[R] error during make of R-patched on Fedora core 2

[Gavin Simpson]

Marc Schwartz wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 15:51, Gavin Simpson wrote:
> 
> snip
> 
> 
>>Thanks Roger and Marc, for suggesting I use ./tools/rsync-recommended 
>>from within the R-patched directory.
>>
>>This seems to have done the trick as make completed without errors this 
>>time round. The Recommended directory also contained the links to the 
>>actual tar.gz files after doing the rsync command, so I guess this was 
>>the problem (or at least related to it.) I'm off home now with the 
>>laptop to see if I can finish make check-all and make install R.
>>
>>I have re-read the section describing the installation process for 
>>R-patched or R-devel in the R Installation and Administration manual 
>>(from R.1.9.0) just in case I missed something. Section 1.2 of this 
>>manual indicates that one can proceed *either* by downloading R-patched 
>>and then the Recommended packages from CRAN and placing the tar.gz files 
>>in R_HOME/src/library/Recommended, or by using rsync to download 
>>R-patched, and then to get the Recommended packages. The two are quite 
>>separately documented in the manual, and do seem to be in disagreement 
>>with the R-sources page on the CRAN website, which doesn't mention the 
>>manual download method (for Recommended) at all.
>>
>>Is there something wrong with the current Recommended files on CRAN, or 
>>is the section in the R Installation & Admin manual out-of-date or in 
>>error, or am I missing something vital here? This isn't a complaint: I'm 
>>just pointing this out in case this is something that needs updating in 
>>the documentation.
>>
>>All the best,
>>
>>Gavin
> 
> 
> Perhaps I am being dense, but in reviewing the two documents (R Admin
> and the CRAN sources page), I think that the only thing lacking is a
> description on the CRAN page of the manual download option for the Rec
> packages.
> 
> You would need to go here now for 1.9.1 Alpha/Beta which is where the
> current r-patched is:
> 
> http://www.cran.mirrors.pair.com/src/contrib/1.9.1/Recommended/
> 
> The standard links on CRAN are for the current 'released' version, which
> is still 1.9.0 for the moment.

Yes, but having downloaded the contents of that directory (as VERSION 
indicated that R-patched was 1.9.1 alpha), the links to the source files 
for the Recommended packages or not present (obviously). And make 
doesn't seem to work without these links. The rsync approach places the 
package sources *and* the links in the correct directory.

So the instructions in the Admin manual are lacking a statement that you 
need to create links to each of the package sources in the following 
form name-of-package.tgz which links to name-of-package_version.tar.gz. 
As it stands, the instructions in the Installation & Admin manual are 
not sufficient to get the manual download method to work.

> Procedurally, I think that the rsync approach is substantially easier
> (one step instead of multiple downloads) and certainly less error prone.
> Also the ./tools/rsync-recommended script is set up to pick up the
> proper package versions, which also helps to avoid conflicts.

I agree - being a bit of a Linux newbie, I hadn't used rsync before. 
Seeing how easy it was to use this method of getting the required 
sources I will be using this method in future.

> HTH,
> 
> Marc

Cheers

Gavin
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Gavin Simpson                     [T] +44 (0)20 7679 5522
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