[Rd] can't build packages anymore...

[Jeff D. Hamann]

R developers,

I've been happily building packages, under windows, for some time now and 
upgraded to R 2.1.0 and now when I attempt to build a package, I get the 
following errors...


C:\conifers>rcmd build Rconifers
* checking for file 'Rconifers/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
* preparing 'Rconifers':
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* cleaning src
* checking whether 'INDEX' is up-to-date ... OK
* removing junk files
/cygdrive/C/conifers/Rconifers_0.0-3.tar
tar: /cygdrive/C/conifers/Rconifers_0.0-3.tar: Cannot open: No such file or 
directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: /cygdrive/C/conifers/Rconifers_0.0-3.tar: Cannot open: No such file or 
directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Error: cannot open file 'Rconifers/DESCRIPTION' for reading

C:\conifers>

When I attempt to create a tar archive by hand, it seems to work just fine 
(the creation of the tar file that is). So I thought I check out the build 
script to see where the problem was (not that I knew how to change it.. but 
it never hurts to look). I found the following lines:

    my $filename = "${pkgname}_" . $description->{"Version"} . ".tar";
    my $filepath = &file_path($startdir, $filename);
    ## under Windows, need separate Cygwin and Windows versions of path.
    my $origfilepath = $filepath;

    if($WINDOWS) {
## workaround for paths in Cygwin tar
$filepath =~ s+^([A-Za-x]):+/cygdrive/\1+;
    }

And I'm not sure why that's in there. Aren't packages that are built under 
Windows using the Mingw and MSYS tools exclusively? Should they? Could they?

I'm not sure how to fix this and for now, I'll have to revert back to the 
older version of R (Mongo not happy) so I can continue my work, but I'd like 
to know either how to fix this, or if it's a problem with my machine's 
configuration or the package build process under newer versions of R. I see 
there's a new verion on the horizon and I want to get my building working 
under it as soon as possible.

I do have all the required tools (mingw, cygwin, etc.) in the correct place 
to build packages under the older version... what's changed?

Thanks,
Jeff.



---
Jeff D. Hamann
Forest Informatics, Inc.
PO Box 1421
Corvallis, Oregon USA 97339-1421
541-754-1428
jeff.hamann at forestinformatics.com
www.forestinformatics.com