[Rd] Problem with .First.lib while running R CMD check

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Frank" == Frank E Harrell <f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu>
>>>>>     on Tue, 01 Jun 2004 07:48:17 +0200 writes:

    Frank> Martin Maechler wrote:
    >>>>>>> "Frank" == Frank E Harrell <f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu>
    >>>>>>> on Mon, 31 May 2004 18:44:55 +0200 writes:
    >> 
    >> 
    Frank> I am having difficulty running R CMD check using the
    Frank> 30May04 version of R-devel and a new version of the
    Frank> Hmisc package:
    >> 
    Frank> * checking S3 generic/method consistency ... WARNING
    Frank> Error in .tryQuietly({ : Error in library(package, lib.loc = lib.loc, 
    Frank> character.only = TRUE, verbose = FALSE) :
    Frank> .First.lib failed
    Frank> Execution halted
    >> 
    Frank> See section 'Generic functions and methods' of the
    Frank> 'Writing R Extensions' manual.
    >> 
    >> I'm not sure, but I'd guess it's simply the last line of your
    >> .First.lib. that fails, i.e.,
    >> library.dynam("Hmisc", pkg, lib)
    >> which fails loading the C/Fortran code.
    >> I've had similar experiences.  The 'R CMD check' error message
    >> is definitely ``sub optimal''.
    >> 
    >> Simply try (in R-devel)
    >> 
    >> library(Hmisc, lib.loc="~/R/Hmisc.Rcheck")
    >> 
    >> This should give a much better error message.
    >> Let us know if this helped.
    >> 
    >> Regards, Martin

    Frank> Thanks Martin.  Here's what I get:

    >> library(Hmisc,lib.loc="~/R/Hmisc.Rcheck")
    Frank> Hmisc library by Frank E Harrell Jr

    Frank> Type library(help='Hmisc'), ?Overview, or ?Hmisc.Overview')
    Frank> to see overall documentation.

    Frank> Hmisc redefines [.factor to drop unused levels of factor variables
    Frank> when subscripting. To prevent this behaviour, issue the command
    Frank> options(drop.unused.levels=F).

    Frank> Error in dyn.load(x, as.logical(local), as.logical(now)) :
    Frank> unable to load shared library 
    Frank> "/home/harrelfe/R/Hmisc.Rcheck/Hmisc/libs/Hmisc.so":
    Frank> libR.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
	   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

this probably is the clue :  Hmisc.so expects an libR.so
which is what you get when you do ......./configure --enable-shared
and make for building R itself.

It looks like your version of R-devel
hasn't successfully been built with the ..shared option.
But when using it to build packages, it *does* assume the
'shared R' (libR.so in unix) to be available.

[or Hmisc.so itself or its underlying *.o files were built with 
 a non-shared (i.e. default) version of R ?]

If it the former (and incomplete shared installation) I'd
consider wiping that out and rebuild R afresh -- shared or not --
test R ("make check" or even "make check-all") and when
successful, rebuild Hmisc {removing at least  Hmisc/src/*o
beforehand!} with that version of R.

Martin

    Frank> Error in library(Hmisc, lib.loc = "~/R/Hmisc.Rcheck") :
    Frank> .First.lib failed

    Frank> Since Hmisc.so is in the right place:

    Frank> ~/R/Hmisc.Rcheck/Hmisc/libs harrelfe:ls -la
    Frank> total 48
    Frank> drwxr-xr-x    2 harrelfe harrelfe     4096 May 31 18:31 .
    Frank> drwxr-xr-x   10 harrelfe harrelfe     4096 May 31 18:34 ..
    Frank> -rwxr-xr-x    1 harrelfe harrelfe    37524 May 31 18:31 Hmisc.so

    Frank> I don't understand the problem.  The same Hmisc.so (under 
    Frank> /usr/local/lib/R/site-library) loads fine under R 1.9.

    Frank> Frank