[R] readline 4.2 versus 4.1

[Peter Dalgaard BSA]

"MAURICIO  ORTIZ CALVAO" <orca at alternex.com.br> writes:

> Hi there,
> 
> I would like to try the newest version of R (1.3.1), under my Red Hat Linux 7.2, which uses the library readline 4.2. 
> In some page of CRAN and in the corresponding rpm package, it is stated, when trying to install R, that the readline 4.1
> is necessary... 
> 
> Shouldn't the newer readline 4.2 be completely compatible with the present version of R (1.3.1)?
> Will I have any problems if I force the installation of the rpm package with the readline 4.2 version and not the 4.1?
> 
> Thanks for the help!

This was discussed a few days ago on this very list. The correct
answer for redhat 7.2 is to install 

readline41-4.1-10.i386.rpm

By definition, symbolic libraries with different "sonames" (like
/usr/lib/libreadline.so.4.1 and ...4.2) may be incompatible, so
programs compiled for one of them shouldn't try to use the other. (Some
packages insist on letting the soname follow the release name whether
or not versions are binary compatible so there's no guarantee it would
break either.)

Empirically it seems to work for R if you make the .4.1 lib a symlink
to the .4.2 lib, but there is no telling what that might do to other
programs. 

Trying "rpm -i --force ...." will most likely crash R on startup.

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907
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