R help - Jun 2003 - building RPMs for R packages

hi all-

apologies if this question has come up before; i took a swing through a
few months of archives and didn't turn anything up.

i'm a linux systems administrator, and we're running R across a beowulf
cluster. i've been asked to install the bioconductor package, for which
i can't find RPMs. the recommended way to do this on the bioconductor
home page is via R CMD INSTALL, which seems to be the standard way to
install R packages.

however, i want to make an RPM out of bioconductor, since i have to
deploy it to 48 machines and i want rpm to track the versioning and
dependencies. also, the machines are very homogenous and there's no
reason compilation should occur on each.

so could someone who's built R extension RPM packages give me some
pointers? a SRPM for a package would be invaluable.

thanks for your time.

>>>>> "Cooper" == Cooper Bethea <cooper.bethea at
duke.edu>
>>>>>     on 13 Jun 2003 14:28:02 -0400 writes:
    Cooper> hi all- apologies if this question has come up
    Cooper> before; i took a swing through a few months of
    Cooper> archives and didn't turn anything up.

    Cooper> i'm a linux systems administrator, and we're running
    Cooper> R across a beowulf cluster. i've been asked to
    Cooper> install the bioconductor package, for which i can't
    Cooper> find RPMs. the recommended way to do this on the
    Cooper> bioconductor home page is via R CMD INSTALL, which
    Cooper> seems to be the standard way to install R packages.

    Cooper> however, i want to make an RPM out of bioconductor,
    Cooper> since i have to deploy it to 48 machines and i want
    Cooper> rpm to track the versioning and dependencies. also,
    Cooper> the machines are very homogenous and there's no
    Cooper> reason compilation should occur on each.

I'm not really answering your primary question, 
BUT
    - don't you share some file system(s) between all clients?
      If yes,  you can  "R CMD INSTALL -l <librarydirectory> 
package"
      (and make sure your users have <librarydirectory> in their
      R_LIBS or use .libPaths() in the site-wide Rprofile.
      See   help(Startup), help(library) {which has .libPaths()}.

    - if you don't share any file systems {quite improbable} AND
      your machines are very homogenous,  you can still
      INSTALL on one machine, and use "rsync" or some other
      synchronization tool to have the installation distributed
      to the clients.  You will do this with other stuff
      (/etc/.... configurations), anyway, won't you?

Hence, no really deep need for RPMs there, I think.

    Cooper> so could someone who's built R extension RPM
    Cooper> packages give me some pointers? a SRPM for a package
    Cooper> would be invaluable.