After Johannes set up the CRAN repository for Jessie, I had quite some
trouble figuring out what any user should do to have a running and
up-to-date R in Debian (particularly Testing). Part of the problem is, I
think, the overwhelming documentation on the page "DEBIAN PACKAGES OF R
SOFTWARE" which is provided on CRAN at /bin/linux/debian. Some information
is also lacking in places.
So here are a few suggestions to try to arrange this page. The main one is
actually a reorganization of the whole page, which should make it easier
from a user perspective. Note that I think all information I added is
correct, but it might not be entirely accurate.
I think the page in itself would benefit largely from the inclusion of a
table of contents (with links to sections). With the page reorganized, that
would follow this:
INSTALLATION
ADMINISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE
PATHWAYS TO R PACKAGES
BACKPORTS ON CRAN
SUPPORTED PACKAGES
DEBIAN WHEEZY (STABLE)
DEBIAN JESSIE (TESTING)
DEBIAN SQUEEZE (OLD STABLE)
DEBIAN SID (UNSTABLE)
SECURE APT
SUPPORTED PLATFORMS
REPORTING PROBLEMS
BACKPORTING FOR DEBIAN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I added at the bottom of this message a few modifications of some of these
(sub-)sections. The vast majority of the information is already there, so
these are really minor changes, except for the Jessie sub-section.
Hope this helps,
Mathieu.
==========================================================================
INSTALLATION
With an appropriate entry in /etc/apt/sources.list *(see below according to
the branch of Debian used)*, the newest R release *including recommended
packages* can be installed using a command sequence like
SUPPORTED PACKAGES
[Remove:] r-cran-rmatrix
DEBIAN JESSIE (TESTING)
As of end of January 2015, there is a new repository containing binaries
for Jessie (current testing). This repository hosts all supported packages
presented above, and is updated upon new R releases.
To use R supported packages on Debian Jessie, simply add something like
deb http://<favorite-cran-mirror>/bin/linux/debian jessie-cran3/
to the file /etc/apt/sources.list on your computer. You need to substitute
<favorite-cran-mirror> by one of the mirror URLs listed in
http://cran.r-project.org/mirrors.html
Alternatively, it is possible to use APT-pining to install only R-related
packages from SID using Debian official repositories (/!\ Warning: should
be reserved to advanced users already familiar with pining their Debian
system). Simply add the supported packages (and other r-cran-* of interest)
in /etc/apt/preferences with a priority greater or equal than the priority
of regular testing packages:
Package: r-base r-base-core r-base-dev r-recommended r-cran-boot
r-cran-cluster r-cran-class r-cran-codetools r-cran-foreign
r-cran-kernsmooth r-cran-lattice r-cran-mass r-cran-matrix r-cran-mgcv
r-cran-nlme r-cran-nnet r-cran-rpart r-cran-spatial r-cran-survival littler
r-cran-rodbc python-rpy python-rpy2 rkward r-cran-jags r-cran-coda
Pin: release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian
Pin-Priority: 900
DEBIAN SID (UNSTABLE)
The latest stable versions of R and R packages are readily available in
official Debian SID repositories.