[R-sig-Fedora] [Fedora-r-devel-list] Re: R-devel going away

[George N. White III]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 3:41 PM, José Matos <jamatos at fc.up.pt> wrote:

> On Thursday 23 October 2008 19:22:07 James Antill wrote:
>>  Well it kinda fits the "people expect foo-core + additions" _assuming_
>> CRAN is a requirement, but really why don't we just package more of the
>> R modules so CRAN usage isn't a requirement?
>
> There are more than 1500 modules (the have been growing at an exponential rate
> in the last years). So while we would like to see more R packages in Fedora in
> are not even near to have a reasonable subset of R packaged.
>
> So for the moment CRAN is really a requirement to use R in Fedora.

There have always been conflicts between the CRAN package system and
Fedora or other linux packaging Guidelines.   Users can install CRAN packages
without root privileges, but then the search function won't know about the
user's packages, and packages that rely on other library (gsl, hdf5, etc)
still need -dev RPM's.   Linux distros should not be trying to enforce
guidelines
for mainstream packages with their own robust package management and
archive networks.  Instead, they should look for ways to improve support
for users who rely on those 3rd party systems.  For example:

R-base: basic runtime without dev dependencies, for sites that provide binary
CRAN packages (e.g., on a shared directory) so users don't need to do compiles.

R-core: R-base + -dev dependencies for those who want to install source packages
from CRAN (e.g., most individual R users)

R-X-sup(plement): -dev dependencies needed to build package X (e.g.,
R-hdf5-sup requires hdf5-dev for the hdf5 package from CRAN, gsl-dev
for gsl, etc.).  These aren't strictly necessary, but would serve to
link package versions on CRAN with the versions of the support libs in
Fed,
something that can take some effort (e.g., peeking in the sources) to
determine.   For sites
where users need to ask admins to install libraries, this simplifies
the problem of telling the admin which libs to install.

In the long run, linux distros should look at devising ways to capture
information from these
3rd party package managers to help resolve dependencies automatically.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia