[R-SIG-Mac] R.app 64-bit problems

[Simon Urbanek]

On Feb 13, 2008, at 5:39 PM, Eric Wooten wrote:

> Hello there
> Preface with MacPro, X 10.5.2, have installed all the suggested  
> tools and
> what-have-you from the R-developer's pages.
>
> Having problems with a 64-bit dev-branch install. Can merrily invoke  
> R at
> the command line with --arch=x86_64 and subsequently get it to confirm
> everything is as expected with noquote(unlist(format(.Machine))).
>
> However, when I use the R.app for Mac OS X GUI rev. 4944 for R
> 2.7.xDeployment, I get both a reported arch of i386 and the 32-bit  
> response
> to the noquote command above. What gives? Try as I might to set  
> x86_64 for
> the GUI, I cannot. Am I missing something?

Not really - note that a regular Mac application (like R.app) can only  
be either 32-bit or 64-bit, but not both, because there is no way to  
change the behavior (the command-line R uses a trick by first starting  
a script which will read the parameters and determine the executable  
to run).
In addition, the GUI from the nightly pages is a Tiger GUI, so it  
cannot use 64-bit anyway (since Tiger didn't support 64-bit Cocoa).  
Hence - you have no choice but to compile the 64-bit GUI.


> And yes, I would normally just build my own x86_64-targeted R.app,  
> but am finding that to be a life-shortening experience, to say the  
> least. None of the published "solutions" have worked, even with  
> additional modifications and lots of trial and error.
>

It should not be really hard as the GUI compiles in 64-bit mode out of  
the box once you tell Xcode that you want it. As said earlier, the  
default it to target Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), so you have to open the R  
project in Xcode and change the target from 10.4 to 10.5 (click on the  
top project icon, <Cmd><I>, change "Cross-Develop Using Target SDK"  
either to "Mac OS X 10.5" or "Current Mac OS X"). If you want 64-bit  
then click on the "Build" tab and choose "64-bit" in  
"Architectures" (uncheck 32-bit if present). That's all.

For convenience I have put such a build of the current GUI (4944) for  
64-bit Intel machines in
http://r.research.att.com/R-GUI-4944-2.7-x86_64.dmg

There is a catch though ;). The current nightly builds don't pass make  
check on x86_64, so until that is fixed, the 64-bit builds are not  
available from the nightly site and you have to compile it yourself  
(at your own risk) ...
Also if you have issues with config.h not being found, update to the  
latest R-devel or (if using R-2.6.x) copy it from src/include/config.h  
(after using configure) to /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/ 
PrivateHeaders/

Cheers,
Simon