MRAN (Microsoft R Application Network) being shutdown. Will this affect how R packages get into nixpkgs?

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Hi -

It was recently announced that MRAN, the Microsoft R Application Network that hosts time machine/snapshots of R’s main package host CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) will be shutdown.

I believe that MRAN is a part of the procedure for getting R packages into nixpkgs via generate-r-packages.R. Will there need to be a re-implementation of the procedure for building R packages for nixpkgs?

Disclaimer - I am newer to the NixOS world and may be misunderstanding the procedure how exactly R packages end up in nixpkgs, but am willing to attempt to help in any capacity as I can (if there is a need).

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Yes, MRAN is currently hardcoded. Also here https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/24b160324c498dabf0aa41d8dbf80a3231ae8c40/pkgs/development/r-modules/default.nix#L71. This needs to be either changed to either another snapshot-based CRAN mirror (MRAN retirement · Issue #209871 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub) or, better, made configurable to allow, say, private mirrors.

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