R devel - Apr 2024 - R 4.4.0 has version of Matrix 1.7-0, but it's not available on CRAN

>>>>> G?bor Cs?rdi 
>>>>>     on Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:55:36 +0200 writes:
    > I don't know if this is a bug, but it is certainly weird. AFAICT R
    > 4.4.0 has Matrix 1.7-0.

Yes, it *is* available from CRAN:  You can see it when looking into the

4.4.0/           , specifically the
4.4.0/Recommended/ sub directory.

Recommended packages should be built as part of R
unless *you* really want to *not* get them by choosing at
configure time, not to get them via extra flag
  --without-recommended-packages.

So, well, you got what you wanted.

    > However, currently CRAN has

    > Package: Matrix
    > Version: 1.6-5
    > Priority: recommended
    > Depends: R (>= 3.5.0), methods
    > ...

Yes, because it has to provide Matrix to R versions before 4.4.0
and Matrix 1.7-0 has  'Depends: R (>= 4.4.0)'

    > (plus another version for R >= 4.5.0 only).

    > Which has some weird consequences, e.g. if I have an R 4.4.0
    > installation without the recommended packages, 

(why would you explicitly choose *not* to have the
 recommended packages when they *are* recommended .. :-b )

    > I don't have a way of  installing Matrix 1.7-0. 

That's not true (see above), but it maybe true that
install.packages() does not work directly -- I guess you
should get it to work with correct function arguments;
if not, you'd definitely have found a missing feature...
.. *and* Rstudio button clicking works even less, because it does
not allow to specify the install.packages() call.

.. and yes, ideally install.packages() would be smart enough to
figure that Matrix is recommended *and* that it should therefore
try the same location ( ./4.4.0/Recommended/ in this case) as
R's own  tools/rsync-recommended  script does.

Finally, I'd think it definitely would be nice for
install.packages("Matrix") to automatically get the correct
Matrix version from CRAN ... so we (R-core) would be grateful
for a patch to install.packages() to achieve this  (unless that
patch is too large or too much involved for reliable
maintenance).

Martin
    
    > Whereas R 4.4.0 installations with
    > recommended packages come with Matrix 1.7-0.

    > Gabor

On Fri, 26 Apr 2024, at 11:32 AM, Martin Maechler wrote:
>>>>>> G?bor Cs?rdi 
>>>>>>     on Fri, 26 Apr 2024 11:55:36 +0200 writes:
>
>     > I don't know if this is a bug, but it is certainly weird.
AFAICT R
>     > 4.4.0 has Matrix 1.7-0.
>
> Yes, it *is* available from CRAN:  You can see it when looking into the
>
> 4.4.0/           , specifically the
> 4.4.0/Recommended/ sub directory.
>
> Recommended packages should be built as part of R
> unless *you* really want to *not* get them by choosing at
> configure time, not to get them via extra flag
>   --without-recommended-packages.
>
> So, well, you got what you wanted.
>
>     > However, currently CRAN has
>
>     > Package: Matrix
>     > Version: 1.6-5
>     > Priority: recommended
>     > Depends: R (>= 3.5.0), methods
>     > ...
> .
> Yes, because it has to provide Matrix to R versions before 4.4.0
> and Matrix 1.7-0 has  'Depends: R (>= 4.4.0)'
>
>     > (plus another version for R >= 4.5.0 only).
>
>     > Which has some weird consequences, e.g. if I have an R 4.4.0
>     > installation without the recommended packages, 
>
> (why would you explicitly choose *not* to have the
>  recommended packages when they *are* recommended .. :-b )
>   ...
Hi Martin.

I appreciate the efforts you are going to balance these Matrix updates across
CRAN versions. Related, but a little tangential, to the installation situation,
I'd still expect the canonical CRAN link
(https://cran.r-project.org/package=Matrix) to provide links to the *current*
version.  Currently links to a source tarball and the reference manual is for
1.6.5 (I'm guessing vignettes are also from 1.6.5.).

Best

Tim

On Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:32:59 +0200
Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
> Finally, I'd think it definitely would be nice for
> install.packages("Matrix") to automatically get the correct
> Matrix version from CRAN ... so we (R-core) would be grateful
> for a patch to install.packages() to achieve this
Since the binaries offered on CRAN are already of the correct version
(1.7-0 for -release and -devel), only source package installation needs
to concern itself with the Recommended subdirectory.

Would it be possible to generate the PACKAGES* index files in the
4.4.0/Recommended subdirectory? Then on the R side it would be needed
to add a new repo (adjusting chooseCRANmirror() to set it together with
repos["CRAN"]) and keep the rest of the machinery intact.

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan