[R-pkg-devel] Creating a package that links to a 3rd party library: Technical questions

[Russell Almond]

I'm working on a package called RNetica which links to a 3rd party 
library:  Netica.  Netica is available in both static (libnetica.a) and 
shared (libnetica.so) version (also Netica.dll for windows, but that is 
a separate topic).

I have a version of my package which works very well 
(github_install("ralmond/RNetica")), but it requires manually moving the 
`libnetica.so` file into someplace like `/usr/local/lib` where R will 
find it.

My preferences for how to deal with this are:

1) Figure out a set of flags to send to the linker so that R CMD INSTALL 
links against the static rather than the dynamic library.

2) Figure out how to add a line to the makefile so that `libnetica.so` 
will be copied to a directory where R will find it.  This is a bit 
tricky as a user without admin privileges may not have write permission 
on the proper directory.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.

	--Russell Almond