R help - Apr 2024 - Building R-4,3,3 fails

On Mon, 8 Apr 2024, Ivan Krylov wrote:
> Questions about building R do get asked here and R-devel. Since you're
> compiling a released version of R and we don't have an R-SIG-Slackware
> mailing list, R-help sounds like the right place.
Ivan,

Okay:
> What are the last lines of the build log, containing the error message? If
> it's a LaTeX error, it may be that you need some extra TeX Live
packages,
> there is a list in R-admin:
> https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-admin.html#Making-the-manuals
* DONE (mgcv)
make[2]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/R-4.3.3/src/library/Recommended'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/R-4.3.3/src/library/Recommended'
make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/SBo/R-4.3.3/src/library'
building/updating vignettes for package 'grid' ...
building/updating vignettes for package 'parallel' ...
building/updating vignettes for package 'utils' ...
building/updating vignettes for package 'stats' ...
processing 'reshape.Rnw'
Error: compiling TeX file 'reshape.tex' failed with message:
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'reshape.tex' failed.
Messages:
/usr/bin/texi2dvi: TeX neither supports -recorder nor outputs \openout lines in
its log file
Execution halted
make[1]: *** [Makefile:103: vignettes] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/R-4.3.3/src/library'
make: *** [Makefile:81: vignettes] Error 2
# (running time: 12m3.057s)

I don't know why /usr/bin/texi2dvi doesn't support -recorder nor the
other
error. TeXLive2023 had no issues building R-4.1.1.

Thanks,

Rich

? Mon, 8 Apr 2024 11:51:42 -0700 (PDT)
Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> ?????:
> processing 'reshape.Rnw'
> Error: compiling TeX file 'reshape.tex' failed with message:
> Running 'texi2dvi' on 'reshape.tex' failed.
> Messages:
> /usr/bin/texi2dvi: TeX neither supports -recorder nor outputs
> \openout lines in its log file
> Execution halted
A Web search suggests that texi2dvi may output this message by mistake
when the TeX installation is subject to a different problem:
https://web.archive.org/web/20191006123002/https://lists.gnu.org/r/bug-texinfo/2016-10/msg00036.html

Find the reshape.Rnw file and try running bin/R CMD Sweave
path/to/reshape.Rnw. It should produce reshape.tex. When you run
pdflatex reshape.tex, do you get a more useful error message?

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan