[R-sig-Debian] Can't install R 2.15 and r-recommended on Ubuntu

[Kirill Müller]

On 11/07/2013 04:12 PM, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> On 7 November 2013 at 15:02, Kirill Müller wrote:
> | On 11/07/2013 02:52 PM, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> | > What does, say, 'apt-cache policy r-recommended' say?
> | It aims at installing the most recent version, I guess. I have fired up
>
> Let me try again: when you run 'apt-cache policy r-recommended', does it show
> you a version 2.15, and if so, does it have the particular version.release
> you specified?  If it exists, you need to work with apt documentation to see
> how to override the preference for a different (higher) version.
The particular call returns the following on the test system:

r-recommended:
   Installed: (none)
   Candidate: 3.0.2-1precise0
   Version table:
      3.0.2-1precise0 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
         500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/marutter/rrutter/ubuntu/ 
precise/main amd64 Packages
      3.0.1-6precise0 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      3.0.1-5precise0 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      3.0.1-3precise 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      3.0.1-1precise0precise2 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      3.0.1-1precise0 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      3.0.0-2precise 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      2.15.3-1precise0precise1 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      2.15.2-1precise0 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      2.15.1-1precise2 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      2.15.0-1precise0 0
         500 http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu/ precise/ Packages
      2.14.1-1 0
         500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe amd64 
Packages

The package.version I have requested (=2.15.3-1precise0precise1) is 
available. However, the dependencies in r-recommended only state a 
minimum version of the dependent packages. Also, when I look at 
`apt-cache show r-cran-mass=7.3-26-1raring0` (the oldest version in 
CRAN), it tells me that it depends on r-base-core (>= 3.0.0-2raring). So 
it wouldn't even work in theory.

Is it possible to arrange to always keep, for each R version available 
in the Ubuntu archive, the most recent version of each "recommended" 
package?

> It should work in theory as you showed, but I a) never had a need for that
> and never done it and b) don't know anybody else who did.
Thanks for your feedback.


-Kirill