[R-sig-Debian] "Debain" way of installing packages

[Gorjanc Gregor]

Hello!

> ----Original Message-----
> From: Dirk Eddelbuettel [mailto:edd at debian.org]
> Sent: sre 2005-04-27 02:35
> To: Gorjanc Gregor
> Cc: r-sig-debian at r-project.org; pkg-bioc-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org; Chris Lawrence
> Subject: RE: [R-sig-Debian] "Debain" way of installing packages
>  
> On 26 April 2005 at 12:11, Gorjanc Gregor wrote:
> | > properly, which is why I think the high-end solution is to provide a robust
> | > script, maybe with a db backend, that debianises what is on CRAN -- similar
> | What do you mean by a db (I suppose databse) backend, that debianises ...?
> 
> Yes, to keep track of versions, of what has been packaged, of meta data as
> e.g. mapping of package names between Debian and CRAN, of exceptions (CRAN is
> somwhat more lenient with licenses) etc pp.  "Debianising" is stateful, so we
> need memory. Flat files may well do for the time being before we switch to an
> actual db (which may just be sqlite, ie a binary file as backend).
OK, I see. It's clearer to me now. Thanks!

> | If I understand you propose to debianize all R packages and then simply use
> | apt-get. This would probably be the easisest way, however only if this is really
> | achivable. My help on debianization can be very small since I have never tried
> | to do that, but I am willing to learn and help.
> | 
> | If previous is true, you think that some sort script I proposed is not OK for
> | mixing?
> 
> We actually have scripts that "work", they simply need testing, extending and
> polishing. If you register yourself on alioth.d.o, you can check it out of
> the archive and play with it.
I will try that and play with scripts. However my idea was to provide apt-get 
within R i.e. through "debian.install.packages" or something like that. What
do you think about that feature? It would be nice to have since we can have
all packages debianized, but if someone uses install.packages then ... However,
it is truth that Debian packages will be loaded first, since its lib is by
default before R packages installed by install.packages. Am I right?

> | What is the case with Windows? Do you mean build of binary packages for Windows
> | or what?
> 
> That was just an example as CRAN provides binaries for Windows. My medium to
> longer-term vision is binaries for Debian and its derivative distros.
How does Uwe Ligges perform all those binary builds for Windows?

Regards, Gregor