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

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, Gavin Simpson wrote:

> 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is the section in the R Installation & Admin manual out-of-date or in 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.

You need to run tools/link-recommended.  I've added that to R-admin.

> > 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.

rsync is great, *provided* you have permission to use the ports it uses.  
Users with http proxies often do not, hence the description of the manual 
method.  During alpha/beta periods, we do make a complete tarball 
available, and I wonder if we should not be doing so with 
R-patched/R-devel at all times.

-- 
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