[Rd] Updated Windows toolchain

[Uwe Ligges]

On 18.01.2012 01:09, Dan Tenenbaum wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 12:28 AM, Prof Brian Ripley
> <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>  wrote:
>> CRAN Windows binary packages built for R-devel are now online, and Uwe's
>> winbuilder has gained the ability to check source packages under R-devel.
>>
>> Windows check results are available from
>> http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/checkSummaryWin.html
>> and in due course from the main CRAN check page.
>>
>> There have been a few updates to the toolchain:
>>
>> (i) It is now based on a beta of gcc 4.6.3, and so reports almost the same
>> compilation warnings/errors as the CRAN check machines.
>>
>
> Is the binary R-devel provided by CRAN built against this toolchain?
> If it is, should I expect "R --arch x64 CMD config CC" to report
> "gcc"? It still reports "x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc" (R-devel 58077).

Actually "gcc -m64" and that is also the case when I just tried 
yesterday's CRAN version (which is 58125). I guess you have an older 
version of R in your PATH?



> Also, I have the latest Rtools installed (VERSION.txt reads "Rtools
> version 2.15.0.1911") and it is first on my PATH.
>
> I expect "gcc --version" to report 4.6.3 but it still says 4.5.0.
>
> "x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc --version" reports 4.5.2.
> "which gcc" reports "/cygdrive/c/Rtools215/MinGW/bin/gcc".
>
> "which x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc" reports
> "/cygdrive/c/Rtools215/MinGW64/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc".


Yes, these are the version you need for old versions of R that are 
included in the Rtools, but it has a third gcc in subdir gcc-4.6.3 which 
is the one you should have first in the path in order to use the new 
toolchain.

Uwe Ligges




>> (ii) There are various bug-fixes to the toolchain: notably x^n and exp(x)
>> use gradual underflow to denormal numbers rather than abrubtly underflowing
>> to zero.
>>
>> (iii) This is a 'multilib' toolchain: the compiler is named 'gcc.exe' for
>> both architectures, selected by flag -m32 (the default) and -m64.
>
> Looks like to check gcc versions I should (instead of what I do above)
> do simply "gcc --version". I imagine that "gcc -m32 --version" would
> report the same thing as "gcc -m64 --version".
>
> Thanks,
> Dan
>
>
>>
>>
>> On 29/11/2011 07:56, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>>>
>>> An updated toolchain is now being used for Windows' builds of R-devel:
>>> details are in the R-admin manual and at
>>> http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/ and
>>> http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/
>>>
>>> Both 32- and 64-bit parts of the toolchain use v2.0.1 of the Mingw-w64
>>> project's runtime and a beta of gcc 4.5.4: the Mingw.org project's
>>> builds are no longer used. This should mean that code which compiles for
>>> 64-bit Windows also compiles for 32-bit Windows, and v.v. unless code
>>> makes (incorrect but common) assumptions that pointers fit into longs.
>>>
>>> A very few packages will need modifications because they contain
>>> declarations which clash with the headers in this toolchain: where we
>>> are aware of problems the maintainers have been informed.
>>>
>>> At DLL level different Windows' toolchains should be compatible: at C
>>> level they mostly are but at C++ level they are pretty much incompatible
>>> (so that for example GDAL has to be re-compiled for every toolchain: and
>>> Rcpp users need to be careful to use only one toolchain for Rcpp and
>>> their packages). All the external software previously made available
>>> (and more) is made available at http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools .
>>>
>>> The toolchain has support for OpenMP and pthreads: however OpenMP
>>> support is not enabled by default in R (it is too slow to be much use).
>>> If you do make use of it in your packages, be aware that you will need
>>> to ship the appropriate pthreads DLL(s).
>>>
>>> It is expected that there will be several further minor updates prior to
>>> the release of 2.15.0 in ca 4 months, but this step is the major one.
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel