R devel - Apr 2020 - missing binaries in R-devel windows snapshot 78175

The "r-devel snapshot build" 78175 on Windows--- a dot-exe
installer--- seems to be missing a couple of files in its bin/i386 folder:
Rterm.exe and Rgui.exe. Both are present in its bin/x64 folder (and in the i386
folder for current R).

NB the lack of i386/Rterm.exe affects even the x64 version, since package
installation seems to use it for testing loadability under both architectures
(at least on the one package that I tried to install).

I've got a feeling that I've noticed this with some previous R-devel,
but never got round to reporting it before the official R version caught up.

cheers
Mark


Mark Bravington
CSIRO Marine Lab
Hobart
Australia

On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 12:44 PM Bravington, Mark (Data61, Hobart)
<Mark.Bravington at data61.csiro.au> wrote:
>
> The "r-devel snapshot build" 78175 on Windows--- a dot-exe
installer--- seems to be missing a couple of files in its bin/i386 folder:
Rterm.exe and Rgui.exe. Both are present in its bin/x64 folder (and in the i386
folder for current R).
I just tested this and as far as I can tell there are no missing
files. Are you sure there isn't a local problem with your system
permissions or antivirus that is removing the files?

Try to verify the md5 of the installer; some enterprise firewalls are
tampering with downloads:

 
openssl::md5(url('https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/R-devel-win.exe'))
 
readLines('https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/md5sum.txt.R-devel')

> On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 12:44 PM Bravington, Mark (Data61, Hobart)
> <Mark.Bravington at data61.csiro.au> wrote:
> >
> > The "r-devel snapshot build" 78175 on Windows--- a dot-exe
installer--- seems to be missing a couple of files in its bin/i386 folder:
Rterm.exe and Rgui.exe. Both are present in its bin/x64 folder (and in the i386
folder for current R).
From: Jeroen Ooms <jeroen at berkeley.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 9 April 2020 21:32
To: Bravington, Mark (Data61, Hobart)
Cc: R-Devel-2
Subject: Re: [Rd] missing binaries in R-devel windows snapshot 78175

> I just tested this and as far as I can tell there are no missing
> files. Are you sure there isn't a local problem with your system
> permissions or antivirus that is removing the files?
You're quite right--- my apologies. I've been Cylanced (without it
having the politeness to actually tell me, grrrr). I tried again with the 78172
build that you used, and the two dot-exe files are there immediately after
installation--- but 10 minutes later they're gone. One question below about
the md5 stuff, though:
> Try to verify the md5 of the installer; some enterprise firewalls are
> tampering with downloads:
>  
openssl::md5(url('https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/R-devel-win.exe'))
>  
readLines('https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/md5sum.txt.R-devel')
Thanks for the tip. I did that, and both give the same output. But:

 - If I run 'md5sum' on my local copy of the 78182 installer (ie the
file I've just downloaded) I again get the same signature as per your two
lines. (It's not the firewall, it's Cylance.)
 
 - Yet if I run 'openssl::md5( <local copy of installer>)' I get a
different signature!
 
That seems strange..?

Thanks for your help
Mark