[R-sig-Debian] R-SIG-Debian Digest, Vol 152, Issue 4

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On 13 May 2018 at 09:03, Bill Harris wrote:
| In these interesting times, I think you're saying that things will resolve
| themselves at some point, but we're in a transition.  I see a number of
| postings on Ubuntu, but I'm on Debian Stretch, trying to figure out the
| safest way to go.  Does something like this make sense:
| 
| 
|    1. aptitude safe-upgrade should be safe: there won't be any 3.5.0 Debian
|    packages coming through until the environment is ready for them to come
|    through (which most likely means that base R and other Stretch R packages
|    are upgraded to 3.5.0?)..

Unsure.

You did not specify if you look only at Debian distro repositories, or if you
include the backports managed by Johannes (which should be safe he plays
along with the r-api-3.5 tag).

|    2. update.packages() inside R is /not/ safe, because it could pick up
|    problematic packages from CRAN that aren't under your control.

I actually take the opposite view.

I am comfortable compiling from source, so this mode happens to be my
default. I use the littler scripts install.r and update.r _all the time_ to
install / update.

|    3. install.packages() inside R is /not/ safe, for the same reason.

That seems to be the same as 2. so ...

|    4. A prominent note will be posted here, when these two restrictions are
|    removed.
| 
| Are those true statements?  Would steps 2 and 3 work if the packages don't
| require compiled C++ code?  If so, is there a way to tell which packages
| are at risk without memorizing what seems like a very long list?
| 
| If we (think we) need a new package we don't currently have installed, are
| we out of luck until 3.5.0 is officially released in Stretch?

Again, "pure Debian" or "Debian plus CRAN repos" ?
 
| Is there a place where an official summary of the state of the R system on
| Stretch is maintained?
| 
| I've tried to scan this list, but I may well have missed the answers to my
| questions about Stretch.

We're volunteers so something may always fall short somewhere. Documentation
is always a good candidate.  Contributions are always welcome.

Dirk

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org