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

[(Ted Harding)]

On 05-Jun-10 15:03:55, Ted Harding wrote:
> 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.

I meant "Dirk".

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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: 16:07:18
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