[R] R crashes when loading library/package; Windows, Cygwin

[Sixten Borg]

Dear list members,

This is a question is about building an R package under windows and cygwin. Please bear with me.

I have a package in R that compiles well on my stationary computer (WINDOWS NT, R 1.8.1 and prior), and the resulting (package_version).zip  file works well there. It contains an R script file and a C file.

After installing tools to build the package on my laptop, the package builds "successfully" in the sense that both
(a)    rcmd build -binary -docs=normal cultosaurus
and 
(b)  R CMD BUILD -binary -docs=normal cultosaurus
will successfully create a zipfile. (R version and compiler version below).

When I install the package from the local zip file, R seems happy and says
"package 'cultosaurus' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
updating HTML package descriptions"

Trying to load the library, however, causes R to freeze for 10 seconds or so, without giving any message and then exit (Exit 5).

A subset of this package with the C source file removed will successfully build, and successfully load. Then of course there will be an error saying "C entry point ... not in load table"

Therefore the DLL seems to be causing this problem.


Any hints or advice would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Sixten

> version
         _              
platform i386-pc-mingw32
arch     i386           
os       mingw32        
system   i386, mingw32  
status                  
major    2              
minor    2.1            
year     2005           
month    12             
day      20             
svn rev  36812          
language R              
> 

$ gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/specs
Configured with: /gcc/gcc-3.4.4/gcc-3.4.4-1/configure --verbose --prefix=/usr --
exec-prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --libdir=/usr/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --man
dir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,d,f77,
java,objc --enable-nls --without-included-gettext --enable-version-specific-runt
ime-libs --without-x --enable-libgcj --disable-java-awt --with-system-zlib --ena
ble-interpreter --disable-libgcj-debug --enable-threads=posix --enable-java-gc=b
oehm --disable-win32-registry --enable-sjlj-exceptions --enable-hash-synchroniza
tion --enable-libstdcxx-debug : (reconfigured)
Thread model: posix
gcc version 3.4.4 (cygming special) (gdc 0.12, using dmd 0.125)

$ perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.8 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 21 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2006, Larry Wall

Binary build 816 [255195] provided by ActiveState http://www.ActiveState.com 
Built Mar  1 2006 18:00:52




________Output from building the package.______________________________
$ make
rcmd build -binary -docs=normal cultosaurus
* checking for file 'cultosaurus/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
* preparing 'cultosaurus':
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* cleaning src
* checking whether 'INDEX' is up-to-date ... OK
* removing junk files
* checking for LF line-endings in source files
* checking for empty directories
WARNING: directory cultosaurus/data is empty
* building binary distribution
 WARNING
* some HTML links may not be found
installing R.css in c:/DOCUME~1/Sixten/LOKALA~1/Temp/Rinst.432

Using auto-selected zip options ''
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
/bin/sh: latex: command not found

---------- Making package cultosaurus ------------
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
  adding build stamp to DESCRIPTION
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
  making DLL ...
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
making erectus.d from erectus.c
gcc   -Ic:/program/R/R-2.2.1/include -Wall -O2   -c erectus.c -o erectus.o
ar cr cultosaurus.a erectus.o
ranlib cultosaurus.a
windres --include-dir c:/program/R/R-2.2.1/include  -i cultosaurus_res.rc -o cul
tosaurus_res.o
gcc  --shared -s  -o cultosaurus.dll cultosaurus.def cultosaurus.a cultosaurus_r
es.o  -Lc:/program/R/R-2.2.1/src/gnuwin32   -lg2c -lR
  ... DLL made
  installing DLL
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
  installing R files
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
  installing man source files
  installing indices
  installing help
 >>> Building/Updating help pages for package 'cultosaurus'
     Formats: text html latex example
  sygehus                           text    html    latex   example
     missing link(s):  ~~fun~~
/bin/sh: latex: command not found
  adding MD5 sums

packaged installation of package 'cultosaurus' as cultosaurus_0.1.zip
* DONE (cultosaurus)

$

Sixten Borg

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