Description of problem: 'yum install R' wants to pull in a whole load of *-devel packages. Is this right? In this case it seems to be because R depends on R-devel. But the purpose of splitting off -devel packages is so that you can install the basic program without all the other crud. I wonder if there's a mistake here? Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): R-2.8.1-2.fc10 Steps to Reproduce: 1. sudo yum install R Actual results: Installing: R i386 2.8.1-2.fc10 updates 15 k Updating: libpng i386 2:1.2.34-1.fc10 updates 251 k Installing for dependencies: R-core i386 2.8.1-2.fc10 updates 26 M R-devel i386 2.8.1-2.fc10 updates 87 k bzip2-devel i386 1.0.5-3.fc10 fedora 284 k cairo-devel i386 1.8.0-1.fc10 fedora 177 k fontconfig-devel i386 2.6.0-3.fc10 fedora 216 k freetype-devel i386 2.3.7-2.fc10 updates 157 k kpathsea i386 2007-35.fc10 fedora 115 k libICE-devel i386 1.0.4-4.fc10 fedora 13 k libRmath i386 2.8.1-2.fc10 updates 95 k libRmath-devel i386 2.8.1-2.fc10 updates 123 k libSM-devel i386 1.1.0-2.fc10 fedora 10 k libX11-devel i386 1.1.4-6.fc10 updates 1.1 M libXau-devel i386 1.0.4-1.fc10 fedora 11 k libXdmcp-devel i386 1.0.2-6.fc10 fedora 8.0 k libXext-devel i386 1.0.4-1.fc9 fedora 60 k libXmu-devel i386 1.0.4-1.fc9 fedora 21 k libXrender-devel i386 0.9.4-3.fc9 fedora 9.2 k libXt-devel i386 1.0.5-1.fc10 fedora 328 k libjpeg-devel i386 6b-43.fc10 fedora 104 k libpng-devel i386 2:1.2.34-1.fc10 updates 107 k libtiff-devel i386 3.8.2-11.fc10 fedora 465 k libxcb-devel i386 1.1.91-5.fc10 fedora 144 k mesa-libGL-devel i386 7.2-0.15.fc10 updates 460 k ncurses-devel i386 5.6-20.20080927.fc10 fedora 676 k netpbm i386 10.35.58-1.fc10 updates 837 k netpbm-progs i386 10.35.58-1.fc10 updates 1.8 M perl-File-Copy-Recursive noarch 0.38-1.fc10 updates 21 k pixman-devel i386 0.12.0-2.fc10 fedora 11 k psutils i386 1.17-29.fc10 fedora 91 k readline-devel i386 5.2-13.fc9 fedora 133 k tcl-devel i386 1:8.5.3-1.fc10 fedora 171 k tex-preview noarch 11.85-7.fc9 fedora 52 k texlive i386 2007-35.fc10 fedora 1.9 M texlive-dvips i386 2007-35.fc10 fedora 188 k texlive-latex i386 2007-35.fc10 fedora 78 k texlive-texmf noarch 2007-26.fc10 fedora 3.5 M texlive-texmf-dvips noarch 2007-26.fc10 fedora 378 k texlive-texmf-errata noarch 2007-4.fc9 fedora 3.7 k texlive-texmf-errata-dvips noarch 2007-4.fc9 fedora 3.6 k texlive-texmf-errata-fonts noarch 2007-4.fc9 fedora 3.7 k texlive-texmf-errata-latex noarch 2007-4.fc9 fedora 3.6 k texlive-texmf-fonts noarch 2007-26.fc10 fedora 56 M texlive-texmf-latex noarch 2007-26.fc10 fedora 6.0 M texlive-utils i386 2007-35.fc10 fedora 214 k tk-devel i386 1:8.5.3-4.fc10 fedora 520 k xorg-x11-proto-devel noarch 7.4-5.fc10 updates 278 k xorg-x11-util-macros i386 1.1.6-2.fc10 fedora 14 k Transaction Summary ======================================================================================================================== Install 48 Package(s) Update 1 Package(s) Remove 0 Package(s) Total download size: 103 M Is this ok [y/N]: n Expected results: No *-devel packages ?
This is not a mistake. Before, there was R and R-devel (and libRmath and libRmath-devel). I got a lot of complaints and confused users who only installed R and tried to build their own modules from CRAN. These attempts failed, because... R-devel (and in some cases libRmath-devel) were not installed. After talking with the R upstream, who recommended strongly that functional CRAN out of the box was accepted behavior for the majority of users, I changed the R package structure slightly: It is now composed of: R-core (what used to be called R, doesn't have -devel deps) R-devel (same) libRmath (same) libRmath-devel (same) R (metapackage that requires R-core, R-devel, libRmath-devel) So, if you really just want functional R and you're not concerned about being sure CRAN works out of the box, just yum install R-core.