R devel - Nov 2008 - unrelated software install triggering an error from R's install script on Mac OS X 10.5

Dear List,


I am having a problem triggered by having R-2.8
(R version 2.8.0 Patched (2008-11-15 r46953)) installed on Mac OS X 
10.5.

The steps needed to generate the error are:

- install a binary distribution of R (default location)
- add R to the PATH
- install the python module pycairo
(http://www.cairographics.org/releases/pycairo-1.4.12.tar.gz)

That last step results in an error, and the error message point in the 
direction of the R installation (see below):


Making install in cairo
test -z "/sw/lib/python2.5/site-packages/cairo" || .././install-sh -c
-d
"/sw/lib/python2.5/site-packages/cairo"
  /bin/sh ../libtool --mode=install 
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/install -c  '_cairo.la' 
'/sw/lib/python2.5/site-packages/cairo/_cairo.la'
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/install -c .libs/_cairo.so 
/sw/lib/python2.5/site-packages/cairo/_cairo.so
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/install: line 113: 
/sh/dcf.sh: No such file or directory
make[2]: *** [install-pycairoexecLTLIBRARIES] Error 1
make[1]: *** [install-am] Error 2
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1


Editing /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/install, and 
hard-code the right path to R_SHARE_DIR is obviously an option, but I 
would like to hear that something more elegant is possible.




Laurent

> The steps needed to generate the error are:
>
> - install a binary distribution of R (default location)
> - add R to the PATH
Did you actually add

	/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/

to your PATH?  You're not supposed to do that!  What made you think so?

This directory contains a range of support scripts for R which are not  
intended for direct use from the command line or other programs.  In  
my installation, there's just a symlink from /usr/bin/R to the R  
binary in the directory above, which AFAIK is the only program you  
need to invoke directly.

In your case, R's "INSTALL" script, which implements the "R
CMD
INSTALL" functionality masks the standard "install" program in
/usr/
bin/install, so Python's installer now picks up a completely wrong  
program.  Even if you edit R's "INSTALL" script, it'll do
something
entirely different from what you expect.

BTW, putting the R binary directory ahead of system directories such  
as /usr/bin in your PATH is an even worse idea than including it there  
in the first place. ;-)



Best regards,
Stefan Evert

[ stefan.evert at uos.de | http://purl.org/stefan.evert ]