[R] Help with installing a .tar.gz package on windows

[Jeff Newmiller]

Lucy, you have stepped into something of a mess. Although you just want to install the package to use it, installing from source often (but not always) requires the ability to compile C, C++, or Fortran, and discussions about development really belong on the R-devel mailing list. The steps needed may be extremely simple, or quite complex depending on how that package is constructed. They are automatic on most operating systems, but on Windows you have to learn a bit more than you appear comfortable with to make the conversion to binary.

In short, if you cannot utilize the documentation to build it yourself, you should wait for it to get through the review process at CRAN so you can install a binary version from a repository, or ask the library developer to create a "preview" binary version for you. If you want to pursue the compile it yourself approach further you are going to have to take your questions to R-devel and be prepared to read the documentation more carefully so you can ask specific questions rather than open-ended ones.

Your question about writing commands in R is an example of an open-ended question, since you did not say which commands you are thinking of. You do have to use the operating system command line ("cmd") in several cases, and you have to get the environment variables setup properly before those commands will work (which is operating-system specific and not about R) but the R team cannot reproduce documentation for every operating system so you need to learn that with Google.
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Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

Lucy Leigh <Lucy.Leigh at newcastle.edu.au> wrote:

>Hi,
>I have had a look at the manual but it makes no sense to me. I have
>downloaded RTools, and the InnoSetup,
>but I don't understand how to use these to install my package? Am I
>meant to be writing commands
>in R itself, or in these other things I've downloaded?
>Lucy
>
>>>> Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodgess at gmail.com> 9/07/2013 5:30 pm >>>
>Hi Lucy:
>
>Did you look at the R Installation and Administration manuals?  There's
>a
>good section about installing on Windows via Rtools.
>
>
>
>On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 10:18 PM, Lucy Leigh
><Lucy.Leigh at newcastle.edu.au>wrote:
>
>> Great thank you - are there any resources that step through how to
>use
>> RTools to compile the
>> source package and install it in R on (64-bit windows) ?
>>
>> >>> Berend Hasselman <bhh at xs4all.nl> 8/07/2013 6:38 pm >>>
>>
>> On 08-07-2013, at 02:15, "Lucy Leigh" <Lucy.Leigh at newcastle.edu.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Hi,
>> > I have a source package that isn't available as a windows zip
>file.
>> Can
>> > anyone explain to me how I can install this on my windows R
>> platform?
>> > When I use the following code:
>> > install.packages("PReMiuM_3.0.21.tar.gz", type = "source")
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Where did you get that version from?
>> CRAN has version 3.0.20 and that is available as a binary Windows
>> package (.zip).
>>
>> As for the error message: you have to have Rtools installed to
>compile
>> source packages.
>>
>> Berend
>>
>> > I get this error message:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > * installing *source* package 'PReMiuM' ...
>> > ** libs
>> >
>> > *** arch - i386
>> > ERROR: compilation failed for package 'PReMiuM'
>> > * removing 'C:/Program Files/R/R-3.0.1/library/PReMiuM'
>> > Warning messages:
>> > 1: running command '"C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-30~1.1/bin/x64/R" CMD INSTALL
>> -l
>> > "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.0.1\library" "PReMiuM_3.0.21.tar.gz"' had
>> status
>> > 1
>> > 2: In install.packages("PReMiuM_3.0.21.tar.gz", type = "source") :
>> >  installation of package ‘PReMiuM_3.0.21.tar.gz’ had non-zero
>> exit
>> > status
>> >>
>> >
>> > Thanks for any help anyone can give me,
>> > Lucy
>> >
>> > ______________________________________________
>> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help 
>> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html 
>> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help 
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html 
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>Erin Hodgess
>Associate Professor
>Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
>University of Houston - Downtown
>mailto: erinm.hodgess at gmail.com
>
>______________________________________________
>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>PLEASE do read the posting guide
>http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.