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I need to install R package fOpitons for a learning module required by society of actuaries. This package seems to be no longer available on CRAN. It was taken down in April 2022 for misrepresentation of authorship and ownership of copyright. None of the links to former versions of the package works. How can I install this package?

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/fOptions/index.html

None of the links in this site works. https://cran-archive.r-project.org/web/checks/2022/2022-04-29_check_results_fOptions.html

Phil
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LeCat
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1 Answers1

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(Note for eager "close as duplicate": the Archive/ link for this package is (currently?) broken which is very unusual for CRAN so I spelled out alternative approaches below. That part is likely not a duplicate. Cheers. -D.)

CRAN packages are open source, and even when removed from the current CRAN index for reasons deemed necessary by the CRAN team will always remain available in the Archive/ section of the package.

So the link you provide has as its second line

Formerly available versions can be obtained from the archive.

where the archive link should provide you access to various versions.

However, it is not working, which looks like an error. So I just alerted CRAN to that.

I happen to have maintained fOptions in Debian for a number of years. So you still get the Debian binary packages -- and sources. Most recent versions are at https://packages.debian.org/sid/r-cran-foptions point for example to the source archive: http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/f/foptions/foptions_3042.86.orig.tar.gz

If you can install from source this should do.

Otherwise, there is also a CRAN mirror at GitHub so https://github.com/cran/fOptions is another choice.

Dirk Eddelbuettel
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    It would also be worth alerting the Society of Actuaries to the situation. Presumably they will need to modify their syllabus because of this problem. – Limey Jul 13 '22 at 06:05
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    It appears the SOA has been notified of this issue. The crucial functions needed for Scenario Modeling Modules are now provided in the Module Contents for use in the reports. – James Bender Feb 02 '23 at 02:26