[R-sig-Debian] Is r2u at 3.4.1? [branch about handling package collisions under Ubuntu/Debian]

[Chris Evans]

Just to clarify the record: this branched thread is nothing to do with r2u

(but I'm definitely coming back to that later, but a new thread I think!)

On 24/08/2023 02:14, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> Chris,
>
> This got a little long so I'll chop a few things down.
>
> On 22 August 2023 at 19:38, Chris Evans wrote:
> | On 16/08/2023 00:06, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> | >
> | > That can happen, and pinning can help. I would suggest to look at 'apt-cache
> | > polict nameofthepackagehere'. (See below for concrete example.)
> |
> | So I try this.
> |
> | root using Clevo2:/media/chris/Clevo_SSD2/Data/MyR/R/distill_blog/test2/_posts#
> | apt-cache policy libmagick++-dev
> | libmagick++-dev:
> |    Installed: (none)
> |    Candidate: 8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3ubuntu0.22.04.3+esm2
> |    Version table:
> |       8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3ubuntu0.22.04.3+esm2 500
> |          500 https://esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu jammy-apps-security/main
> | amd64 Packages
> |          500 https://esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu jammy-apps-security/main
> | i386 Packages
> |       8:6.9.11.60+dfsg-1.3build2 500
> |          500 http://mirror.infomaniak.ch/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64
> | Packages
> |          500 http://mirror.infomaniak.ch/ubuntu jammy/universe i386 Packages
>
> This shows you two sources supplying libmagick++-dev: one from esm.ubuntu.com
> security updates. That is fine.  The other is an add-on repo, just like r2u.

Oddly enough, it's not really that.  It's my local official repository 
which
I selected using the "select nearest" months ago.  I assume it has 
slipped out
of synch with the main Ubuntu repositories hence my mess. Encouraged by your
message to see (what was perhaps obvious) I reset my repository to the main
one and a did apt-get update and apt-get upgrade which pulled a huge number
of updates.  Then apt-get install libmagick++-dev worked fine.

> But we cannot limitlessly combine those. r2u assume "everything else" comes
> from the standard repos and tries to (and succeeds, generally) in working
> with it. So here, for now, I would point at mirror.infomaniak.ch/ubuntu as a
> likely source of your troubles.
Clearly absolutely correct.  What's a bit worrying to me is that an
apparently official repository can get so out of synch with no more
human friendly alerts than my problem with magick!  I had seen using
the nearest repository as being a good citizen but now I can see it
can bite you.

Oddly enough the concern about "limitlessly combine" add repositories has
been a concern of mine about r2u.  I have felt in a bind with this whole
issue of repositories and packaging as I find I now have programs I use
a lot some that I can only compile myself (very rare), some that Ubuntu
installs (I think) as snaps (which I don't much like), some (notably
NextCloud) which seem to only promote flatpak (which I don't much like)
but are available in the main Ubuntu repository and in snap and some,
like r2u, which recommend adding a repository ... which I generally see
as better than compiling, snap or flatpak BUT which I know risks creating
package version locks.  At some point I want to go through 
/etc/apt/sources.list.d
and work out what I have and try to work out why and what should perhaps go.

[snipping the rest as the key issues for me are now all solved with your 
help:
hugely grateful.  I will run things as they are for a few days/weeks 
(and, I
hope, sort out an unconnected problem with a distill blog and git repository
in R!  Then I will feel that I have the system stable and will be back 
to the
questions about r2u.]

-- 
Chris Evans (he/him)
Visiting Professor, UDLA, Quito, Ecuador & Honorary Professor, 
University of Roehampton, London, UK.
Work web site: https://www.psyctc.org/psyctc/
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(Beware: French time, generally an hour ahead of UK)
<https://ombook.psyctc.org/book>