[JOSS] Recommended apt-get installation installs old version (mlpack 2.0.1)?

[rasbt]

I followed the instructions recommended in the docs via apt-get, and installed it as follows (on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS)

sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libmlpack-dev

When I then look at the files installed, via dpkg -L libmlpack-dev, I see that these list

• This file is part of mlpack 2.0.1.

I then checked via apt list --installed | grep libmlpack-dev

and saw that it seems to be the old version indeed (libmlpack-dev/xenial,now 2.0.1-1 amd64 [installed])

I am wondering if this is an issue with compatible versions for my system, or is the 3.0.1 version not available via apt-get, yet? If so, can the 3.0.1 version for this review currently only be installed from source?

[rasbt]

Related, the command-line program reference documentation refers to version 2.2.5 (http://www.mlpack.org/docs/mlpack-3.0.1/man.html):

Below is a list of the command-line executables mlpack 2.2.5 provides, with links to the documentation for each executable. This documentation may also be accessed with the --help parameter or through the man pages provided with your distribution of mlpack.

Is this just a documentation bug or is the mlpack 3.0.0 functionality currently only available for the C++ library and language (e.g. Python) bindings?

[rcurtin]

Thanks for pointing out the issue---I fixed http://www.mlpack.org/docs/mlpack-3.0.1/man.html; it was an oversight during the release process.

For apt, we don't control the mlpack package in the repositories. I can see that 3.0.1 has been pushed to the upstream Debian unstable repositories: https://packages.debian.org/sid/libmlpack-dev, but it hasn't made it to Ubuntu yet. Some time ago I submitted a request for Ubuntu to update the mlpack package on older Ubuntu versions but I received no response.

[rasbt]

I see. I'd say it would be good to add a small note about that until it gets updated. Since Ubuntu is a pretty widely adopted distro these days, it could safe some users from some misunderstanding

[rcurtin]

I added a note to the README and the build guide that will be merged with #1421.

[rcurtin]

Since #1421 is merged, I'll go ahead and close this now.