[R-sig-Debian] Upgrading 2.15.3 to 3.0.x on Debian Squeeze?

[Bill Harris]

Johannes Ranke <jranke at uni-bremen.de> writes:

>> - http://cran.us.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/ says I should run
>>   "`dpkg -get-selections | grep r-cran` and compare with the list of
>>   packages supported below."  I've done that, but I don't know what to
>>   do with that knowledge: do I `aptitude remove` all of those packages
>>   /not/ listed below or do something else?
>
> Well these are the packages that will not work after the upgrade to R
> 3.0.x. You can leave them on your system, but I would recommend to
> remove them and install them from within R using install.packages() 
> after the upgrade. But just to be clear: you do not need to remove those
> that are in the list of supported packages in the README as these will
> be upgraded together with base R.

I used synaptic to tell me which Debian packages came from r-cran, and I
tried deleting them in synaptic.  I did not delete those that also
wanted to delete r-base, but I forgot to pay attention to the list of
packages that are available in the Debian cran3 archive.  

Then I updated the sources list and did a safe-upgrade.  I think that
process may have left most or all of the packages in place that the
safe-upgrade could fix, but it won't seem to matter.

>> - http://www.r-bloggers.com/upgrading-r-and-packages/ suggests a script
>>   that updates installed packages.  I've used that on minor upgrades on
>>   XP successfully.  I don't see documentation that suggests it's needed
>>   for major upgrades or perhaps on Linux.
>
> I do not think that this is helpful, unless the number of R packages
> installed stemming from Debian squeeze is large.

Are the instructions the same for Windows?

>> Is this a fairly foolproof upgrade?  Minor upgrades have certainly
>> seemed simple on both Linux and Windows.
>
> I have upgraded painlessly using this approach, but it would be nice to 
> hear about your experiences.

It seems to have worked well.  I wonder if you could also say "Delete
any packages using synaptic or aptitude /except/ for those which want to
delete r-base, as well"?

Bill
-- 
Bill Harris                  
Facilitated Systems
http://makingsense.facilitatedsystems.com/