[Rd] Problem installing from source: no CONTENTS files

[Mark.Bravington@csiro.au]

I've just had the error below while trying to install a package from
source under R2.2.1 and Windows XP. I recall encountering this
sporadically in the past. It is a pretty confusing message and took me
quite some time to figure out; I've seen queries about it on the R site
search, but couldn't find a reply. There's an attempted diagnosis and
suggested cure below.

D:\r2.0\debug>rcmd INSTALL --library=d:/rpackages/r2.2.1 --docs=normal
debug

---------- Making package debug ------------
<<snipped>>
installing indices
cat: C:/R/RW2021/library/*/CONTENTS: No such file or directory

What I think is happening is this. Because I installed R from binary
*without* HTML help, no CONTENTS files are created for the packages.
When running RCMD INSTALL, this causes an error in the MakePkg file (in
src/gnuwin32 on my machine), in the "indices" section at the line
starting @$(CAT) below. Commenting out the CAT line seems to work fine,
in that installation proceeds OK, and regular non-HTML help and
help.search are available for the package. The comment two lines up
suggests that the behaviour is a bug; maybe a TRY-style wrapper could be
used? If not, a different error message would be handy. I don't
understand enough about makefiles to suggest a patch, unfortunately. 

indices:
	@$(ECHO) "  installing indices"
	@$(ECHO) "invisible(.libPaths(c(.Library,\"$(RLIB)\",
.libPaths()))); tools:::.install_package_indices('.', '"$(DPKG)"')" | \
	  R_DEFAULT_PACKAGES=NULL LC_COLLATE=C R_OSTYPE=windows $(REXE)
> /dev/null
# need not have HTML installed when building packages
	@$(MKDIR) -p $(RHOME)/doc/html/search
	@$(CAT) $(RHOME)/library/*/CONTENTS >
$(RHOME)/doc/html/search/index.txt


Mark Bravington
CSIRO Mathematical & Information Sciences
Marine Laboratory
Castray Esplanade
Hobart 7001
TAS

ph (+61) 3 6232 5118
fax (+61) 3 6232 5012
mob (+61) 438 315 623