This is documented in the current manuals: please read them. I posted
how to get the compilers used for the CRAN binary, on this list when
Xcode 5 was released (it is for Mountain Lion only):
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2013-September/010327.html
Otherwise see e.g.
http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-patched/R-admin.html#OS-X-packages .
On 09/10/2013 08:07, Robert Bruggner wrote:
Hi Kasper,
Thank you very much for your reply.
Just to clarify, the situation I'm describing is one in which a user has
downloaded XCode 5 and installed the command line tools so that they can, in
theory, compile and install packages from source. However, the compiler
supplied by XCode5 (Apple LLVM 5.0) is different from the one specified in the
R 3.0.2 binary Makeconf file (llvm-g++4.2) and hence, despite having an
installed compiler, they cannot build packages because R attempts to use
llvm-g++4.2 (which does not exist, even with the XCode command line tools
installed). I don't know if this is a big problem but I suspect that any Mac OS
X user who now starts with a fresh install binary install of R and XCode5
command line tools will not be able to build and install C/C++ packages from
source without first modifying the Makeconf file (or ~/.R/Makeconf) to point to
the new compiler supplied by XCode5.
What I was hoping to use configure for was to detect the compiler (Apple LLVM
5.0) that is now distributed with XCode5 and thus, enable users to compile
packages from source after they'd installed the XCode command line tools.
However, I don't think I appreciated the problems with compiling a package with
a compiler different from that which was used to build the R binary - thank
you for that info. Does that mean that the only good option is to submit the
package to CRAN so it can be compiled into a binary with the same compiler
that's used to build the Mac OS X R binary distribution?
Thank you again for all your help!
Cheers,
-Rob
On Oct 8, 2013, at 5:57 PM, Kasper Daniel Hansen <[email protected]>
wrote:
Rob,
What you should do, is _always_ inherit the compiler which was used to build R.
That is the 'Right' way to go and it is what will happen per default if you
are using Makevars to compile you package. If you need to use configure, there
are hints in R-exts and we can help more specifically, preferably you have a
package somewhere. This way you do not run into (weird) problems which can
arise when you use different compilers for R and your package.
The issue you are seeing right now on the Mac is that some users will not be
able to compile packages from source using their system. For most users, if
you distribute your package via CRAN / Bioconductor they will have the option
of receiving a binary version of the package and therefore do not need a C++
compiler. In addition, even if you want them to install from source, using a
configure script will (most likely) not really help at all - if they don't have
the Xcode supplied compiler, they are extremely unlikely to have any other
compiler installed on their system. And really, if a user is using the CRAN
binary of R and wants to install a package from source, it is really their
responsibility to setup their system to do so. In summary, I don't think you
will help anyone with a configure step trying to locate an alternative compiler.
Finally, you can get the Xcode compiler by starting up Xcode, go to preferences ->
Downloads and then click on "install command line tools". It is irritating you
have to do this, but that is the situation.
Best,
Kasper
On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 3:00 PM, Robert Bruggner <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi all,
I'm developing a package that needs to be compiled on installation but am
unsure how to ensure that the proper C++ compiler is invoked when installing
this package from source. Is there anyway to, at build time, auto-detect and
set the available compiler using configure / Makevars?
More specifically, I'm using the CRAN-provided binary of R 3.02 running on Mac
OS 10.8.5 with XCode 5 installed. By default, the Makeconf included with the R
installation ($RHOME/Resources/Makeconf) has CXX set as:
CXX = llvm-g++-4.2 -arch x86_64
However, as llvm-g++-4.2 is no longer distributed with XCode5, package installation fails
when I attempt to install from source with an expected "llvm-g++-4.2: command not
found" message.
I see that one solution is to manually set CXX in the ~/.R/Makevars file.
However, I'm wondering if it's possible to have the combination of a configure
script / Makevars.in automatically detect and set the CXX variable upon
installation.
As I have it specified currently, my configure.ac script use the AC_PROG_CXX
macro to detect and set CXX.
https://github.com/nolanlab/Rclusterpp/blob/dev/configure.ac
Then, in my Makevars.in, I attempt to specify the value of CXX detected by the
configure script
https://github.com/nolanlab/Rclusterpp/blob/dev/src/Makevars.in
I can then run the configure script manually and, in the produced Makevars
file, it appears to detect and set CXX to the proper complier, i.e.:
CXX=g++ -arch x86_64
However, when I then try and install the package, it seems to default back to
the using llvm-g++-4.2 as the compiler and thus, installation fails.
I of course could be approaching this in completely the wrong way. Any
suggestions on how I might be able to auto-detect and set the appropriate
compiler at build time?
-Rob
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Brian D. Ripley, [email protected]
Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
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