As both you and Dirk have made considerable contributions to the R project, although in different contexts, I will try to smooth out some of the wrinkles in the communication. The thing to realize is that the Debian packages for R on the Debian archives are updated only when a new release of Debian is prepared, and that is infrequent. On the other hand the Debian packages for R on the CRAN archives are updated frequently. It is not uncommon to have them updated within a few hours of a new release of R.
This is why many respondents have suggested something like the explanation at http://cran.uk.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian which says, in effect, that you should add the line deb http://cran.uk.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian lenny-cran/ to your sources.list file. On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 10:07 AM, Ted Harding <[email protected]> wrote: > On 05-Jun-10 15:03:55, Ted Harding wrote: >> On 05-Jun-10 14:34:24, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote: >>> >>> Ted, >>> >>> On 5 June 2010 at 14:23, (Ted Harding) wrote: >>>| Greetings! >>>| I would be very grateful if someone could supply a suitable >>>| line to enter into /etc/apt/sources.list for the benefit of >>>| a complete dummy user (i.e. me -- I do not want to have to >>>| do any interpretation, guesswork, reading of docs, etc.; >>>| I want to just copy it in). >>>| >>>| The machine in question is an Intel laptop, wuth Debian Lenny >>>| (according to the Debian website the current stable version >>>| as of 12 Feb 2010). The current contents of /etc/apt/sources.list >>>| are: >>>| ======= >>>| deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free >>>| deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free >>>| >>>| deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free >>>| deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib >>>| non-free >>>| >>>| deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main >>>| deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile >>>| main >>>| >>>| deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org lenny main >>>| ======= >>>| >>>| I had not been using this machine for running R, until I tried it >>>| yesterday and was shocked to find that the R version installed is >>>| >>>| R 2.7.1 (2008-06-23) >>>| >>>| compared with the version I have on my regular machine, which is >>>| R 2.11.0 (2010-04-22). Then I was shocked, on visiting the Debian >>>| Lenny webpage, to find that the currently held version of R is >>> >>> What part of "stable" is unclear? When you opt for "stable", you ask >>> Debian >>> not to change your packages. >>> >>> So remarking that it doesn't update your R package, or preferred >>> editor, or >>> whatever, is inconsistent with what _you_ have chosen. A _stable_ >>> selection >>> of packages. I am not a native speaker of English but stable seems to >>> imply >>> 'does not change' reasonably well. >>> >>> So I am puzzled why this is so hard to explain. >>> >>> Now, maybe you are complaining that Debian has too few releases which >>> is a >>> different matter and requires a bit more of a meta-discussion. Too >>> many, >>> Ubuntu is a reasonable compromise between stability and bi-annual >>> updates. I >>> use it myself, but I also use (and like) Debian testing. It depends. >>> >>> But by choosing Lenny you got what you asked for. Now, as you asked, >>> ... >>> >>>| the same as the above: "2.7.1-1+lenny" for all the basic R packages. >>>| No wonder I have not been getting updates! >>>| >>>| I am located in the UK. >>>| >>>| What should I put in /etc/apt/sources.list ? (Maybe more than one >>>| line, if that would be relevant to installing/updating a variety >>>| of R packages). >>> >>> It is all documented, and a Google search for 'debian lenny R package' >>> gets >>> me there as a first hit. See the bin/linux/debian/ directory of any >>> CRAN >>> mirror. >>> >>> There are occassional mistakes (as Michael Friendly recently noticed) >>> but the >>> page makes an earnest attempt at documenting this so I won't repeat it >>> here. >>> If you have suggestions to make it clearer, please let Johannes or us >>> know. >>> >>> This also gets discussed here regularly so you may find looking at the >>> list >>> archives beneficial. >>> >>> Good luck. >>> >>> -- >>> Regards, Dirk >> >> Duncan, I am sorry but your reply is of no help at all. >> Goodbye. > > I meant "Dirk". > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[email protected]> > Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 > Date: 05-Jun-10 Time: 16:07:18 > ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > R-SIG-Debian mailing list > [email protected] > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian > _______________________________________________ R-SIG-Debian mailing list [email protected] https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian
