Hosting newer versions of CRAN packagaes.

[trivialfis]

Hi, R-universe,

The XGBoost project is considering hosting its R packages on R-universe. We want to host newer versions of XGBoost while retaining the existing CRAN package in a semi-frozen state for a period of time. This is due to some breaking changes we made in past releases that are incompatible with existing downstream projects. We hope to use R-universe as a public interface to help others adopt newer versions of XGBoost without creating a massive disturbance on CRAN packages, as some downstream projects are thinly maintained. In addition, the R-universe project looks like a nice place for us to share the latest development version.

I have read this guide: https://docs.r-universe.dev/publish/other-networks.html#can-we-use-r-universe-to-host-older-versions-of-cran-packages. However, it doesn't address the other direction, where the R-universe version is newer.

May I ask what I should look out for when publishing the new XGBoost on r-universe, potentially in development? For example, should I rename the XGBoost package on R-universe?

In addition to newer versions, we hope to host GPU-enabled (CUDA) binaries on R-universe in the future, which seems challenging to accomplish on CRAN as it requires a unique compilation process that uses CMake instead of autotools with a custom set of dependencies (CUDA). We build these binaries using our CI system at the moment. Is there any documentation on how to share these binaries? Or is it necessary for the R-universe builder to compile the project from the source?

[jeroen]

Packages on r-universe follow your git branch/tag, so they are almost always newer than the CRAN version. For example compare versions from https://tidyverse.r-universe.dev/builds with the CRAN versions.

We build using the standard compilers and libraries that are also used by CRAN, for compatibility. But other than that you can do whatever you want.

Your package was automatically included on https://trivialfis.r-universe.dev/xgboost however the server seems to be unable to build on mac and windows, so you may want to check the build logs: https://github.com/r-universe/trivialfis/actions/runs/14006151800

[trivialfis]

Thank you for the reply, @jeroen .

Packages on r-universe follow your git branch/tag, so they are almost always newer than the CRAN version

Excellent! That's great news for us.

Your package was automatically included on https://trivialfis.r-universe.dev/xgboost however the server seems to be unable to build

I did not expect my GitHub account to be registered in r-universe. The CRAN package uses https://github.com/dmlc/xgboost as the official site. For the future r-universe package, we plan to use the dmlc organization instead of a personal account.

We build using the standard compilers and libraries that are also used by CRAN,

Thank you for sharing. I assume the GPU-based platform won't be available in the near future based on https://docs.r-universe.dev/publish/troubleshoot-build.html#third-party-reqs.

so you may want to check the build logs

I will work on the latest release instead of the CRAN copy for R-universe.

[maelle]

@trivialfis where would you have expected this information in the docs? We'll use your feedback to improve the docs. Thank you!

[trivialfis]

@maelle Thank you for reaching out!

It would be helpful to mention the support for hosting packages that are newer than the ones in CRAN on this page. We are trying to host a new package on r-universe while keeping the old one in CRAN alive (without any update). When I read R-universe's document, what we are trying to do feels like hosting a CRAN package fork, which is discouraged according to this QA.

[maelle]

Thanks! Feedback welcome on r-universe-org/docs#91 (or, if it gets merged before you get a chance to look, feedback welcome here or as a PR)