[R] Ubuntu and R

[Chris Lawrence]

On 2/16/06, Clint Harshaw <charshaw at presby.edu> wrote:
> I've recently installed Ubuntu 5.10 on a desktop and need R installed,
> however, even after uncommenting the repos associated with universe,
> backports and multiverse, the packages available for Ubuntu are somewhat
> out of date:
>
> clint at simba:~$ apt-cache policy r-base r-base-core
> r-base:
>    Installed: (none)
>    Candidate: 2.1.1-1
>    Version table:
>       2.1.1-1 0
>          500 http://archive.ubuntu.com breezy/universe Packages
> r-base-core:
>    Installed: (none)
>    Candidate: 2.1.1-1
>    Version table:
>       2.1.1-1 0
>          500 http://archive.ubuntu.com breezy/universe Packages
>
> How should I edit my /etc/apt/sources.list so that I can proplery
> maintain a current version of R, and not break my system? I've searched
> the forums at Ubuntu, and there are several similar requests there, but
> no definitive answer that I found.
>
> What are other Ubuntu users here doing to keep their version of R fresh?

I suspect the 2.2.x packages from Debian testing and/or unstable would
run fine on breezy (I don't think there's been any libc6 changes that
would affect things); you could always rebuild from the Debianized
sources for Ubuntu if they don't.

You could use apt pins to make sure that only the R packages from
Debian are pulled in, if you want to use apt to keep it up to date
from Debian's archive.

Something like the following in /etc/apt/preferences should work:

Package: r-*
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: 500

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: -1

Then add a line for the Debian mirror of your choice to
/etc/apt/sources.list, using either testing or unstable as your
release.


Chris