The current builds now contains tests. As Brian noted size is probably not an 
issue anymore so it was the easiest to simply run install-tests in the build.

Cheers,
Simon


On Feb 1, 2012, at 2:18 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:

> Hi Simon,
> 
> On Feb 1, 2012, at 12:08 PM, Simon Urbanek wrote:
> 
>> Marc,
>> 
>> On Feb 1, 2012, at 12:13 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> 
>>> I have been building R from source for a number of years on Linux and for 
>>> the past 3 years, on OSX. Since circa version 2.9.0 I believe, there have 
>>> been functions available in the 'tools' package to run post-installation 
>>> tests of the base and recommended packages. These parallel the post-build 
>>> from source 'make check-all' functionality, but can be run within R. They 
>>> run the help file examples, more extensive package specific tests as well 
>>> as vignette code when present.
>>> 
>>> When building from source, one can run 'make install-tests' to install the 
>>> required files to run the more extensive package tests after the initial 
>>> build, rather then just the examples in the help files.
>>> 
>>> On Windows, there is an option during the GUI installation of the pre-built 
>>> binary, to install these additional test files.
>>> 
>>> When installing the pre-built binary for OSX, just to consider that path, I 
>>> did not see an option to install these test files and I don't see any CLI 
>>> functionality to replicate the installation of the test files that would be 
>>> performed when building from source. A search of the R.framework tree did 
>>> not yield any indication that the files are present, which would normally 
>>> be in a 'tests' folder (eg. see 
>>> https://svn.r-project.org/R/branches/R-2-14-branch/tests/).
>>> 
>>> So, are these files not installed or made available when using the OSX 
>>> binary or am I missing something?
>> 
>> Yes, they are not available in the binary distribution. You can still use 
>> make install-tests when compiling your own R, and since they are 
>> arch-independent you can pick any architecture for that.
>> 
>> It would be certainly possible to include the test files in the 
>> distribution, but so far you are the first person asking about that, so it 
>> doesn't seem prudent. However, it would be even easier to just add a 
>> separate tar ball of tests to the http://R.reasearch.att.com site for 
>> nightly builds if that would satisfy your needs.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Simon
> 
> 
> Thanks for your reply and confirmation. I can certainly continue, as I have 
> done, to build R from source. In my case, I build 32 bit R, as I don't have a 
> need for the additional memory address space provided by 64 bits, even though 
> I have 8Gb on my MBP. It takes about 20 minutes to build and another 40 to 
> run the full suite of tests.
> 
> I was just doing some forward looking, considering alternatives to building 
> from source and instead using the OSX binaries, both the stable release on 
> CRAN and the patched versions that you kindly provide at the URL you list 
> above. There are benefits to using the "official" binaries of course.
> 
> Providing a tarball of the tests folder, matching svn revs, for the 
> nightlies, would certainly be helpful. Presumably there would need to be a 
> brief README file so that folks would know how and where to install them. I 
> can assist with that, if you desire. The default location would be 
> /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resource/tests (eg. R.home("tests")).
> 
> My broad perspective is that these tests are in effect, an integral part of 
> validating an R installation, which is something that I do. While this has 
> special meaning for folks involved in clinical trials (eg. see 6.3 in 
> http://www.r-project.org/doc/R-FDA.pdf), it seems logical that this would 
> have value to folks in other domains as well. It would make it easier for 
> useRs to fully utilize the functions in 'tools' that R Core has taken the 
> time and consideration to provide.
> 
> Presumably, somewhere along the way around the time of 2.9.0, a decision was 
> made to enable the test files to be optionally installed when using the 
> Windows binary for ease of access, to enable that user base to be able to run 
> the more extensive tests available. It would seem logical from a consistency 
> perspective, to enable the OSX user base to have similar ease of access. I 
> can't speak to what the various Linux packagers of R do, since that may vary 
> across distributions due to differing packaging standards and it is possible 
> that some may not even be aware of the tests functionality.
> 
> Thus, if and when convenient, it would seem ideal to make these a standard 
> part of the OSX binaries. The entire tests tree is only about 5 Mb, so it 
> does not materially add to local data storage requirements.
> 
> Thanks again Simon and let me know what I can do to assist. Feel free to 
> contact me offlist.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Marc
> 
> 
>> 
>>> I did not see anything relevant in the OSX FAQ for R and a search of the 
>>> manuals and the archives yielded no joy. Presumably, one can just copy the 
>>> files from the SVN repo above, being sure to match rev numbers during the 
>>> check-out.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for any insights.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Marc Schwartz
> 
> 

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