[R] How to compile R with command completion?

[Martin Morgan]

Peng Yu wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 10:39 PM, Martin Morgan <mtmorgan at fhcrc.org> wrote:
>> Peng Yu wrote:
>>> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Tobias Verbeke
>>> <tobias.verbeke at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Peng Yu wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I want to compile R with command completion. But I don't find such an
>>>>> option in configure. Can somebody let me know how to enable command
>>>>> completion in an R session?
>>>> AFAIK this is not an option you set when compiling.
>>>> Did you try to type a letter (say 'l') and press the
>>>> TAB key ?
>>>>
>>>> If you are not satisfied, you might want to use
>>>> other R editors or development environments (such
>>>> as StatET for Eclipse or ESS) which implement
>>>> command completion in their idiosyncratic ways.
>>> I have an older version of R where I can do command completion (after
>>> typing TAB, it will list variables that are starting with the already
>>> typed letter. I compiled a newer version R with the default compile
>>> options, which does not do command completion.
>>>
>>> Since the old version can do completion, I believe that there must be
>>> a way to configure the new version also do so. Can somebody share your
>>> insights with me? Thank you!
>> On linux this facility is provided by the readline system library; this
>> should be configured to be true by default and when available; look at
>> the end of the configure output, and check that you have the readline
>> headers installed.
> 
> I get the following configure output that is related to readline. Why
> 'rl_completion_matches' doesn't exist? What should I do with it?
> 
> checking readline/history.h usability... yes
> checking readline/history.h presence... yes
> checking for readline/history.h... yes
> checking readline/readline.h usability... yes
> checking readline/readline.h presence... yes
> checking for readline/readline.h... yes
> checking for rl_callback_read_char in -lreadline... no
> checking for main in -lncurses... yes
> checking for rl_callback_read_char in -lreadline... yes
> checking for history_truncate_file... yes
> checking whether rl_completion_matches exists and is declared... no

I don't know. Ask on the R-devel mailing list. Include the output of R's
sessionInfo(), your operating system version, and the version of
readline (e.g., from /usr/include/readline/readline.h)

Martin

> 
> 
> checking readline/history.h usability... yes
> checking readline/history.h presence... yes
> checking for readline/history.h... yes
> checking readline/readline.h usability... yes
> checking readline/readline.h presence... yes
> checking for readline/readline.h... yes
> checking for rl_callback_read_char in -lreadline... no
> checking for main in -lncurses... yes
> checking for rl_callback_read_char in -lreadline... yes
> checking for history_truncate_file... yes
> checking whether rl_completion_matches exists and is declared... no
> 
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-- 
Martin Morgan
Computational Biology / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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