R help - Mar 2009 - Requesting assistance installing ESS for R on Redhat

I'm moving my R applications to a Redhat OS and want to install ESS.

My sys admin has downloaded the rpm (emacs-common-ess-5.3.8-1.fc8.src.rpm),
but when he tried to do the install he rec'd a number of warnings.  We are
not sure if the warnings are telling us that the installation did not occur
or if other issues are unresolved.  We have attempted to find the ESS
executable with no luck, Which directory would this normally be?

Also Is it more advisable to work with the ess-5.3.11.tgz file and install
this instead of the *.rpm release?

If  you could help identify different issues related to installing this
package I'd really appreciate the assistance.

Thanks
Steve

Steve Friedman Ph. D.
Spatial Statistical Analyst
Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Park
950 N Krome Ave (3rd Floor)
Homestead, Florida 33034

Steve_Friedman at nps.gov
Office (305) 224 - 4282
Fax     (305) 224 - 4147

On Mar 17, 2009, at 3:29 PM, Steve_Friedman at nps.gov
wrote:
>
> I'm moving my R applications to a Redhat OS and want to install ESS.
>
> My sys admin has downloaded the rpm (emacs-common- 
> ess-5.3.8-1.fc8.src.rpm),
> but when he tried to do the install he rec'd a number of warnings.   
> We are
> not sure if the warnings are telling us that the installation did  
> not occur
> or if other issues are unresolved.  We have attempted to find the ESS
> executable with no luck, Which directory would this normally be?
>
> Also Is it more advisable to work with the ess-5.3.11.tgz file and  
> install
> this instead of the *.rpm release?
>
> If  you could help identify different issues related to installing  
> this
> package I'd really appreciate the assistance.
>
> Thanks
> Steve
The RPM that you have listed above is actually the "Source" RPM, hence
the '.src.' in the file name. You would actually want the compiled  
version of the RPM, which would not have '.src.' in the name.

Unlike installing the compiled RPM via 'rpm -ivh RPMName', the source  
rpm would first require compilation via the 'rpmbuild' command. Your  
SysAdmin should know that...  :-)

That being said, it is easy enough to run ESS using the tarball, which  
is the current version as compared to the RPM. Un-tar it someplace and  
then add:

   (load "PATH/TO/ess-5.3.11/lisp/ess-site")

in your ~/.emacs file so that it gets loaded. 'ess-site' actually  
points to the lisp file 'ess-site.el' which will be in the
'lisp'
folder in the un-tarred file tree.

BTW, there is an ESS specific list:

   https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help

and a newly formatted web site here with docs:

  
http://ess.r-project.org/index.php?Section=documentation&subSection=manuals

HTH,

Marc Schwartz