[R-pkg-devel] Update timing of machines on CRAN?

On 12/4/23 15:44, SHIMA Tatsuya wrote:

Thanks for your answer.

Unlike Windows Server, which has a long support period, Fedora's
support period is usually about one year, so it is surprising that the
old Fedora continues to be used.
And, unlike Windows, Linux uses the distribution standard packages for
builds, which causes problems like the current Fedora machine that
continues to use the old Rust.

The configuration currently at different CRAN machines is just a sample
of what your users might have, just an example of a setting packages
should be able to deal with. Some users might also still have FC36, some
might have another Linux distribution (possibly still supported), which
has older software than that.

I wouldn't recommend spending time tracking which version of which
software CRAN systems currently happen to have, but rather making sure
packages can deal with different versions (possibly with some in a
restricted way, possibly making some hard requirements when necessary).

Best
Tomas

Hope to see an update soon. Thanks to the staff for maintaining the
infrastructure.

Best,
Tatsuya

On 2023/12/01 23:43, Uwe Ligges wrote:

On 01.12.2023 13:28, SHIMA Tatsuya wrote:

Hi,

I maintain the prqlr package that uses rustc for compiling, so I
regularly check the version of Rust on CRAN.
And I have noticed that the Rust version of Fedora has been stagnant
for the past few months and was wondering why, but upon
investigation I realized that this is because Fedora on CRAN is
currently Fedora 36 (out of support in May).
<https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_flavors.html>

It was quite a surprise to me that out of support Fedora is being
used, but what is the normal cycle for machines on CRAN to be
updated? And do we have any way of knowing that schedule?

It depends on the maintainer who cares about these machine, the
institution where it is hosted, the availability of technical staff,
and the technical pressure.

I could not even say when the machines I maintain will be updated.
On one version of the retired winbuilder severs we kept the same OS
version for almost 10 years.

Best,
Uwe Ligges

Best,
Tatsuya