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

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

A good debugging strategy is to simplify first. Concentrate on apt-get alone.  

I.e. after editing sources.list and running 'sudo apt-get update' (ie I do
not talk about aptitude, synaptic or other front-ends but apt) try 'apt-cache
policy r-base-core'.  On my Ubuntu box this shows

edd at joe:~$ apt-cache policy r-base-core
r-base-core:
  Installed: 2.11.0-1karmic0
  Candidate: 2.11.0-1karmic0
  Version table:
 *** 2.11.0-1karmic0 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.10.1-2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/universe Packages
edd at joe:~$ 

indicating that I have 2.11.0 (tagged Karmic, guess I need to point to lucid)
installed and that it also sees 2.10.1 from Ubuntu.


On my Debian "testing" box it is more complicated 

edd at ron:~$ apt-cache policy r-base-core
r-base-core:
  Installed: 2.11.0-2
  Candidate: 2.11.0-2
  Version table:
     2.11.1-2 0
         -1 http://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Packages
         -1 http://max.nulle.part unstable/ Packages
     2.11.1-1~lennycran.0 0
        500 http://cran.us.r-project.org lenny-cran/ Packages
 *** 2.11.0-2 0
        990 http://ftp.us.debian.org testing/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
edd at ron:~$ 

The first two are 'unstable' which I listed too, but have barred from
installed. [ That is called 'pinning' and a topic for another day; Liviu is
an expert. ] The second one is my local archive from my actual package
maintenance.  

It then shows lenny-cran (your darling) as well as the normal package from
testing. 

You should get something closer to the first display. It is this display that
we need to debug.  The rest is just wrappers and GUIs.

-- 
  Regards, Dirk