R devel - Jun 2019 - undefined symbol errors when compiling package using ALTREP API

Hello,

I'm developing a package (lazyvec) that makes full use of the ALTREP
framework (R >= 3.6.0).
One application of the package is to wrap existing ALTREP vectors in a new
ALTREP vector and pass all calls from R to the contained object. The
purpose of this is to provide a diagnostic framework for working with
ALTREP vectors and show information about internal calls.

The package builds on Windows and OSX but fails to build on Linux as can be
seen from the link to the Travis build:
https://travis-ci.org/fstpackage/lazyvec/jobs/539442806

The reason of build failure is that many ALTREP methods generate 'undefined
symbol' errors upon building the package (on Linux). I've checked the R
source code and the undefined symbols seems to be related to the
'attribute_hidden' before the function definition. For example, the
method
'ALTVEC_EXTRACT_SUBSET' is defined as:

SEXP attribute_hidden ALTVEC_EXTRACT_SUBSET(SEXP x, SEXP indx, SEXP call)

My question is why these differences between Windows / OSX and Linux exist
and if they are intentional?
Do I need special build parameters to make sure my package builds correctly
on Linux?

thanks for all the hard work!

best,
Mark

PS: some additional info:

package github repository: https://github.com/fstpackage/lazyvec
AppVeyor package build logs:
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/fstpackage/lazyvec
Travis package build logs: https://travis-ci.org/fstpackage/lazyvec/builds

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On Tue, 4 Jun 2019, Mark Klik wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm developing a package (lazyvec) that makes full use of the ALTREP
> framework (R >= 3.6.0).
> One application of the package is to wrap existing ALTREP vectors in a new
> ALTREP vector and pass all calls from R to the contained object. The
> purpose of this is to provide a diagnostic framework for working with
> ALTREP vectors and show information about internal calls.
>
> The package builds on Windows and OSX but fails to build on Linux as can be
> seen from the link to the Travis build:
> https://travis-ci.org/fstpackage/lazyvec/jobs/539442806
>
> The reason of build failure is that many ALTREP methods generate
'undefined
> symbol' errors upon building the package (on Linux). I've checked
the R
> source code and the undefined symbols seems to be related to the
> 'attribute_hidden' before the function definition. For example, the
method
> 'ALTVEC_EXTRACT_SUBSET' is defined as:
>
> SEXP attribute_hidden ALTVEC_EXTRACT_SUBSET(SEXP x, SEXP indx, SEXP call)
>
> My question is why these differences between Windows / OSX and Linux exist
> and if they are intentional?
It is intentional that this not be part of the public API. This is
true of almost all functions with an ALTREP prefix. You need a
different approach that avoids using these directly.

Best,

luke
> Do I need special build parameters to make sure my package builds correctly
> on Linux?
>
> thanks for all the hard work!
>
> best,
> Mark
>
> PS: some additional info:
>
> package github repository: https://github.com/fstpackage/lazyvec
> AppVeyor package build logs:
> https://ci.appveyor.com/project/fstpackage/lazyvec
> Travis package build logs: https://travis-ci.org/fstpackage/lazyvec/builds
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
-- 
Luke Tierney
Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
University of Iowa                  Phone:             319-335-3386
Department of Statistics and        Fax:               319-335-3017
    Actuarial Science
241 Schaeffer Hall                  email:   luke-tierney at uiowa.edu
Iowa City, IA 52242                 WWW:  http://www.stat.uiowa.edu

thanks for clearing that up, so these methods are actually not meant to be
exported on Windows and OSX?
Some of the ALTREP methods that now use 'attribute_hidden' would be very
useful to packages that aim to be ALTREP aware, should the currently
(exported) API be considered final?

thanks  for your time & best,
Mark

On Tue, Jun 4, 2019 at 6:52 PM Tierney, Luke <luke-tierney at uiowa.edu>
wrote:
> On Tue, 4 Jun 2019, Mark Klik wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm developing a package (lazyvec) that makes full use of the
ALTREP
> > framework (R >= 3.6.0).
> > One application of the package is to wrap existing ALTREP vectors in a
> new
> > ALTREP vector and pass all calls from R to the contained object. The
> > purpose of this is to provide a diagnostic framework for working with
> > ALTREP vectors and show information about internal calls.
> >
> > The package builds on Windows and OSX but fails to build on Linux as
can
> be
> > seen from the link to the Travis build:
> > https://travis-ci.org/fstpackage/lazyvec/jobs/539442806
> >
> > The reason of build failure is that many ALTREP methods generate
> 'undefined
> > symbol' errors upon building the package (on Linux). I've
checked the R
> > source code and the undefined symbols seems to be related to the
> > 'attribute_hidden' before the function definition. For
example, the
> method
> > 'ALTVEC_EXTRACT_SUBSET' is defined as:
> >
> > SEXP attribute_hidden ALTVEC_EXTRACT_SUBSET(SEXP x, SEXP indx, SEXP
call)
> >
> > My question is why these differences between Windows / OSX and Linux
> exist
> > and if they are intentional?
>
> It is intentional that this not be part of the public API. This is
> true of almost all functions with an ALTREP prefix. You need a
> different approach that avoids using these directly.
>
> Best,
>
> luke
>
> > Do I need special build parameters to make sure my package builds
> correctly
> > on Linux?
> >
> > thanks for all the hard work!
> >
> > best,
> > Mark
> >
> > PS: some additional info:
> >
> > package github repository: https://github.com/fstpackage/lazyvec
> > AppVeyor package build logs:
> > https://ci.appveyor.com/project/fstpackage/lazyvec
> > Travis package build logs:
> https://travis-ci.org/fstpackage/lazyvec/builds
> >
> >       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> >
>
> --
> Luke Tierney
> Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
> University of Iowa                  Phone:             319-335-3386
> Department of Statistics and        Fax:               319-335-3017
>     Actuarial Science
> 241 Schaeffer Hall                  email:   luke-tierney at uiowa.edu
> Iowa City, IA 52242                 WWW:  http://www.stat.uiowa.edu
>
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