[R] Error in building R

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007, Giovanni Petris wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
> I am upgrading to the current R 2.5.1 under Sun Solaris 8.

Actually, 2.5.1 is not current: '2.5.1 patched' aka R-patched is and this 
has already been addressed there.

>  I call the configure script with the --without-readline flag, and it 
> works fine. Then, when I invoke make, I get this kind of error messages:
>
>
> make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/R/R-2.5.1-inst/src/library'
> >>> Building/Updating help pages for package 'base'
>     Formats: text html latex example
> Can't use an undefined value as filehandle reference at /usr/local/R/R-2.5.1-inst/share/perl/R/Rdconv.pm line 78.
> >>> Building/Updating help pages for package 'tools'
>     Formats: text html latex example
> Can't use an undefined value as filehandle reference at /usr/local/R/R-2.5.1-inst/share/perl/R/Rdconv.pm line 78.
> >>> Building/Updating help pages for package 'utils'
>     Formats: text html latex example
> Can't use an undefined value as filehandle reference at /usr/local/R/R-2.5.1-inst/share/perl/R/Rdconv.pm line 78.
>
>
> (I don't know if this has to do with perl, but I have version 5.005_03)

It does.  My memory is that version of Perl predates Solaris 8 (it comes 
from the 1990's).  You need Perl >= 5.6.1, and I would suggest installing 
Perl 5.8.x (which is already 6 years' old) as the next version of R will 
require it.

-- 
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