Posit Package Manager 2024.08.0: Remote administration, advanced logging, and Bioconductor improvements
We’re pleased to announce that Posit Package Manager 2024.08.0 is now available for download!
This release provides a host of improvements to Package Manager for administrators, like support for remote administration of Package Manager, more advanced configurable logging, improvements to Bioconductor performance, and more. See our release notes for the full details on what’s changed.
Full remote administration
Previously, administrators of Posit Package Manager had to have direct access to the server console where Package Manager is installed. In some environments, direct access to the server console may be limited or restricted for repository administrators. Posit Package Manager now provides full remote administration via the Admin CLI. Remote access can be secured through the use of API tokens with specific delegated permissions:
global:admin– Grants full access to manage the Package Manager server.sources:write– Grants read and write access to sources, such as uploading packages, removing packages, creating Git builders, and importing Git credentials. Access can be limited to specific sources.blocklist:admin– Grants full access to manage the blocklist.blocklist:read– Grants read access to the blocklist.
The remote CLI can also be used to interact with Package Manager from custom tooling or automation workflows, further enabling advanced integration scenarios.
See the updated documentation on the Admin CLI for more information on how to get started with remote administration. This feature requires an Advanced license for Posit Package Manager.
Logging improvements
We’ve redesigned our server logging to make it easier to configure the location of the log files and set the desired level of log detail, providing support for plain text, structured text, or JSON format. These updates also make it easier to send Package Manager logs to external monitoring systems. See the new [Logging] configuration section to get started.
Bioconductor performance improvements
Our past several releases have significantly improved the performance of serving CRAN and PyPI packages from Package Manager. Continuing these efforts, this release brings performance improvements to Bioconductor package sources. Syncing Bioconductor package data is now much faster and happens in the background automatically when required. If you’re currently using Bioconductor packages, you’ll immediately see these improvements upon upgrading with no changes required, with only a brief delay the first time starting Package Manager after upgrading.
Date-based snapshots for Bioconductor
Even though Bioconductor maintains its own versioning system, updates are occasionally made to packages within a released version that can affect strict reproducibility of prior work. Package Manager now allows you to pin your Bioconductor package installations to a specific date to ensure you receive the exact same packages in the future. Find the new snapshot calendar on the Setup page in Package Manager:
Additional improvements
Customers using PostgreSQL databases are no longer required to have a separate database for storing usage data. However, if the separate database is already configured, it will continue to be used, and no change is required.
If you’re a current customer, you can follow our instructions for upgrading Posit Package Manager. Curious if Package Manager can help your organization securely deliver Python and R packages internally? Learn more at posit.co/package-manager.
