[R-SIG-Mac] Several R installation issues

[Herve Pages]

Simon Urbanek wrote:
> On May 23, 2006, at 10:53 PM, Simon Urbanek wrote:
>
>   
>> For the record you can switch the R version e.g. to 2.3 using
>> sudo ln -sf /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/Current 2.3
>>     
>
> Of course that was wrong ;) safer and correct is:
>
> sudo rm -f /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/Current
> sudo ln -sf 2.3 /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/Current
>   
Simon,

Changing the symlink still doesn't really solve the issue because it 
only enables
one R installation at a time. What if I want to work simultaneously with 
R 2.3.0
in one terminal and with R 2.2.1 in another terminal? Or if I want to 
allow some
Bioconductor developper to remote loggin and either use R 2.3.0 or R 
2.4.0 at
the command line (R 2.3.0 to test the package he has in our release 
branch and
R 2.4.0 for the package he has in our devel branch)? Or if I want to setup
automated builds that use R 2.3.0 for packages in our release branch and
R 2.4.0 for packages in our devel branch?

I've also tried to compile and install R in a non standard place (by 
using the
--enable-framework option at configure time) then I can manage to have R 
2.3.0
and R 2.4.0 in 2 completely different frameworks, e.g. one under ~/2.3 
and one
under ~/2.4. This works in the sense that now I can start R 2.3.0 and R 
2.4.0
_simultaneouly_ (by using ~/2.3/R.framework/Resources/bin/R and
~/2.4/R.framework/Resources/bin/R respectively).
But is this really supported? I mean, how will this play with the 
installation and
loading of CRAN binary packages? Some of them are dynamically linked
against stuff found under /Library/Frameworks/R.framework. For example it
seems that XML_0.99-7.tgz (from CRAN) is dynamically linked to
  /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/2.3/Resources/lib/libR.dylib
How can I make this package work with my own R installed under ~/2.3?
It's OK if the answer is something like "it won't work, if you have 
compiled and
installed R in a non-standard place, then you must install packages from 
source" ;-)
No problem, I can do that... but then what about the binary packages I'm 
producing
myself? With my settup they will be linked against stuff under ~/2.3 or 
~/2.4 so
I can't distribute them anymore :-/

OK I realize that the topic is moving now to building binary packages 
issues so in
order to stick to the original problem, the question is:

  How can I have 2 installations of R that can be used simultaneously?

Thanks for your help,

H.

PS: And for my automated builds, I don't need to have R 2.3.0 and R 
2.4.0 on the
same machine anymore because I now have access to a 2nd machine for that 
(since
this morning) :-)

-- 
------------------------
Hervé Pagès
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