[Rd] Re: [R] R on gentoo amd64 (gcc 3.3.3) is unstable --- no!

[ivo_welch-rstat8783 at mailblocks.com]

peter/brian:  thank you for the help.  i can now report that gentoo 
amd64 can compile R just fine, too; it requires the f77 USE flag and a 
gcc compiler rebuild first, though.  I also went to gcc 3.4.1.  my 
segfault troubles earlier were caused by my use of f2c.

suggestion: would it be possible to add a code snippet  that tests 
whether the user is trying to compile with f2c---and if so, bombs the 
installation?  (if "f77 --version == f2c" then die)  I know the 
problems are not R's fault, but it can percolate into R and it can 
protect people like myself.

regards,

/ivo

PS: I am still looking for an R wizard who would be interested in 
coauthoring an "R cookbook" ala the "perl cookbook" with me...

---
ivo welch
professor of finance and economics
brown / nber / yale


-----Original Message-----
From: Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>
To: ivo_welch-rstat8783 at mailblocks.com
Cc: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
Sent: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 17:01:42 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: [R] R on gentoo amd64 (gcc 3.3.3) is unstable

As I read the posting guide this is not a help request and not of 
general
interest, so diverted to R-devel.

Several people including me have built R on AMD64 with 3.3.3.  That's 
the
compiler of Fedora Core 2, and of whatever version of SuSE (perhaps 
9.0)
we have on our 110-processor cluster.  I am currently use 3.4.1.

Your error is in Fortran, and we have seen Fortran errors in earlier
versions of the gcc collection so it's the g77 version that is relevant.

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 ivo_welch-rstat8783 at mailblocks.com wrote:

>
> dear wizards:
>
>   FYI: gentoo is a linux meta distribution, which compiles all 
packages.
>   Once running, gentoo is stable on most applications.  (it has some
> problems with system tools, such as grub.)  the compiler is gcc 
3.3.3.
> I do not expect anyone to track down for me why R fails on the gentoo
> amd64+gcc3.3.3 system, but I thought that it would be good to put it 
on
> the record to save others some time.
>
> The resulting from-source-compiled R is not stable in this 
combination.
>   R starts up ok, but a couple of commands (a simple linear 
regression)
> usually result in a Segfault.  this applies both to the R provided by
> gentoo (an old version of 1.9.0) or the latest version 1.9.1 which I
> just pulled down.  in case someone is wondering, the debugger 
backtrace
> provides
>
> #0  0x000000000052ac16 in dnrm2_ ()
> #1  0x00000000005185e8 in dqrdc2_ ()
> #2  0x0000000000518db1 in dqrls_ ()
> #3  0x000000000045d5d5 in do_dotCode ()
> #4  0x0000000000472b6b in Rf_eval ()
> ...
>
> (if any R wizard were to find it useful to try it out for himself, I
> could arrange for machine access, or provide other relevant
> information.  if anyone has compiled R 1.9.1 under amd64 with gcc 
3.3.3
> and found it to be stable, please let me know, too.)
>
> sincerely,
>
> /ivo welch
>
> ---
> ivo welch
> professor of finance and economics
> brown / nber / yale
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide! 
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>
>

--
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595