[Rd] Need some help for building R!

Prof Brian Ripley
Mon, 26 Mar 2001 08:02:05 -0000

On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Kenneth Cabrera wrote:

> Hello Dear R Developers and Users:
>
> I'm trying to compile R with all the tools of the CRAN page.
> I compile the R-1.2.2 version without problem.
>
> But when I try to compile the development version 1.3.0 it
> doesn't work  when I write the command:
>
> make BUILD=MINGW32
>
> First it shows me something like this (I think without problems):
> As I make when I compile succesfuly the R-1.2.2 version:

[...]

> Then it stops with this error:
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> gcc: unrecognized option '-shared'
> ld:R.def: file format not recognized; treating as linker script
> ld:R.def:1: parse error
> F:\GCC-29~1.2\BIN\MAKE.EXE: *** [R.dll] Error 1
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What is my mistake? (Remember that the process work with the previous
> version 1.2.2)

Not reading the documentation!   The file CHANGES says:

rw1030
=====
No Windows-specific changes (nor are any planned).

Support for earlier compilers has been dropped: you must use a
compiler system that supports --shared and an in-memory dlltool.


So, please get the compiler system as recommended in the INSTALL file.
(Yours must be over a year old.)  There's a good reason for this: I am not
prepared to keep testing under obselete compilers like yours.

If you want to play with development versions of R you do really need to
read the documentation, and to be aware that it is an unstable version:
there is no guarantee that it will compile anywhere, let alone under
Windows (which you didn't mention: please do so).  It is very likely that
R-devel will be broken under Windows for several periods between now and
the release of 1.3.0 as new features are added.

And please do not post to both R-help and R-devel.

--
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 272860 (secr)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595