R devel - Feb 2010 - Compiling R projects with multiple external libraries

Hi,

I have just learned how to use compile and link libraries using "make"
and
how to create R projects using R CMD build or INSTALL.  My understanding of
both is somewhat limited and hence the question.

I have a main library written in c which depends on other external
libraries. Main library is to be called from R using .Call. The goal is to
create a single R project that will compile all the external libraries, the
main library, R-C wrappers and install it. I am unsure about the proper
structure of R project directories and the general workflow such that:
(a) external libraries and the main libraries are built first using
"make"
that I already have
(b) R-C Wrapper is compiled and installed using R CMD install.

I understand that there are issues using Makefiles and that there are
preferred ways of doing these things. I am not sure how to use Makevars
instead of Makefile for this purpose. Any help and in particular pointers to
examples of R packages with multiple external libraries would be
appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Russ

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On 2/11/10 9:43 AM, rt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have just learned how to use compile and link libraries using
> "make" and how to create R projects using R CMD build or INSTALL.
My
> understanding of both is somewhat limited and hence the question.
>
> I have a main library written in c which depends on other external
> libraries. Main library is to be called from R using .Call. The goal
> is to create a single R project that will compile all the external
> libraries, the main library, R-C wrappers and install it. I am unsure
> about the proper structure of R project directories and the general
> workflow such that: (a) external libraries and the main libraries are
> built first using "make" that I already have (b) R-C Wrapper is
> compiled and installed using R CMD install.
>
> I understand that there are issues using Makefiles and that there
> are preferred ways of doing these things. I am not sure how to use
> Makevars instead of Makefile for this purpose. Any help and in
> particular pointers to examples of R packages with multiple external
> libraries would be appreciated.
"1.2.1 Using Makevars" in WRE (R-ext manual)  has some detail on this 
and suggests looking at fastICA for an example.

Quote from manual:
> If you want to create and then link to a library, say using code in a
> subdirectory, use something like
>
> .PHONY: all mylibs
>
> all: $(SHLIB) $(SHLIB): mylibs
>
> mylibs: (cd subdir; make)


+ seth

-- 
Seth Falcon | @sfalcon | http://userprimary.net/user