[R] Cygwin and Rtools

[Duncan Murdoch]

David Scott wrote:
> I have just got a new machine and had a basic cygwin installed before it 
> was given to me. It didn't include make. Previously I have installed 
> Rtools to build packages and now I have got myself a bit confused as to 
> whether to just install make from the cygwin packages or to install 
> rtools. I would welcome any advice. I had a look at the rtools section in 
> the Administration Manual and the rtools site without gaining sufficient 
> enlightenment to proceed.
>
> I am running Windows Vista and R 2.6.2
If you want to build R or R packages, you should install Rtools, with 
the Rtools/bin directory ahead of Cygwin in your PATH.  If you want to 
build Cygwin apps, you'll want to put Rtools later (or not mention it at 
all), because Rtools is set up to build native Windows binaries, not 
Cygwin-linked ones.
 
Rtools includes a subset of the Cygwin tools; it's possible that Cygwin 
has newer versions of some of them, but you don't always want them.  In 
particular, make and tar from Cygwin won't work to build R.  See the 
README.txt file in the Rtools 
(http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/README.txt) for details.

The other complication with having both Rtools and Cygwin installed is 
that they both have copies of the Cygwin dlls.  You want the latest 
versions.  Rtools has fairly recent ones, but Cygwin's may be newer.

Duncan Murdoch