[R-sig-Debian] [R] need help for building R in Ubuntu 8.04

[Tony Plate]

[moving this to R-sig-debian]

Dirk, thanks for this info.

The r-wiki 
http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php?id=getting-started:installation:debian 
contained some slightly different suggestions, but I 
strongly suspect your suggestions are likely to be better.

So, I edited (minimally) the r-wiki to add your suggestions.
(1) added a link to 
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/ (and debian)
  saying "look there first"
(2) added your 3 "apt-get install/build-dep" commands

I suspect more could be changed (i.e., deleting some 
unnecessarily complex advice), but first I wanted to try to 
get answers on two issues:

(1) The R-wiki recommends "aptitude" over "apt-get" (saying 
"Debian is well known for its apt-get command to install and 
update Debian packages. There is also aptitude, which is a 
bit better in handling dependencies etc.")  Is there any 
reason to prefer one over the other? 
(http://www.pthree.org/2007/08/12/aptitude-vs-apt-get/ ?) Is 
it generally OK to mix usage of the two on the same system? 
(and synaptic too?)  Do the two have the same/similar 
arguments and syntax?

(2) The R-wiki page suggests commands that seem designed to 
get around problems that might have been avoided had 
'apt-get build-deps r-base' been used (e.g., './configure 
--x-includes=/usr/include/X11' "–x-includes=/usr/include/X11 
was needed as configure script could not find header 
files.") Are these things better deleted from the Wiki page, 
or are they sometime necessary even in systems that have 
been correctly configured?

(And I'm happy to leave these suggestions alone too, but I 
know that when I've got suggestions from Dirk re Ubuntu, 
they've worked for me, and I've been able to drop the more 
complex fudgy stuff.)

-- Tony Plate


Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:
> On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 02:29:10PM +0200, Martin Maechler wrote:
>>>>>>> "EH" == Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodgess at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>     on Sun, 25 May 2008 13:27:04 -0500 writes:
>>     EH> Try: ./configure --with-x=no
>>
>> well......  no!  really don't.
> 
> Seconded. 
> 
> At best this qualified for the 'then do not do it' school of advice to the 'it hurts when I do this'.
> But it truly missed the underlying issue. See below.
> 
>> If you want to enjoy a Linux system and building from the
>> source, and then maybe learn how that is happening, learning
>> about shell scripts and 'make' and ...
>> then rather do get the extra ubuntu packages needed.
> 
> Or if you 'just' want to run it, install Ubuntu and learn to take
> advantage of the work of others.
> 
>> The advice (below) to get the 'xorg-dev'
>> is definitely good advice. I have it on the list of packages
>> I'd always want to install in addition to the basic
>> ubuntu/debian list.
>>
>> But you most probably will find that you need a few more tools /
>> libraries / headers for your ubuntu system such that you can
>> build R with all the bells and whistles possible.
>>
>> There's the Debian (and "hence" Ubuntu) package
>> 'r-base-dev'
>> which contains 'r-base' (i.e. a *binary* version of R; the one
>> Dirk Eddelbuettel mentioned),
>> but also most of the compilers/libraries/... that you'd want to
>> build R from the sources.
> 
> Just to be a bit more precise:
> 
> i)   'apt-get install r-base' will get you r-base-core and all the
>      recommended packages --- use this if you want to _run_ R
> 
> ii)  'apt-get install r-base-dev' will get all the common header files, 
>      as well as r-base-core use this if you _also want to build /
>      install R packages_ incl from CRAN
> 
> iii) 'apt-get build-dep r-base' will get you _build dependencies_ for
>      R and is probably what Martin wanted here.
> 
>> Last time I did get 'r-base-dev' on a "virgin" ubuntu system,
>> I vaguely remember that it did not contain *really* all the
>> tools I'd wanted, but almost all.
> 
> Bug reports are always welcome and a more constructive form of moving
> things forward than an off-hand comment here :-) Note that I tend not
> to get the ones filed against Ubuntu so file against Debian please.
> 
>> e.g., you may also want the two packages
>>
>>   tcl8.4-dev
>>   tk8.4-dev
> 
> Just curious: what did you need them for ? In case you wanted to build
> R, see iii) above as a possibly more focussed way to get there.
> 
> Dirk
>