R devel - Jun 2008 - Fail to call AC_CACHE_CHECK on R 2.7.0 for Solaris

I've tried to build R 2.6.1 and 2.7.0 on Solaris 10 update 4 (SPARC) and 
both configure ok, so you might ask why I suspect there is a problem.

I tried to build the maths program Sage

http://www.sagemath.org/

version 3.0.3alpha1. Sage fails when building R 2.6.1 - (Sage includes R 
in the package). The relavant bit of Sage, which is only using an 
unmodified R configure script is:

checking iconv.h usability... yes
checking iconv.h presence... yes
checking for iconv.h... yes
checking for iconv... in libiconv
checking whether iconv accepts "UTF-8", "latin1" and
"UCS-*"... no
checking for iconvlist... yes
configure: error: --with-iconv=yes (default) and a suitable iconv is
not available

Looking at the Sage problem in detail, I believe I know the reason and 
are somewhat surprised R builds at all on Solaris. I think this problem 
is an R problem, not a Sage problem.

For some reason the R "configure" script was not happy with my
readline,
but after trying to configure with the configure option

--with-readline=no

The R 2.6.1 source configured ok. I did not bother running 'make' but 
there were
no failures when the configure script was run.  I then repeated this
with the latest version of R (2.7.0) and got similar results.

Looking at the file configure.ac in R (both 2.6.1 and 2.7.0), I see:

## iconv headers and function.
if test "${use_iconv}" = yes; then
  R_ICONV
  if test "$r_cv_iconv_latin1" != yes; then
    AC_MSG_ERROR([--with-iconv=yes (default) and a suitable iconv is
not available])
  fi
else
    AC_MSG_WARN([--with-iconv=no is deprecated and will be withdrawn
shortly])
fi

Clearly the value of r_cv_iconv_latin1 determines if this test passes
or fails and so whether the error message that I get is printed or not.

The variable r_cv_iconv_latin1 is never set directly in configure, but
by in a Macro called AC_CACHE_CHECK in the file m4/R.m4.

Looking in that macro r4/R.m4 we see:

  AC_CACHE_CHECK([whether iconv accepts "UTF-8", "latin1"
and "UCS-
*"],
  [r_cv_iconv_latin1],

So it would appear to me that AC_CACHE_CHECK needs to be run in order
that r_cv_iconv_latin will be set properly. But looking at
configure.ac, I think AC_CACHE_CHECK is only called on Linux, and not
on Solaris. Obviously this could explain why this bit of Sage works on
Linux, but not Solaris.

## check for visible __libc_stack_end on Linux
case "${host_os}" in
  linux*)
    AC_CACHE_CHECK([for visible __lib_stack_end],
    [r_cv_libc_stack_end],
    [AC_RUN_IFELSE([AC_LANG_SOURCE([[
#include "confdefs.h"
#include <stdlib.h>
extern void * __libc_stack_end;

So it seems to me this will never work, as the the relevant macro is
not run on Solaris. It begs the obvious question why does this work
when I download the source of R. I can't see the answer to that one,
but there are reports of R failing to build on Solaris, but for me at
least, it configures ok.

This is covered in the 'R Installation and Administration' manual that
INSTALL asked you to read.  Specifically for Solaris:

  Modern Solaris systems allow a large selection of Open Source software
  to be installed via @command{pkg-get}: a Sparc Solaris 10 system came
  with @code{libreadline} and @code{libiconv} and a choice of @code{gcc3}
  and @code{gcc4} compilers, installed under @file{/opt/csw}.  (You will
  need GNU @code{libiconv}: the Solaris version of @code{iconv} is not
  sufficiently powerful.)

R 2.7.0 is documented to build on several versions of Solaris in that 
manual, so the problem is definitely not 'R on Solaris'.

You analysis is plain wrong.  Search for r_cv_iconv_latin1 in 
configure and you will see three lines which set it (plus one that checks 
if it was set in the cache).

On Sat, 7 Jun 2008, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> I've tried to build R 2.6.1 and 2.7.0 on Solaris 10 update 4 (SPARC)
and both
> configure ok, so you might ask why I suspect there is a problem.
>
> I tried to build the maths program Sage
>
> http://www.sagemath.org/
>
> version 3.0.3alpha1. Sage fails when building R 2.6.1 - (Sage includes R in
> the package). The relavant bit of Sage, which is only using an unmodified R
> configure script is:
>
> checking iconv.h usability... yes
> checking iconv.h presence... yes
> checking for iconv.h... yes
> checking for iconv... in libiconv
> checking whether iconv accepts "UTF-8", "latin1" and
"UCS-*"... no
> checking for iconvlist... yes
> configure: error: --with-iconv=yes (default) and a suitable iconv is
> not available
>
> Looking at the Sage problem in detail, I believe I know the reason and are 
> somewhat surprised R builds at all on Solaris. I think this problem is an R
> problem, not a Sage problem.
>
> For some reason the R "configure" script was not happy with my
readline, but
> after trying to configure with the configure option
>
> --with-readline=no
>
> The R 2.6.1 source configured ok. I did not bother running 'make'
but there
> were
> no failures when the configure script was run.  I then repeated this
> with the latest version of R (2.7.0) and got similar results.
>
> Looking at the file configure.ac in R (both 2.6.1 and 2.7.0), I see:
>
> ## iconv headers and function.
> if test "${use_iconv}" = yes; then
> R_ICONV
> if test "$r_cv_iconv_latin1" != yes; then
>   AC_MSG_ERROR([--with-iconv=yes (default) and a suitable iconv is
> not available])
> fi
> else
>   AC_MSG_WARN([--with-iconv=no is deprecated and will be withdrawn
> shortly])
> fi
>
> Clearly the value of r_cv_iconv_latin1 determines if this test passes
> or fails and so whether the error message that I get is printed or not.
>
> The variable r_cv_iconv_latin1 is never set directly in configure, but
> by in a Macro called AC_CACHE_CHECK in the file m4/R.m4.
>
> Looking in that macro r4/R.m4 we see:
>
> AC_CACHE_CHECK([whether iconv accepts "UTF-8", "latin1"
and "UCS-
> *"],
> [r_cv_iconv_latin1],
>
> So it would appear to me that AC_CACHE_CHECK needs to be run in order
> that r_cv_iconv_latin will be set properly. But looking at
> configure.ac, I think AC_CACHE_CHECK is only called on Linux, and not
> on Solaris. Obviously this could explain why this bit of Sage works on
> Linux, but not Solaris.
>
> ## check for visible __libc_stack_end on Linux
> case "${host_os}" in
> linux*)
>   AC_CACHE_CHECK([for visible __lib_stack_end],
>   [r_cv_libc_stack_end],
>   [AC_RUN_IFELSE([AC_LANG_SOURCE([[
> #include "confdefs.h"
> #include <stdlib.h>
> extern void * __libc_stack_end;
>
> So it seems to me this will never work, as the the relevant macro is
> not run on Solaris. It begs the obvious question why does this work
> when I download the source of R. I can't see the answer to that one,
> but there are reports of R failing to build on Solaris, but for me at
> least, it configures ok.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at 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