[R-sig-Debian] Help for sources.list

[(Ted Harding)]

On 05-Jun-10 14:34:24, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> 
> Ted,
> 
> On 5 June 2010 at 14:23, (Ted Harding) wrote:
>| Greetings!
>| I would be very grateful if someone could supply a suitable
>| line to enter into /etc/apt/sources.list for the benefit of
>| a complete dummy user (i.e. me -- I do not want to have to
>| do any interpretation, guesswork, reading of docs, etc.;
>| I want to just copy it in).
>| 
>| The machine in question is an Intel laptop, wuth Debian Lenny
>| (according to the Debian website the current stable version
>| as of 12 Feb 2010). The current contents of /etc/apt/sources.list
>| are:
>| =======
>| deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
>| deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
>| 
>| deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
>| deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib
>| non-free
>| 
>| deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
>| deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
>| 
>| deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org lenny main
>| =======
>| 
>| I had not been using this machine for running R, until I tried it
>| yesterday and was shocked to find that the R version installed is
>| 
>|   R 2.7.1 (2008-06-23)
>| 
>| compared with the version I have on my regular machine, which is
>| R 2.11.0 (2010-04-22). Then I was shocked, on visiting the Debian
>| Lenny webpage, to find that the currently held version of R is
> 
> What part of "stable" is unclear?  When you opt for "stable", you ask
> Debian
> not to change your packages.
> 
> So remarking that it doesn't update your R package, or preferred
> editor, or
> whatever, is inconsistent with what _you_ have chosen. A _stable_
> selection
> of packages.  I am not a native speaker of English but stable seems to
> imply
> 'does not change' reasonably well.  
> 
> So I am puzzled why this is so hard to explain.
> 
> Now, maybe you are complaining that Debian has too few releases which
> is a
> different matter and requires a bit more of a meta-discussion.  Too
> many,
> Ubuntu is a reasonable compromise between stability and bi-annual
> updates. I
> use it myself, but I also use (and like) Debian testing. It depends.
> 
> But by choosing Lenny you got what you asked for.  Now, as you asked,
> ...
> 
>| the same as the above: "2.7.1-1+lenny" for all the basic R packages.
>| No wonder I have not been getting updates!
>| 
>| I am located in the UK.
>| 
>| What should I put in /etc/apt/sources.list ? (Maybe more than one
>| line, if that would be relevant to installing/updating a variety
>| of R packages).
> 
> It is all documented, and a Google search for 'debian lenny R package'
> gets
> me there as a first hit. See the bin/linux/debian/ directory of any
> CRAN
> mirror.
> 
> There are occassional mistakes (as Michael Friendly recently noticed)
> but the
> page makes an earnest attempt at documenting this so I won't repeat it
> here.
> If you have suggestions to make it clearer, please let Johannes or us
> know.
> 
> This also gets discussed here regularly so you may find looking at the
> list
> archives beneficial.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> -- 
>   Regards, Dirk

Duncan, I am sorry but your reply is of no help at all.
Goodbye.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 05-Jun-10                                       Time: 16:03:52
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