[R] make check Error: could not get timezone

[Stephen Berman]

On Fri, 13 Oct 2017 22:36:48 +0200 Stephen Berman <stephen.berman at gmx.net> wrote:

> I just built the latest R-patched from source (SVN-Revision: 73548, Last
> Changed Date: 2017-10-12) and the build completed without a problem but
> `make check' errored out:
>
>   running code in 'reg-tests-1d.R' ...make[3]: *** [Makefile.common:100:
> reg-tests-1d.Rout] Error 1
>   make[3]: Leaving directory '/sources/R-patched/tests'
>   make[2]: *** [Makefile.common:275: test-Reg] Error 2
>   make[2]: Leaving directory '/sources/R-patched/tests'
>   make[1]: *** [Makefile.common:165: test-all-basics] Error 1
>   make[1]: Leaving directory '/sources/R-patched/tests'
>   make: *** [Makefile:239: check] Error 2
>
> The test log reg-tests-1d.Rout.fail ends like this:
>
>   > ## PR#17186 - Sys.timezone() on some Debian-derived platforms
>   > (S.t <- Sys.timezone())
>   [1] NA
>   > if(is.na(S.t) || !nzchar(S.t)) stop("could not get timezone")
>   Error: could not get timezone
>   Execution halted
>
> Is this a cause for concern and if so, what should I do?  My system is
> Linux From Scratch 8.1 (x86_64, linux 4.12.7, glibc 2.26, gcc 7.2.0).

In the meantime I installed R and it seems to be functioning correctly.

I reran the tests with `make -k check' and the above test failed again,
but it was the only one.  I looked at the source of Sys.timezone and on
my system as currently configured (TZ is not set, there is no
/etc/timezone file) this function always returns NA, so the test cannot
succeed.  I built and configured my system following the Linux From
Scratch instructions, so (unless I made a mistake somewhere) it seems
this test is irrelevant for that system.  If this conclusion is correct,
maybe the test can be skipped if /etc/timezone does not exist, or at
least not error out.  Or does that mean my system is somehow
misconfigured?

Steve Berman