 

In the past, CRAN had current Debian packages of R itself for Debian
flavours other than unstable which typically has the most current R version
right at release time. However, migration to testing can take time so the we
sometime kept the same . And for stable we used to have volunteer-donated
rebuilds of the current R. This has gotten progressively more difficult as
Debian stable got older and older, and process of creating the R packages
started to take advantage of facilities to available to the versions of the
tools in stable.

We have talked at times about providing more CRAN packages as Debian
packages, and possibly via CRAN itself rather than full Debian uploads. But
I have not had time to work on that for a while, and that is unfortunately
rather unlikely to change soon.  Others have expressed an interest in
helping as well but haven't gotten very far, unfortunately.

Fellow Debian maintainer Matt Hope, has started a project on Debian's alioth
host (that is open to non-Debianers who want to contribute) to coordinate
debianisation of BioConductor. As this would use the same infrastructures,
it could get used for CRAN too. But this project is also slow in progressing
-- we're all overworked volunteers in this.  

Right now I'd say this is waiting for someone with a real itch to scratch.

Regards,  Dirk
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On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 02:14:04PM -0600, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
Not sure if this is still relevant, but the backport I made has been
apt-getable from this address for a while:

deb http://people.debian.org/~cts/debian stable/

I'd prefer if this where integrated in CRAN, but I don't think I can make
that directory available via rsync (unless you are a debian developer).
Probably the debian server can handle the extra load for a few people still
running Debian/stable.
I should be able to keep the packages current, but not necessarily within a
day, like Dirk manages to do.

Christian
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On Mon, Jan 17, 2005 at 09:00:53PM +0100, Julien Damon wrote:
Yes, as they have been since December 1997.

Dirk