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+---
+title: R Packaging
+date: "2023-12-02T23:28:42+00:00"
+draft: false
+---
+
+Earlier this year,
+I found a way to
+[build packages for Alpine Linux within a Docker container](https://git.dominic-ricottone.com/~dricottone/simple-builder).
+Specifically, I use that system to build packages for all of the Python and Go
+programs underpinning my git server.
+It was a fun project that taught me a lot about the Alpine Linux ecosystem.
+
+I've been interested in expanding that tool to support more distributions.
+Apart from Alpine Linux,
+I make use of Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch Linux.
+I don't run anything directly on Fedora though,
+and I'll probably migrate off of it in the near future.
+And Red Hat's actions these past few years
+(including but not limited to
+[this](https://dev.intra.dominic-ricottone.com/posts/2023/06/disruption-from-google-and-red-hat/))
+have erased any chance of me
+deploying a *new* Fedora server.
+So it's not a distro that I will ever be targetting in this project.
+
+Ubuntu is an interesting prospect for me because my usecase for that distro
+is setting up a server without any configuration
+(because I don't necessarily intend to keep it for long).
+If I can move *away* from compiling software on those hosts,
+and *towards* using pre-compiled binary packages,
+I can forego configuration *and* installing compiler toolchains.
+
+Arch Linux is an inherently interesting target because that's my go-to distro
+for everything from long-term servers to personal computers.
+But what software would I actually package,
+when it's rather straightforward for me to maintain my toolchains on those
+hosts?
+
+----
+
+Also earlier this year, I
+[tried](https://dev.intra.dominic-ricottone.com/posts/2023/03/acs-data/)
+to do some
+[replication work](https://git.dominic-ricottone.com/~dricottone/chicago)
+in R and SAS.
+(By which I mean: in SAS, but I tried to use R for an API.)
+
+At the time,
+I consistently ran into stability issues with R.
+So much of the R ecosystem depends on libraries with dozens of direct and
+indirect dependencies.
+Many of them are compiled libraries linked not only to eachother but also to
+other system libraries.
+This network seems to be well supported on many distros...
+but not so much on Arch Linux.
+
+Shockingly the AUR does not offer much support in this specific area.
+It seems there is literally one person trying to support the TidyVerse there.
+Stepping out of the AUR,
+you can find a few projects around PKGBUILD repositories for R packages with
+*decent* support.
+Even then,
+a dead-simple C library wrapper was months out-of-date and required patching.
+But that's skipping ahead...
+
+----
+
+I resolved to teach myself the Arch Linux packaging system so that I can
+install R binary packages for a more stable experience.
+There are PKGBUILDs floating around the internet,
+but invariably a significant amount of work is required in updating these.
+Many of them lag by major version upgrades.
+At least one needed to be converted to an unreleased, git-fetched package.
+All-in-all, it took me two weeks to package the TidyVerse.
+(Yes, that two weeks included Thanksgiving and all of the corresponding
+travel time. It's still a lot.)
+
+What did I learn?
+Quite a bit actually.
+Importantly,
+I learned that there's already an excellent toolchain for building Arch Linux
+packages in clean chroots,
+so there's not really a good reason to build in Docker containers.
+
+I also learned that the Arch Linux packaging system is excellent for ARM64
+hosts.
+The cross-compilation story is less than ideal currently,
+and I'm starting to see why Arch On Arm *wants* to be a separate project.
+I remain unconvinced that it's qualitatively worse than the Alpine Linux
+packaging system,
+but honestly they are very similar in execution and design,
+so I'd be willing to hear arguments either way.
+
+Lastly, I've gained an appreciation for the TidyVerse.
+I've always seen it as bloatware.
+Too much functionality when less would have worked.
+But given the R ecosystem of today,
+'targetting less' means adopting a more complex dependency structure.
+It means pinning the versions of several libraries instead of one.
+It means supporting users as they struggle to install several packages
+instead of just one that they *probably already have installed on their system
+due to other, unrelated projects*.
+Essentially, TidyVerse is an R distribution in the same way that Conda is a
+Python distribution.
+