[Rd] Environment variable MAKE not defined on Windows

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 6/9/2006 7:37 PM, Martin Morgan wrote:
> Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> writes:
> 
>> On 6/9/2006 4:03 PM, Martin Morgan wrote:
>>> On Windows,
>>>
>>>> Sys.getenv("MAKE")
>>>   MAKE "" when (at a DOS prompt)
>>> X:>set MAKE
>>> Environment variable MAKE not defined
>> Most Windows systems don't have a working "make" command, and I don't
>> know of a reliable test for one.  
> 
> I guess on non-Windows systems MAKE gets defined when R is
> built. Perhaps a similar thing should happen when I build my own R on
> Windows, because then I must have a working make?

The problem is that the natural place to put it is in the shortcut that 
starts R (or the command alias you use to start it from a command line). 
  We don't make a shortcut unless you install R from the binary 
installer, and don't make an alias at all.  If you start R from the 
command line, you're running an .exe directly.

I think the best solution is the one I suggested below:  do it yourself.

> I realize that the windows R is distributed in binary form; perhaps
> these could be configured not to include MAKE and other environmental
> variables? For instance, I notice some unlikely-to-be-generally-useful
> variables like PERL5LIB and TEXINPUTS hard-coded in
> 
> R_HOME/src/gnuwin32/front-ends/rcmdfn.c
> 
> Also, the documentation ?Startup is not correct, at least if 'factory
> fresh' means newly built -- there does not appear to be an
> etc/Renviron.site on Windows.
> 
> Description:
> 
>    The name of the site file is the one pointed to by the environment
>    variable 'R_ENVIRON'; if this is unset or empty,
>    '$R_HOME/etc/Renviron.site' is used (if it exists, which it does
>    not in a "factory-fresh" installation except on Windows). 

Right, that is wrong.  The "except on Windows" part is a recent 
addition; I'm not sure why, but I'll remove it.

> 
> Finally, the buildVignettes() code might be modified to more
> forcefully notify the user of the inadequacies of their system.

I'll add that.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> Martin   
> 
>> (I believe the one that ships with MS compilers is not compatible
>> with R's makefiles.)  If you do have one, you can define MAKE=make
>> on the Rgui or Rterm command line.
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
> 
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