[R-pkg-devel] Impact of Matrix requirement for R >= 4.4.0 on CRAN package ecosystem

Hi Maciej,

By default the install process uses the **latest** package available that
meets the requirements.
Installing Matrix with install.packages("Matrix") on R 4.3 or below won't
work.

The requirement for R >= 4.4.0 on Matrix was added on version 1.7-0 (thanks
to diffify: https://diffify.com/R/Matrix/1.6-5/1.7-0)
Currently on CRAN 6 packages require higher or equal versions of Matrix
1.7: CoTiMA, dependentsimr, FlexRL, gamm4, matrixCorr, organik
But 1475 packages don't require a specific version of Matrix, which by
default will use default to install from CRAN that requires R >= 4.4 if it
is not available.
And 198 packages require a version compatible with Matrix 1.7.0 and some
versions below it.

One can install packages if the other requirements are met:
- On systems with Matrix < 1.7.0, packages not requiring R >= 4.4 or Matrix

= 1.7.0 (or any of their dependencies) can be installed.

- On systems with R < 4.4, packages requiring Matrix >= 1.7.0 or R >= 4.4
(or any of their dependencies) cannot be installed
  One can't install the latest Matrix package but could install some of the
1663 packages that don't require Matrix 1.7.0 (if the other requirements
are met)

Packages do not **need** to update version requirements based on other
packages' version requirements if they want to support the latest versions.
They can do that if they want to limit the "support" for older versions.
By default users will get the latest Matrix version which requires a recent
R version.
If users of old R versions want to update they can as far as the package
requirements allow them.

Note that install.packages(<pkgname>) is not the only way to install
packages.
Older versions of packages can still be installed with
install.packages("path/pkg_ver.tar.gz") or install.packages("
https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/Matrix/Matrix_1.6-5.tar.gz",
repos = NULL) if their requirements are met.
But this doesn't "guarantee" that packages work together as CRAN (and
maintainers) might have not checked that combination of packages.

I hope this answered all the questions,

Llu?s

PS: The version of Matrix installed as recommended and from CRAN (
https://cran.r-project.org/package=Matrix) might be different as it happens
currently.

Missatge de Maciej Nasinski <nasinski.maciej at gmail.com> del dia dt., 20 de
gen. 2026 a les 11:58:

Dear R-packge-devel members,

I am writing to discuss the update from a while ago to the Matrix package,
which specifies a minimum requirement of R (>= 4.4.0).

As Matrix is a Recommended package and a foundational dependency for a vast
number of packages on CRAN (including lme4, mgcv, and hundreds or thousands
others), this version requirement has significant downstream implications
if applied everywhere. I am aware only of a few packages which updated
their minimum required R version matching Matrix as their dependency.

Because so many packages depend on Matrix, this change effectively raises
the "floor" for a large portion of CRAN to R 4.4.0. Is it true? Do we see
that a few thousands packages are not yet properly updated to R (>= 4.4.0)?
Or Most of the packages do not need the newest Matrix and the
install.packages matching somehow the newest Matrix fitted for a User R
Version.

I do not find anything direct in that matter in the R docs.

Thank you for your support.

Best regards,

Maciej Nasinski
University of Warsaw

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