R devel - May 2022 - How to access to internal header files

Dear R-devel Mailing List,

I would like to get a better understanding of R's internal structures by 
using R's
C API. For that I would like to have access to all the C header files 
that are listed
here: https://github.com/wch/r-source/tree/trunk/src/include. (i.e. I 
want to e.g.
#include <Defn.h>

However when I install R, there is only a subset of those header files 
available
on my system. While I am aware that files like Defn.h are not intended 
to be used by
R Extensions, I assume there must be some way to configure R's 
compilation to make
these definitions available for my exploration of the language.

I would appreciate any help.

Best regards

Sebastian Fischer

>>>>> Sebastian Fischer 
>>>>>     on Tue, 24 May 2022 09:01:17 +0200 writes:
    > Dear R-devel Mailing List,

    > I would like to get a better understanding of R's internal
structures by
    > using R's
    > C API. For that I would like to have access to all the C header files 
    > that are listed
    > here: https://github.com/wch/r-source/tree/trunk/src/include. (i.e. I 
    > want to e.g.
    > #include <Defn.h>

    > However when I install R, there is only a subset of those header files 
    > available on my system. 

Of course, very much on purpose.
Headers such as Defn.h are *not* part of the API and hence
should not be visible.

    > While I am aware that files like Defn.h are not intended  to be used by
    > R Extensions, I assume there must be some way to configure R's 
    > compilation to make
    > these definitions available for my exploration of the language.

Well, if you want to explore how R is written ... and that's the
only good reason for looking into such private header files ...
then get the sources of R and explore...

The official sources (and even daily snapshots from both
"R-patched" and "R-devel")  are available e.g. from

 https://cran.r-project.org/sources.html


    > I would appreciate any help.

    > Best regards

    > Sebastian Fischer

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