[Rd] unrelated software install triggering an error from R's install script on Mac OS X 10.5

[Stefan Evert]

> The steps needed to generate the error are:
>
> - install a binary distribution of R (default location)
> - add R to the PATH

Did you actually add

	/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/

to your PATH?  You're not supposed to do that!  What made you think so?

This directory contains a range of support scripts for R which are not  
intended for direct use from the command line or other programs.  In  
my installation, there's just a symlink from /usr/bin/R to the R  
binary in the directory above, which AFAIK is the only program you  
need to invoke directly.

In your case, R's "INSTALL" script, which implements the "R CMD  
INSTALL" functionality masks the standard "install" program in /usr/ 
bin/install, so Python's installer now picks up a completely wrong  
program.  Even if you edit R's "INSTALL" script, it'll do something  
entirely different from what you expect.

BTW, putting the R binary directory ahead of system directories such  
as /usr/bin in your PATH is an even worse idea than including it there  
in the first place. ;-)



Best regards,
Stefan Evert

[ stefan.evert at uos.de | http://purl.org/stefan.evert ]