R devel - Sep 2011 - As a package author, is there a way to specify that your package is architecture (x86_64) specific?

Hi,

Essentially: subject line says it all.

I've created a package that wraps an external c++ library (which I
didn't write) that only successfully compiles on 64bit machines.

I'd like to make the package broadly available, but is there a way to
get it on CRAN if the 32-bit builds break by specifying its 64-bit
only somehow?

Luckily, I've ./configure'd my R-devel-compiled-from-source to only
build x86_64 libs, so I can develop and install my package against
that, but trying to `R CMD INSTALL mypackage` using the official R
binaries breaks since it also tries to build a 32-bit *.so (I'm on a
mac).

I see hints in how to limit which architecture a package is built
against in the R-ext and R-admin manuals where they seem to suggest to
include a src/Makefile in order to do that ... but I'm not sure what I
should put in it.

Is it possible to limit the build architecture by putting something in
my src/Makevars instead of trying to engineer an entire Makefile since
"the normal build process" works just fine (except this whole
architecture thing)?

Even if it can't go on CRAN as 64-bit only, it would be great if I can
put up some easy install instructions for people to d/l my source
package externally and use it that way.

Thanks,

-steve

-- 
Steve Lianoglou
Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
?| Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
?| Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact

Quick follow up before I get RTFM'd:

I just found I can do:

R CMD INSTALL --no-multiarch mypackage

To get this to successfully work from the command line, so apologies
for the second part of the question.

The first Q remains, which is to either get this to happen
"automagically" via Makevars, or somehow specify the package as 64bit
only to see if the package can go up on CRAN until I can find time to
fix the problem (if/when).

Thanks,
-steve

On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 3:59 PM, Steve Lianoglou
<mailinglist.honeypot at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Essentially: subject line says it all.
>
> I've created a package that wraps an external c++ library (which I
> didn't write) that only successfully compiles on 64bit machines.
>
> I'd like to make the package broadly available, but is there a way to
> get it on CRAN if the 32-bit builds break by specifying its 64-bit
> only somehow?
>
> Luckily, I've ./configure'd my R-devel-compiled-from-source to only
> build x86_64 libs, so I can develop and install my package against
> that, but trying to `R CMD INSTALL mypackage` using the official R
> binaries breaks since it also tries to build a 32-bit *.so (I'm on a
> mac).
>
> I see hints in how to limit which architecture a package is built
> against in the R-ext and R-admin manuals where they seem to suggest to
> include a src/Makefile in order to do that ... but I'm not sure what I
> should put in it.
>
> Is it possible to limit the build architecture by putting something in
> my src/Makevars instead of trying to engineer an entire Makefile since
> "the normal build process" works just fine (except this whole
> architecture thing)?
>
> Even if it can't go on CRAN as 64-bit only, it would be great if I can
> put up some easy install instructions for people to d/l my source
> package externally and use it that way.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -steve
>
> --
> Steve Lianoglou
> Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
> ?| Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
> ?| Weill Medical College of Cornell University
> Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact
>


-- 
Steve Lianoglou
Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
?| Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
?| Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact

On Sep 8, 2011, at 3:59 PM, Steve Lianoglou wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Essentially: subject line says it all.
> 
> I've created a package that wraps an external c++ library (which I
didn't write) that only successfully compiles on 64bit machines.
> 
That doesn't sound right, it contradicts your subject line - x86_64 is just
one of many 64-bit architectures ... but from what you describe it's not
about an architecture at all - it's about the library .. (see below).

> I'd like to make the package broadly available, but is there a way to
> get it on CRAN if the 32-bit builds break by specifying its 64-bit
> only somehow?
> 
> Luckily, I've ./configure'd my R-devel-compiled-from-source to only
> build x86_64 libs, so I can develop and install my package against
> that, but trying to `R CMD INSTALL mypackage` using the official R
> binaries breaks since it also tries to build a 32-bit *.so (I'm on a
> mac).
> 
> I see hints in how to limit which architecture a package is built
> against in the R-ext and R-admin manuals where they seem to suggest to
> include a src/Makefile in order to do that ... but I'm not sure what I
> should put in it.
> 
No, that's not the purpose.

> Is it possible to limit the build architecture by putting something in
> my src/Makevars instead of trying to engineer an entire Makefile since
> "the normal build process" works just fine (except this whole
> architecture thing)?
> 
> Even if it can't go on CRAN as 64-bit only, it would be great if I can
> put up some easy install instructions for people to d/l my source
> package externally and use it that way.
> 
The configure script is designed to figure out things like that, so all you need
to do is to add a configure script that will check whether the package can be
built for that architecture or not. In fact, it should really check whatever the
C++ library does that prevents it from working elsewhere. The particularities
depends on the library so you'll need to provide more info in oder to help
you better ...

Note that it will also ensure that the package will be built only for one
architecture.

Cheers,
Simon