[R-SIG-Mac] tools for compiling R from source on Leopard

[Michael Braun]

Simon:

Thanks for clarifying all of this.  The statement in section 2.1.2 of  
the MacOS FAQ is what threw me off a bit (I thought when matching 3.x  
and 4.x, the x had to match as well.  My mistake).  Certainly, I don't  
need to be using experimental, unsupported tools.  Again, I probably  
just read way too much into the instructions.

  But I do want to be sure that I have a 64-bit build of R  that  is  
linked to the vecLib BLAS (similar to my current configuration on  
Linux).  Is there a way to do this without compiling from source?  I  
see there are instructions on the R for MacOS developer page, but  
these are also flagged as "experimental."  If I don't want to be too  
experimental, I'm not sure how to get to where I want to go otherwise.

Thanks,

Michael






On Mar 2, 2008, at 11:04 AM, Simon Urbanek wrote:

> Michael,
>
> the instructions you are referring to (gcc-4.2-based) are for  
> experimental R builds using cutting-edge unreleased tools, so you're  
> pretty much on your own there. So let me first address "offical" way  
> as documented in the FAQ:
> The gfortran compiler the FAQ refers to is on CRAN (http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/tools 
> ) - it is also the first download on the R for Mac Tools page. That  
> is all you need (Xcode + the above Fortran) and both the FAQ and the  
> tools page specifically say so.
>
> Now to your quest for experimental, unsupported tools (see also  
> comments inline below). The only reason to use gcc-4.2 is if you  
> want to play with OpenMP. Note that the gcc-4.2 is known to have  
> bugs, so tread with care.
>
>
>> Hi.  This week I received my very first Mac (I was previously a  
>> Linux  user), and I am now trying to compile R from source.  I am  
>> running Mac  OS 10.5.2, and I have downloaded and installed Xcode  
>> 3.0.  Following  instructions on the R for Mac OS FAQ page I see  
>> that I need to install  gfortran 4.2.1.  However, Xcode only comes  
>> with gcc 4.0.1, and I  understand that the versions need to be the  
>> same.
>>
>
> That is not true (and I'm not sure why concluded it). Only the major  
> version (3.x vs 4.x) has to match (as the FAQ tells you), so gcc  
> 4.0.1 + gfortran 4.2.1 are just fine.
>
>
>> The R for Mac tools site mentions that the Apple version for gcc  
>> 4.2.1 is available from ADC, but I just cannot find it anywhere
>
> ADC: http://connect.apple.com/
> Login, click on Downloads -> Developer Tools -> GCC 4.2 Developer  
> Preview 1
> If it's not there, please let me know.
>
>> (I Googled, searched, etc, with no luck--can someone please point  
>> me in the right direction?).  So, I ran  the provided  
>> gcc42build5531.pkg installation file.  The installer ran with no  
>> errors, but it doesn't seem to install anywhere
>
> Try typing
> gcc-4.2
>
>
>> (I even created a test folder to install to, but after the  
>> installation, that folder was empty).
>
> Which is expected - try enabling the installer log (Window- 
> >Installer Log) if you're interested in the details. If you're more  
> comfortable with command-line tools and want to learn more about  
> packages on OS X, have a look at "man pkgutil" and "man installer".  
> For old-style packages (which are bundles) see also "man pax" and  
> "man lsbom".
>
>
>>  gcc --version still indicates that the version is 4.0.1.
>
> Yes, gcc is a link to gcc-4.0, not to gcc-4.2.
>
>
>> The gfortran-42.pkg file installed correctly.
>>
>> I know this sounds more like a Mac OS problem than an R problem,
>
> There is no problem, really ;).
>
>
>> but since I am using tools (and following instructions)
>> designed specifically for R, I thought I'd ask for help here.   I  
>> suppose that all I really need is to be able to effectively install  
>> either gcc 4.2.1 (since I have the R-approved gfortran 4.2.1  
>> installed) or an R-approved gfortran 4.0.1 (since I have gcc  
>> 4.0.1installed).
>>
>
> No, that is wrong (see above). If you followed the instructions  
> you'd use gcc 4.0.1 from Apple and gfortran 4.2.1 from CRAN. This is  
> how the release is built.
>
> FWIW: Although it is a nice exercise, I'm not quite sure why you  
> want to build R from sources unless you want to modify it - note  
> that your result is likely to be incompatible with the packages we  
> create (unless you build the full multi-arch universal build).
>
> One more side-note on the tools: now that you have installed several  
> tools in your system (gcc 4.0, 4.2, two different gfortrans etc.),  
> you should be aware that although you can use any combination of  
> them, the library lookup is common to all, so unless you de-install  
> the gfortran from /usr/local/bin (the CRAN verison) [via /usr/local/ 
> bin/gfortran-uninstall], even the binaries compiled with the Leopard  
> gfotran (/usr/bin/gfortran-4.2] will be linked to the /usr/local/lib/ 
> libgfortran dynamic library, because it has higher precedence than  
> the static library that the system gfortran supplies. This is not  
> really a problem as long as you are aware of it, but it that reduces  
> the portability of your binaries a bit (you'll have to ship the  
> gfortran shared library with your binaries if they use Fortran). If  
> you don't understand what I'm saying, don't worry too much :) it  
> doesn't affect anything as long as you stay on the same machine.
>
> Cheers,
> Simon
>