[R] R on Android

[R. Michael Weylandt]

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 11:28 AM, Simon Fry <s.fry at gmx.ch> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Well i think my problem is, that i don't have the permissions to execute
> something in the folder.
>
> if i try:
>
> ./configure /sdcard/gcc
> or
> make /sdcard/gcc
> makeinstall /sdcard/gcc
>
> it only says permission denied
>
> if i trie to change the permission with
>
> chmod 777 /sdcard/gcc
> it says: operation permited

Is there a "not" missing here? That seems to be a strange error message...

It wouldn't be surprising if you couldn't configure without
write+execute permissions since you execute the configure script which
writes on many other scripts.

Untill you configure, you likely can't run make, so get that to work first.

>
> Can i change the permissions for a folder without root?
> Or is this not the problem?

It depends what the previously existing permissions are, but it's
certainly easier if you

sudo chmod

instead. (sudo XXX instructs the computer to run XXX as root and will
usually prompt for a password)
>
> It's the first time i trie to work with a terminal, so i'm an absolute
> beginner...i tried and tried but the hole thing is not working...
>
> Simon
>

I've not used Android, so I'm going to assume it works like most other Unices...

It might be worth your time to use a "regular" computer and just build
from source there first, where it's a hair easier: Simon Urbanek has a
nice write up of how it's done (on a Mac) here:

http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/RMacOSX-FAQ.html#Building-R-from-sources

though you probably don't need all those flags so really just start
from 2.3 . I would also hold off on worrying about make install for a
non-standard OS for now.

Linux builds (and I assume Android) should be relatively similar so
other tutorials will work if you can find one more to your taste:
Windows is a whole different ball game so don't try to use those
resources.

Building R on Android seems to be a relatively rare undertaking, so I
suggest we keep this on list to possibly attract someone who actually
knows what they're talking about ;-)

Cheers,
Michael