Peter Kleiweg wrote: > Prof Brian Ripley schreef op de 7e dag van de wijnmaand van het jaar 2005: > > >>On Fri, 7 Oct 2005, Peter Kleiweg wrote: >> >> >>>Duncan Murdoch schreef op de 6e dag van de wijnmaand van het jaar 2005: >>> >>> >>>>On Fri, 7 Oct 2005, Peter Kleiweg wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>>What has changed in R for Windows from version 1.7.1 to >>>>>2.2.0 that won't allow me to build binary packages? >>>> >>>>Many things have changed; I don't know which is causing >>>>the failure you see. One change is that instructions are >>>>now collected in the Installation and Administration >>>>manual. Try following the setup instructions there and see >>>>if it still fails. >>> >>>I can't find anything on building packages for Windows in >>>that manual. >> >>Your problems was installing, so the section on `Installing >>Packages' should help you. > > > Installing worked fine. Building a binary distribution (with > compiled help files) is what didn't work. > > This worked fine: > > Rcmd build iL04 > > But that just gave a gzip'ed tarfile, not a zip-file, and > without the compiled helpfiles. > > This didn't work: > > Rcmd build --force --binary iL04 > > > >>>I did find a solution to the problem. On a Linux install, >>>each package has a file CONTENTS. These are missing from the >>>Windows install. I copied those files from my Linux install >>>to my Windows install, and then I could build my own >>>package. So I guess, these CONTENTS files should be included >>>in the Windows install. >> >>And indeed they are, as the presence of 500+ packages on CRAN >>for Windows will show you. > > > Well, I just ran the install program for Windows, with compiled > html help, but without the ordinary html help files. In that > case, no CONTENTS files get installed. > > >>The recommended way to build a binary package on Windows is >> >>R CMD INSTALL --build > > > Yes, that works. Even without the CONTENTS files. And this is > recommended in the manual "Creating R packages", another manual > than Duncan Murdoch was referring to. > > I was using a method that was recommended in earlier versions. > Perhaps that method should just be disabled, with a > message about the current method, instead of having it fail for > obscure reasons.
I agree there should be only one method, and it should work. The problem is: - Users with limited permissions can't run INSTALL, because it needs write access to R_HOME/library. - Because Windows doesn't have soft links, the only way we have to get cross references in the help files to work is to install to R_HOME/library. I'd prefer to fix "Rcmd build --binary" so that it got the help links right and then have "Rcmd INSTALL --build" use it first, then install the .zip file, but I haven't taken the time to do this. I don't like having two parallel tracks of very similar code (because of problems like yours, where the one I don't personnally use falls out of date and stops working). Duncan Murdoch ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
