Force my custom debian package to resolve R dependency from specific repository

Question

I've created a ubuntu/debian package that installs an application that depends on R. When installing I want the package to install R from the repository at:

deb http://cran.uk.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu jaunty/

because this repository contains the up to date version of R. I've tried adding the package to the sources.list file from the packages preinst script but it doesn't seem to work.

Any ideas how I can force the use of this repository?

Answer 1

You really should not install other packages from the preinst script. This makes it impossible for apt or dpkg to figure out the package dependencies. The correct way is to state the up-to-date version as a dependency in the debian/control file:

Depends: R (>= x.y)

For example:

Depends: libapr0 (>= 2.0.54)

This may mean that the package is uninstallable for users that do not add the other repository as well; you should inform them of the other repository through other channels. Or you could consider including the package in your repository.