[rkward-devel] R backports on launchpad

[Vincent Goulet]

Hi Thomas,

I had a quick look to the PPA system and, indeed, it does not seem to be a lot of additional work to support.

However, I don't really see the benefit compared to what we already provide on CRAN, namely:

o R binaries on many Ubuntu releases, on i386 and amd64. Launchpad may support more old Ubuntu releases, but chances are the packages will not build on those. I myself stopped supporting Dapper about a year ago because the work/benefit ratio was way too high. The current sources will just not build on Dapper. All other releases currently officially supported by Ubuntu, we support too;

o binary packages for RKWard, whenever possible. Right now, we have version 0.5.2 for Hardy through Karmic;

o binaries for a few other packages; see the list in the Ubuntu README on CRAN.

I think the current situation is clear for R users on Ubuntu: add a CRAN mirror to your list of repositories and you'll get the latest R and a few key associated packages automagically through apt-get dist-upgrade. I don,t really see the benefit, for these users, to have another source for binaries. As for RKWard, we try to rebuild every time a new version enters Debian unstable.

Please also consider that I build these R packages solely as a service to the community. I no longer use Ubuntu myself on any of my computers (Macs for desktop, Debian stable for servers)! I took quite some time to write build scripts to automate most of the process and I'm getting ever more resistant to change as time goes by. You may find my scripts useful, though; see https://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca/svn/R/cran-ubuntu/.

Best regards,


Vincent Goulet
École d'actuariat, Université Laval

Le mar. 27 avr. à 05:00, Thomas Friedrichsmeier a écrit :

> Dear Vincent Goulet, dear Michael Rutter,
> 
> I'm writing to you as the maintainers of the R-backports for Ubuntu on CRAN.
> 
> In the RKWard project, we are currently looking for a workable option for 
> creating binary packages of development snapshots more often. launchpad.net 
> offers "Personal Package Archives" (PPA) which allow to build and distribute 
> .deb packages for all supported Ubuntu series, and i386 and amd64 
> architectures.
> 
> We would also like to offer packages of RKWard built against the most recent 
> backports of R to older Ubuntu series. Launchpad supports custom dependencies 
> like these, as long as the packages are available somewhere on launchpad, 
> either in the "official" Ubuntu series, or in another PPA.
> 
> PPAs are remarkably easy to set up and use, and thus I would like to ask you 
> to consider uploading your packages to a PPA, in addition to the CRAN. This 
> would allow us - and potentially other projects - to make use of your 
> backports very easily.
> 
> In case this is not entirely out of the question, here is a list of the steps 
> involved:
> 1) Register an account at launchpad: https://login.launchpad.net/+new_account
> 2) Register your GPG-key
> 3) Sign the "Ubuntu code of conduct": https://launchpad.net/codeofconduct
> 4) Register the PPA
> 5) Upload using dput: https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA/Uploading
> 
> Thank you for your time, and of course for your backporting work!
> 
> Regards
> Thomas Friedrichsmeier