PCRE configure problem with R-4.0.0

"I have to admit I'm completely in the dark as to what functionality
PCRE provides"

https://www.pcre.org/

(Sorry, beyond that I know nothing).

Bert Gunter

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along
and sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )

On Sun, May 3, 2020 at 9:16 PM Patrick Connolly

When I try ./configure --enable-R-shlib

I get this error:

configure: error: PCRE2 library and headers are required, or use --with-pcre1 and PCRE >= 8.32 with UTF-8 support

I have to admit I'm completely in the dark as to what functionality
PCRE provides.

Next, I tried using --with-pcre1 but it made no difference.

There are quite a lot of packages in the repository for Linux Mint
17.2 with 'pcre' in the name and these are installed:

aptitude search pcre | grep  ^i

i   libpcre3                        - Perl 5 Compatible Regular Expression Libra
i   libpcre3:i386                   - Perl 5 Compatible Regular Expression Libra
i   libpcre3-dev                    - Perl 5 Compatible Regular Expression Libra
i   libpcrecpp0                     - Perl 5 Compatible Regular Expression Libra

Apparantly the '3' doesn't indicate an updated '2' version.  The only
packages with prce2 in the name are these:

aptitude search pcre2

v   apertium-pcre2                                           -
v   apertium-pcre2:i386                                      -

Suggestions welcome.


--
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
   ___    Patrick Connolly
 {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas
 _( Y )_                 Average minds discuss events
(:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people
 (_)-(_)                              ..... Eleanor Roosevelt

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

First of all, you mentioned Linux Mint, so you might get better advice
on R-SIG-Debian mailing list.

On Mon, 4 May 2020 16:15:42 +1200

There are quite a lot of packages in the repository for Linux Mint
17.2 with 'pcre' in the name and these are installed:

Apparantly the '3' doesn't indicate an updated '2' version

The funny thing about libpcre3 is that it is the old PCRE1 version,
third ABI-incompatible upgrade of it [*], and libpcre2 (available in
current releases of Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Debian) is supposed to be
the newer PCRE2.

Linux Mint 17.2 is based on Ubuntu 14.04, which has been released in
April 2014, while PCRE2 has been released in 2015. This might be the
reason why libpcre2 doesn't seem to be available to you (I have tried
searching both repositories, including backports, with no success).
Moreover, Ubuntu 14.04 only has PCRE 8.31, which is too old to work
with R 4.0. The official builds of R 4.0 [**] are not available for
Ubuntu 14.04, either.

Suggestions welcome.

You can try to backport PCRE 8.32 for Linux Mint 17.2 by taking the
source package for 8.31 (apt-get source pcre3), extracting the new
version of PCRE into it and fiddling with it until it builds (see
[***] for more information on that). This is a complicated procedure,
and if an important system component depends on PCRE, you can end up
breaking the system.

You can also try to install latest PCRE2 from source (./configure; make;
sudo make install) into /usr/local where it shouldn't interfere too much
with the rest of the system.

Another option could be upgrading to a supported release of Linux Mint
and installing the official binary build from [**].

Good luck!

Best regards,
Ivan

[*]
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-sharedlibs.html#run-time-shared-libraries

[**] https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/

[***] https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/

First of all, you mentioned Linux Mint, so you might get better advice
on R-SIG-Debian mailing list.

On Mon, 4 May 2020 16:15:42 +1200
Patrick Connolly <p_connolly at slingshot.co.nz> wrote:

There are quite a lot of packages in the repository for Linux Mint
17.2 with 'pcre' in the name and these are installed:

Apparantly the '3' doesn't indicate an updated '2' version

The funny thing about libpcre3 is that it is the old PCRE1 version,
third ABI-incompatible upgrade of it [*], and libpcre2 (available in
current releases of Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Debian) is supposed to be
the newer PCRE2.

Linux Mint 17.2 is based on Ubuntu 14.04, which has been released in
April 2014, while PCRE2 has been released in 2015.

Moreover, support for 17.2 ended over a year ago (according to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint_version_history). I suggest
upgrading to a supported version.

Best,
Ista

This might be the

reason why libpcre2 doesn't seem to be available to you (I have tried
searching both repositories, including backports, with no success).
Moreover, Ubuntu 14.04 only has PCRE 8.31, which is too old to work
with R 4.0. The official builds of R 4.0 [**] are not available for
Ubuntu 14.04, either.

Suggestions welcome.

You can try to backport PCRE 8.32 for Linux Mint 17.2 by taking the
source package for 8.31 (apt-get source pcre3), extracting the new
version of PCRE into it and fiddling with it until it builds (see
[***] for more information on that). This is a complicated procedure,
and if an important system component depends on PCRE, you can end up
breaking the system.

You can also try to install latest PCRE2 from source (./configure; make;
sudo make install) into /usr/local where it shouldn't interfere too much
with the rest of the system.

Another option could be upgrading to a supported release of Linux Mint
and installing the official binary build from [**].

Good luck!

--
Best regards,
Ivan

[*]
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-sharedlibs.html#run-time-shared-libraries

[**] https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/

[***] https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/

______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

|> >
|> > First of all, you mentioned Linux Mint, so you might get better advice
|> > on R-SIG-Debian mailing list.
|> >
|> > On Mon, 4 May 2020 16:15:42 +1200

|> >
|> > >There are quite a lot of packages in the repository for Linux Mint
|> > >17.2 with 'pcre' in the name and these are installed:
|> >
|> > >Apparantly the '3' doesn't indicate an updated '2' version
|> >
|> > The funny thing about libpcre3 is that it is the old PCRE1 version,
|> > third ABI-incompatible upgrade of it [*], and libpcre2 (available in
|> > current releases of Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Debian) is supposed to be
|> > the newer PCRE2.
|> >
|> > Linux Mint 17.2 is based on Ubuntu 14.04, which has been released in
|> > April 2014, while PCRE2 has been released in 2015.
|> 
|> Moreover, support for 17.2 ended over a year ago (according to
|> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint_version_history). I suggest
|> upgrading to a supported version.

Thanks for making that clear -- though I don't relish the hassle of
upgrading an OS.  I was quite happy with the features of Mint 17.x.

[...]

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.   
   ___    Patrick Connolly   
 {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas    
 _( Y )_  	         Average minds discuss events 
(:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people  
 (_)-(_)  	                      ..... Eleanor Roosevelt
	  
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

<snip>

|> > Linux Mint 17.2 is based on Ubuntu 14.04, which has been released in
|> > April 2014, while PCRE2 has been released in 2015.
|>
|> Moreover, support for 17.2 ended over a year ago (according to
|> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint_version_history). I suggest
|> upgrading to a supported version.

Thanks for making that clear -- though I don't relish the hassle of
upgrading an OS.  I was quite happy with the features of Mint 17.x.

Sure, but there is no free lunch and as your system gets older and
older you'll find that more and more modern software doesn't work with
it. Additionally there are increasing security risks because the
vendor is no longer releasing security patches.

That said, if you really really wanna, you can use
https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/, https://spack.io/, or similar to
install recent software releases on old systems.

Best,
Ista

[...]


--
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
   ___    Patrick Connolly
 {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas
 _( Y )_                 Average minds discuss events
(:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people
 (_)-(_)                              ..... Eleanor Roosevelt

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

|> <snip>
|> 
|> > |> > Linux Mint 17.2 is based on Ubuntu 14.04, which has been released in
|> > |> > April 2014, while PCRE2 has been released in 2015.
|> > |>
|> > |> Moreover, support for 17.2 ended over a year ago (according to
|> > |> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint_version_history). I suggest
|> > |> upgrading to a supported version.
|> >
|> > Thanks for making that clear -- though I don't relish the hassle of
|> > upgrading an OS.  I was quite happy with the features of Mint 17.x.
|> >
|> 
|> Sure, but there is no free lunch and as your system gets older and
|> older you'll find that more and more modern software doesn't work with
|> it. Additionally there are increasing security risks because the
|> vendor is no longer releasing security patches.
|> 
|> That said, if you really really wanna, you can use
|> https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/, https://spack.io/, or similar to
|> install recent software releases on old systems.

Thanks.  Condo is a new one to me.  



|> 
|> Best,
|> Ista
|> 
|> > [...]
|> >
|> >
|> > --
|> > ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
|> >    ___    Patrick Connolly
|> >  {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas
|> >  _( Y )_                 Average minds discuss events
|> > (:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people
|> >  (_)-(_)                              ..... Eleanor Roosevelt
|> >
|> > ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.   
   ___    Patrick Connolly   
 {~._.~}                   Great minds discuss ideas    
 _( Y )_  	         Average minds discuss events 
(:_~*~_:)                  Small minds discuss people  
 (_)-(_)  	                      ..... Eleanor Roosevelt
	  
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.