[R] Build error on Windows

[Pankaj Savdekar]

>From: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 09:13:36 -0400
>
>On 9/29/2006 5:41 PM, Pankaj Savdekar wrote:
>>Thanks for the quick reply.
>>
>>>On 9/29/2006 8:53 AM, Pankaj Savdekar wrote:
>>>>Hi,
>>>>
>>>>I'm trying to build R-2.3.1 on windows, but make gives me following 
>>>>error while building pkg-base:
>>>>---------- Making package base ------------
>>>>   adding build stamp to DESCRIPTION
>>>>make[4]: *** [frontmatter] Error 1
>>>>make[3]: *** [all] Error 2
>>>>make[2]: *** [pkg-base] Error 2
>>>>make[1]: *** [rpackage] Error 2
>>>>make: *** [all] Error 2
>>>>
>>>>Please note that R.exe, Rterm.exe, Rgui.exe, RCmd.exe are build without 
>>>>any errors.
>>>>
>>>>I have three questions, can anyone please help me to resolve it?
>>>>1. How to solve (or get more details) of the above mentioned error?
>>>You need to look through the make files, to see what was happening. 
>>>Reading the messages in reverse order:  "make all" called "make rpackage" 
>>>and so on to "make frontmatter".  The errors don't tell you which 
>>>makefiles these are in, but the "frontmatter" target only occurs in 
>>>src/gnuwin32/MakePkg.  You could try deleting the "@" signs from the 
>>>lines for that target to see exactly what was happening when the error 
>>>was generated.
>>
>>Yes I could figure out the source of 'frontmatter', but my problem is, 
>>there is no error message. I tried 'make -d' too. I tried removing '@', 
>>but no change.
>>
>>>I'd guess that this is happening because your build is messed up:  the 
>>>base package is used in later build steps.  If you start from a clean 
>>>checkout and just call "make", you probably won't see this.
>>
>>Is there any way to check what could have been wrong in building base 
>>package?
>
>You could look at whatever command in the makefile failed, and try it 
>outside of the makefile, try variations on it, etc.  I can't give more 
>specific advice without more specific information on where the error 
>happened.

Thanks, I could get the error after 'make distclean'. The error is
---------- Making package base ------------
  adding build stamp to DESCRIPTION
Error in loadNamespace(name) : there is no package called 'tools'
Execution halted
make[4]: *** [frontmatter] Error 1
make[3]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: *** [pkg-base] Error 2
make[1]: *** [rpackage] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

Surprisingly once this error come, if I do 'make' or 'make pkg-base', this 
error doesn't get displayed.

I tried including R-bin directory to 'PATH', setting R_HOME, R_LIBS 
environment variable, but it doesn't help. Do I need to set anyother 
environment variable to find proper tools directory. My library directory 
contents are as follows:
R-2.3.1
    library
        base
            DESCRIPTION [file]
            R
                all.R [file]
                base [file]
                Rprofile [file]
        tools
            DESCRIPTION [file]
            NAMESPACE [file]
            libs
                tools.dll [file]
            R
                all.R [file]
                tools [file]
        R.css [file]

>If you're not used to working in Windows, remember that it is not like Unix 
>in several ways.  In particular, you can't delete an open file, because 
>it's considered an error for a file to exist unless it has a valid 
>directory entry.  If you try to replace a file that is open, the 
>replacement will fail, and that may lead to other errors later.
>
>Duncan Murdoch