[R-sig-Debian] Request for jags package to be added to CRAN Debian/Ubuntu archives

[Michael Rutter]

On 04/18/2011 10:14 AM, Douglas Bates wrote:
> May I request that Dirk's package for jags be added to the CRAN
> archives for Debian and Ubuntu?
>
> Installing the rjags package for R requires specific versions of jags
> to be present on the system.  The current version of rjags requires
> jags version 2.2.0 or later but the version on the Ubuntu archives at
> Canonical (i.e. not the CRAN archives) is 2.1.0-2
>
> I can always install Dirk's package on packages.debian.org but it
> would be handy to have a version for Ubuntu.
>

Doug,

(As is Dirk's habit, he answers an email about the same time I am 
writing mine :).  Here it is anyway)

You can find the latest version of jags (as well as coda, rjags, r2jags, 
and r2winbugs) at my Launchpad PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~marutter/+archive/rrutter

To add the PPA, use:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:marutter/rrutter

This PPA is now used to seed CRAN, so any package found on CRAN for 
Ubuntu first appears on this PPA, then is mirrored to CRAN 12 to 24 
hours later.

My goal this summer is to make more R-related Ubuntu packages available 
via PPA.  The original plan was to keep CRAN as a location for the base 
and recommended packages with the PPA as the location for other 
packages.  This will allow for what I think are three levels of R 
'usage' in Ubuntu.

1.  The stable approach of using the packages released by Canonical 
whenever a new version of Ubuntu is released.

2.  By adding CRAN, stable updates to R and the recommended packages 
will be available via apt/synaptic.

3.  By adding a PPA or two, you will receive alphas and betas of R as 
well as updates to some non-recommended packages (with more to come in 
the future) via apt/synaptic.

Maybe we need to expand what is available on CRAN?  One thought I had 
was to get the packages listed in the "CRAN Task Views" all available at 
least via PPA.  Would those make sense on CRAN as well?

Michael

-- 
Dr. Michael A. Rutter
School of Science
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Station Road
Erie, PA 16563
http://math.bd.psu.edu/faculty/rutter