[R] Package development on Windows - latest guidance?

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 10/28/2006 1:08 PM, Michael Prager wrote:
> Thanks to Gabor G., Duncan M., and Hong O. for helpful
> replies.  I've made some progress, but have two questions.
> 
> Can anyone explain *how* R CMD searches for latex? 

It doesn't:  R CMD runs a script, the script searches for latex.  If you 
want to see what it does, you can look at the script, in the R_HOME/bin 
directory.  For "check", it's a Perl script.  The actual searching for 
Latex is done in the R_HOME/share/perl/R/Vars.pm module, which looks for 
an environment variable named LATEX for the command; if not found, it 
defaults to "latex", and assumes that's an executable command on your 
path.

I've just tried, and a .bat file is not enough:  it wants
a real executable (because it is using sh.exe, not cmd.exe, at that point).

So I'd suggest using the environment variable, or putting TeX's bin 
directory on your path.

Duncan Murdoch

  I have
> provided a batch file (shell script) and and alias (I use a
> Windows command shell with aliasing) that each provide the
> proper VTeX command when "latex" is typed from the command
> line. The batch file in on my PATH, but "R CMD check" still
> fails when it searches for latex.  Is there any way around
> this, or will I have to relent and install MikTeX solely for
> this purpose? 
> 
> Also, R CMD build makes a tarball.  Can I simply ZIP the same
> material that's in the tarball to make a working Windows
> installable package?
> 
> Mike Prager
> Southeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA
> Beaufort, North Carolina  USA
> 
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