R devel - Nov 2004 - Please don't assume a display for package installation

SciViews is the latest of several packages that need an X server to 
complete package installation.

Please bear in mind that packages may get installed on a server with no 
display, yet run on client workstations with displays.  If your package is 
intended to start a window when it starts up, please test for a display 
first (e.g. via capabilities("X11")).

There are ways around this (running Xvfb, arranging a remote display) but 
they are tedious at best (and few machines come with Xvfb installed).

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@stats.ox.ac.uk
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

On Tue, Nov 30, 2004 at 09:09:23AM +0000, Prof Brian Ripley
wrote:
> SciViews is the latest of several packages that need an X server to 
> complete package installation.
>
> Please bear in mind that packages may get installed on a server with no 
> display, yet run on client workstations with displays.  If your package is 
Or are built in a chroot / batch mode setting without $DISPLAY.  I had two
or three CRAN/BioC packages fail as well when I auto-built over 500 packages
(i.e. all not yet available as Debian binaries) for the newest Quantian
(which is currently being uploaded; takes some 20 to 24 hours on my capped
domestic broadband line).
> intended to start a window when it starts up, please test for a display 
> first (e.g. via capabilities("X11")).
> 
> There are ways around this (running Xvfb, arranging a remote display) but 
> they are tedious at best (and few machines come with Xvfb installed).
Yes, would be nice to fix this.

Dirk

-- 
If your hair is standing up, then you are in extreme danger.
      -- http://www.usafa.af.mil/dfp/cockpit-phys/fp1ex3.htm