[R-pkg-devel] Using the correct R binary in configure script

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On 26 September 2015 at 22:29, peter dalgaard wrote:
| 
| > On 26 Sep 2015, at 17:43 , Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> wrote:
| > 
| > R_HOME is set to the result of the command R RHOME if and only it is unset.
| > 
| > And it usually is unset. 
| 
| Did you actually mean that, Dirk?

Yes. But I didn't make myself very clear, as you noted.

What I meant to say, but did not, sadly, was that via PATH and called the
corresponding R front-end script from the particular (via PATH or explicit
absolute dir/path/to/R we get R_HOME set by the particular R invoked.

Which then calls configure for us, and that is how configure sees it as set
without the need for explicit settings.

| I would expect that R_HOME would be set by "myR CMD whatever" before it got
| to the configure script, so that the default R would only be used as a last
| resort. And R rather actively defends itself against R_HOME being set in
| its environment. 

Quite right.

| E.g.
| 
| $ R_HOME=/tmp R CMD env | grep R_HOME
| WARNING: ignoring environment value of R_HOME
| R_HOME=/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
| 
| (I'm not sure that it is actually supposed to work, but apparently R CMD foo executes 'foo' in the same environment as R CMD check et al.)

Some backends take advantage of that. Rserve comes to mind IIRC.

Dirk

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org