[Rd] Cannot install dplyr

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Adam,

This can indeed be very frustrating.  But depending on the choices you make
it does not have to be that way.  Most Linux distributions have 'something'
it may not be comprehensive or current. So most of the time you need to be
able to compile from source. Which is not that hard, and can be
learned. Maybe there is a user group near you.

Otherwise and not so well known is that Michael Rutter is (single-handedly)
keeping an effort we once called 'cran2deb' alive (in what we could call the
third iteration of this; I had been involved in some earlier ones [1]).

So if you run Ubuntu LTS you get over 4,000 CRAN packages ready-made.  But
you should really run Ubuntu LTS (currently 18.04) or a compatiable release
(ie a new Ubuntu release).

That maybe be best seen rather than read so to complement earlier blog posts
I made a video showing how even installation of the entire tidyverse (and its
80+ packages including dplyr), or rstan (which is also heavy 'from source'
due to loads of C++ compilation), boils down to a single command (!!) and a
mere two minutes of automated downloading and unpackaging.  See

   http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2019/06/09#022_rocker_and_ppas

for a few slides and a link to the video you could also jump at directly at

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIjWirNma-8

Having something like this _comprehensively_ across a few distros is clearly
needed.

But the only active effort I know of appears to be an RStudio effort related
to their their (commercial only, AFAIK) package manager.  Needless to say, I
would much rather have this as an open community effort, but sadly, wishing
alone does not make it so. [1]

Dirk

   
[1] And one potential implementation effort was halted when the R Consortium
ISC lead decided it was better to withdraw the grant they had given me (as
PI) and a few others than to further support the effort.  

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd using debian.org