[R] problem with up arrow

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 07, 2005 at 11:56:46PM -0500, a j wrote:
>> I just compiled R on solaris.
>>
>> Everything seems to run fine.
>>
>> Except, the up and down arrows don't take me
>> through the history.  See:
> [...]
>
>> How can I get these arrows to take me through history?
>
> It's a FAQ -- you need readline support. Check your build logs, you should
> see something like this (which is from the Debian builds I maintain /
> coordinate, you'd obviously get something other than i386, though):
>
> R is now configured for i386-pc-linux-gnu
>
>  Source directory:          .
>  Installation directory:    /usr
>
>  C compiler:                gcc  -g -O2
>  C++ compiler:              g++  -g -O2
>  Fortran compiler:          g77  -g -O2
>
>  Interfaces supported:      X11, gnome, tcltk
>  External libraries:        readline, BLAS(generic)
>  Additional capabilities:   PNG, JPEG
>  Options enabled:           shared library, R profiling
>
>  Recommended packages:      no
>
>
> Note the 'readline' after external libraries. You need it for the "up-arrow".

Two notes:

1) As from 2.1.0, you will need to explicitly deselect readline to allow 
configure to work without giving you readline.  (Same for X.)  Hopefully 
that will reduce the `F' of this FAQ.

2) Strictly, you need the GNU History library and not just readline, which 
nowadays incorporates it.  So, to quote the R-admin manual, `you will need 
a fairly recent version'.  At least as of R 2.0.1 you do need GNU readline 
and not, say, NetBSD readline (which is what is expected to come with 
MacOS 10.4 aka Tiger).

Finally, a plug: we do have an `Installation and Administration' manual, 
and a file INSTALL which asks you to read it.  Please review it if you 
have a problem with installation.

-- 
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