[R] How to connect R and WinBUGS/OpenBUGS/LinBUGS in Linux in Feb. 2009

[Tobias Verbeke]

Uwe Ligges wrote:

>> Hi all,
>> I've managed to get JAGS working on my Ubuntu Hardy Linux with a 32-bit
>> computer and AMD processors using R 2.8.1.  JAGS is great.  I've read 
>> that
>> JAGS is the fastest, but that hasn't been my experience.  At any rate, I
>> have more experience with WinBUGS under Windows and would like a 
>> version of
>> that working as well.
>>
>> It seems like I've read a lot on the subject and tried a lot, but haven't
>> managed to get BUGS to work yet.  The most success I've had is to install
>> WinBUGS or OpenBUGS using this method:
>> http://www.math.aau.dk/~slb/kurser/bayes-08/install.html
>>
>> What you also need to know is that you need to open Wine and add a 
>> drive. Although Z is recommended, I haven't been able to specify it, 
>> but have
>> gotten a D drive to work, using:
>>
>> wine D:/opt/OpenBUGS/winbugs.exe
>>
>> Using this method, OpenBUGS opens.  Now, to be able to open it with 
>> R.  I've
>> read all sorts of discussions about BRugs (which is no longer on CRAN, 
>> but
>> old versions can still be found), rbugs, and R2WinBUGS (which I'm used to
>> using on Windows with WinBUGS).  Some people say R2WinBUGS cannot run
>> OpenBUGS on Linux, some claim they've done it (I think).  It seems the 
>> same
>> thing with everything else.  I've tried making the linbugs and cbugs file
>> recommended elsewhere online.  It's all very confusing.
> 
> For short: It is quite unlikely that BRugs / OpenBUGS (which is called 
> LinBUGS under Linux) works natively under your Linux (although it might 
> work under very specific settings). 

As every now and then I get offline requests from people who stumble on 
this thread

http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp08/archive/132855.html

to give details on how I got OpenBUGS running under GNU/Linux,
I made a stripped-down package that does just that. The approach is 
very, very basic and I only tested this on a few machines and
distributions, but if it can be useful to anyone, I temporarily
put it up at

http://www.openanalytics.be/rOpenBUGS_0.0-1.tar.gz

Best,
Tobias