[R] Problem configuring R-patched

[Kevin E. Thorpe]

Gavin Simpson wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-08-04 at 14:57 -0400, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:
> 
>>I downloaded R-patched (2005-08-04) from CRAN today.
>>I ran ./configure --enable-R-shlib
>>
>>I received the error message:
>>
>>checking for recommended packages... no
>>configure: error: Some of the recommended packages are missing
>>   Use --without-recommended-packages if this was intentional
> 
>          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> So was this intentional?

No, it wasn't.

> 
>>I built a previous version of R-patched successfully on my system
>>which is running the SuSE 9,2 Pro Linux distribution.  I untarred the
>>tar ball into the same directory I did my last build on in case that's
>>important.
>>
>>The only other differences between this attempt and my successful build
>>are:
>>
>>1. I did not use --enable-R-shlib last time.
>>2. I found and installed the blas libraries for this build.
>>
>>Have I messed up or made an erroneous assumption along the way?
> 
> 
> Yes and No. You obviously haven't compiled R recently. If you haven't
> got the recommended packages in the source you are compiling, configure
> now gives an error, which quite clearly states (and you've quoted it in
> your email!) that it cannot find (some of) the recommended packages.

Actually, I compiled it about a week ago.  Here is my current version.

 > version
          _
platform i686-pc-linux-gnu
arch     i686
os       linux-gnu
system   i686, linux-gnu
status   Patched
major    2
minor    1.1
year     2005
month    07
day      28
language R

When I compiled that version, I did my "tar xzf" to a clean directory
and did not receive that error.

> A solution - again given by the error message you quote! - is:
> 
> ./configure --enable-R-shlib --without-recommended-packages
>                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> That should clear things up.

I realise that would clear it up.  I was puzzled why I got this message
in the first place, given I didn't get it last week.

> Other wise you need to cd to the R directory (where you have the source
> code), and then execute ./tools/rsync-recommended and then run your
> configure command.
> 
> HTH
> 
> G

Thanks for the rsync tip.

-- 
Kevin E. Thorpe
Biostatistician/Trialist, Knowledge Translation Program
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
email: kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca  Tel: 416.946.8081  Fax: 416.971.2462