[R] Problem configuring R-patched

[Martin Maechler]

Sorry to chime in a bit late here..

>>>>> "Kevin" == Kevin E Thorpe <kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca>
>>>>>     on Thu, 04 Aug 2005 22:13:05 -0400 writes:

    Kevin> Duncan Murdoch wrote:
    >> Kevin E. Thorpe wrote:
    >> 
    >>> 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.
    >> 
    >> 
    >> I believe there are two kinds of tar files.  The daily
    >> snapshots don't include the recommended packages, the
    >> releases do.

eeehm, no: The daily snapshots do contain the recommended packages,
and have for quite a while now.

    >> Or perhaps the test is a recent addition.

only for a pretty generous definition of "recent".

To be honest, I don't know what Kevin's problem could be.

The daily snapshots are really produced here at ETH Zurich and
daily mirrored from here to CRAN. I can see that the 
	 R-patched_2005-08-04.tar.gz
does contain the recommended packages.

Maybe your download wasn't completed; your disk full; or you
have a gnome in your computer who occasionally deletes some of
your files?  I've had similar feelings a few times in the
past...

    Kevin> Both versions were R-patched.tar.gz as opposed to the
    Kevin> devel sets which looks like it's actually a link to
    Kevin> the most recent.  Maybe I incorrectly assumed that

    Kevin> Maybe I incorrectly assumed that the patched tarballs
    Kevin> contained the recommended packages.

actually that was a correct assumption.

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich