[Rd] Idea for install.packages on (certain) linux distributions

[Uwe Ligges]

On 01.03.2010 16:33, Carlos J. Gil Bellosta wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I do not know whether this idea would be considered useful or not. Or
> easy to implement.
>
> But it is the case that on certain Linux distributions there are OS
> packages with precompiled R packages. However, install.packages (and
> related functions) download the source ones.
>
> Would it be possible to add an extra "repository" (or option) on
> install.packages that would direct R to use the OS level package manager
> (apt-get, yum or the like) so as to install the precompiled packages
> from the distribution mirrors instead of the CRAN ones?

Beside the problem that there are several distributions with different 
OS level package managers that are not part of R, we can not guarantee 
that the relevant repositories are up to date (which we can control for 
CRAN, for example).

We have even discussed if it makes sense to provide Windows binary 
packages without compiled code through CRAN further on given that it is 
easily possible to install them from sources (even on Windows).

Best wishes,
Uwe Ligges



> Best regards,
>
> Carlos J. Gil Bellosta
> http://www.datanalytics.com
>
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