Build-Depends for CRAN packages
Hi all,
yesterday I wondered why the Build-Depends of CRAN packages that are uploaded
to unstable are adapted to the current R version, as mentioned in the
Changelog e.g. of yesterdays upload of mgcv:
--------------------
Betreff: Accepted mgcv 1.8-32-1 (source) into unstable
Datum: Donnerstag, 20. August 2020, 18:06:49 CEST
Von: Debian FTP Masters <ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org>
An: debian-devel-changes@lists.debian.org
Format: 1.8
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2020 10:41:33 -0500
Source: mgcv
Architecture: source
Version: 1.8-32-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@debian.org>
Changed-By: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@debian.org>
Changes:
mgcv (1.8-32-1) unstable; urgency=medium
.
* New upstream release
.
* debian/control: Set Build-Depends: to current R version
--------------------
I never got the point of why the adaptation of the build dependency is
necessary or beneficial for these uploads of CRAN packages to unstable.
Shouldn't they build at least on the previous R version, as demonstrated by
the CRAN checks on r-oldrel [1]? It seems to me that compatibility with the
previous release is implicitly required and -- at least to some degree --
guaranteed by these checks.
Johannes
[1] https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_flavors.html
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