[R-sig-Debian] R 2.4 needed for packages in testing _now_?

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Tyler,

On 4 October 2006 at 21:04, Tyler Smith wrote:
| Hi,
| 
| I'm running testing, freshly updated, and I've now got a version of MASS 
| installed that depends on R >=2.4.

Yup -- my mistake.  I updated all (my Debian-maintained) packages from CRAN
the day they came out using the 2.4.0 release candidates and a Depends: of
the form (>> 2.3.1) and I misunderstood that 2.3.1-$x would satisfy it for
any value of $x.  

Meaning that the packages would not be blocked from going to testing, and
hence creating the problem you (and possibly others) are now seeing before R
2.4.0 gets into testing.

| How long until 2.4 gets into testing, and is there anything I can do in the
| meantime to correct this?

The are two basic ways: "backwards" and "forwards":

-- backwards by fetching the previous r-cran-vr package (providing MASS) from
   snaphot.debian.net via this /etc/apt/sources.list line:
         deb http://snapshot.debian.net/archive pool vr
   or directly from 
         http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2006/05/18/debian/pool/main/v/vr/
   for the May release

-- forwards by using the R 2.4.0 from unstable -- it runs fine on testing
   The most 'high-end' solution is apt-get using pinning as described
   in package apt-howto-en leading to
         # apt-get -t unstable install r-base-core

I'd go with the second solution but if you find it confusing or suspect,
please try the first.

My aplogies for upsetting your Debian system, and creating extra work. That
wasn't the intend, but I hope I learned how to avoid it come R 2.4.1, 2.5.0,
... and other versions.  

Cheers, Dirk
 
-- 
Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something. 
                                                  -- Thomas A. Edison