[R-SIG-Mac] Problem with readline when building R from source.

[Simon Urbanek]

On May 20, 2010, at 8:33 PM, Rolf Turner wrote:

> 
> I (just now) attempted to build an older version of R (2.10.1)
> from source.  The ./configure step came to a halt with an error:
> 
>> configure: error: --with-readline=yes (default) and headers/libs are not available
> 
> In the past I had been able to build R from source with no problems.
> 
> A short time ago, after installing R 2.11.0 (and having some problems with x11()
> plotting) I attempted to go back to 2.10.1 by building from source, and found
> that I couldn't, due to the foregoing configure error.
> 
> I was then told I could resolve the x11() plotting problems by updating my OS.
> I finally got around to doing that --- just now --- and indeed this fixed the
> x11() plotting problems.
> 
> I then figured I'd check and if it had also fixed the ``headers/libs are not
> available'' problem --- it hadn't.
> 
> So can anyone tell me (preferably in monosyllables, i.e. please make it easy
> to understand)

Install readline (library + headers) - it is explained in the FAQ.

monosyllabic instructions: run

curl -s http://r.research.att.com/libs/readline-5.2-12-darwin8-bin4.tar.gz | sudo tar fvxz - -C /

The error you get means that you have some broken readline (or compatible) in your system. The only way to find out exactly is to look at config.log since it is specific to your particular setup (stock OS X does not have that problem AFAIK).

Cheers,
Simon


> how I can fix the ``headers/libs are not available'' problem?
> I.e. how do I make the ``headers/libs'' available?
> 
> I ***would*** like to be able to build R from source, just as a fallback.
> 
> Ta.
> 
> 	cheers,
> 
> 		Rolf Turner
> 
> 
> P. S.  My OS is Mac OS X 10.6.3.  The screen output from configure,  just before
> the error, was:
> 
>        .
>        .
>        .
> checking for library containing dlopen... none required
> checking readline/history.h usability... yes
> checking readline/history.h presence... yes
> checking for readline/history.h... yes
> checking readline/readline.h usability... yes
> checking readline/readline.h presence... yes
> checking for readline/readline.h... yes
> checking for rl_callback_read_char in -lreadline... no
> checking for main in -lncurses... yes
> checking for rl_callback_read_char in -lreadline... no
> checking for history_truncate_file... no
> 
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