[Rd] Matrix does not build with R trunk since Oct.

[Simon Urbanek]

On Feb 16, 2013, at 8:03 AM, Roger Bivand wrote:

> Hin-Tak Leung <htl10 <at> users.sourceforge.net> writes:
> 
>> 
>> --- On Fri, 15/2/13, Simon Urbanek <simon.urbanek <at> r-project.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Feb 15, 2013, at 1:55 PM, Hin-Tak Leung wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Look. I don't see this as "my" problem - as far as I am
>>> concerned, I have donated my time - and over and over - to
>>> testing pre-released code. I am not using pre-released code
>>> for production work. If the released code in 3.0 does not
>>> work correctly in 6 weeks' time, I just don't upgrade. No
>>> loss for me there.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> It works - confirmed by several people. You have a problem,
>>> but you didn't tell us the specifics of the problem so
>>> there's nothing we can do.
>> 
>> I do not have a problem. I do not need to spend time regularly testing
> pre-release code, and I think I should stop.
> 
> 
> The probably unknown now, for today's comfortable people, simple procedure has
> always been:
> 
> svn up
> tools/rsync-recommended # R only
> ./configure ...
> make distclean
> ./configure ...
> make
> make check # R or relevant software only
> make install
> 
> which always works even when building in the source tree.

Although it goes a long way, it doesn't always work -- it assumes that the directory structure did not change in the project between the revisions - distclean may not clean things that have changed since you updated the SVN (note that to address that you should run distclean *before* the update). Also note that R-devel is unstable for a reason -- as you are tracking it you may encounter bugs in the build which will make your in-source build (including distclean) break -- even if that bug is then fixed in next update the damage has been done already so you cannot recover. This has happened before, so in such cases you have to blow away everything and start from scratch (from svn co ..). That's why we are suggesting building outside sources, because it's easier to blow away just the build (there are still cases where even that won't work - e.g. when sources files are accidentally modified by the build). Before claiming that something doesn't work, you have to do a clean build. In a majority of cases you will get away with in-sources build, but if you don't, you have to know what to do.


> This whole thread is unnecessary

Period. It is indeed. The thread was about alleged issue with Matrix in R-devel which could not be confirmed (I even checked on Fedora 18 now and it builds just fine). We were not able to reproduce it and the reporter was unwilling to follow any suggestions hence we have no way to follow it up as it's not reproducible so I see the case as closed.

Cheers,
Simon


> if you remember to run make distclean, as all files that might
> appear to be fresh (but are not because of indirect dependencies, such as
> changes in the methods package), are rebuilt. When in doubt, use make distclean.
> It's as easy as that, nothing to get excited about. Section 7.2.6 of
> http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/index.html.
> 
> Roger
> 
> 
>> 
>>>> I don't know why it is degenerating into another
>>> distraction about some people's egos.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> I don't either - it's not productive.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Simon
>>> 
>>> 
> 
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