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[R-pkg-devel] Trouble installing XML on Windows 7 (64-bit)

2 messages · Haigh, Rowan, Avraham Adler

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Hi Duncan,

Well I finally managed to install XML from source in Windows under R-devel. Basically it was a clue provided by user wlandau-lilly (last message on https://github.com/igraph/igraph/issues/915), and discussions between G?bor and user stewid (https://github.com/krlmlr-archive/r-portable/issues/3#issuecomment-72928971) that lead to success.

1. Download local323.zip from http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/libs.html ;
 
2. Copy the files in local323.zip/include/libxml2/libxml/ directory to R-devel/include/libxml/ ;

3. Copy entire contents of local323.zip (directories include/ and lib/) to new directory C:/Apps/R/Rtools/local323/ ;

4. Change line 31 of two files `Makeconf' (in C:/Apps/R/Rdev/etc/i386/ and C:/Apps/R/Rdev/etc/x64/),  from `#LOCAL_SOFT' to `LOCAL_SOFT = C:/Apps/R/Rtools/local323'  ;

5. In R-devel, issue command `install.packages("XML", type = "source")'.

Cheers, Rowan
Tel. (250) 363-8718

-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch.duncan at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2017 3:29 PM
To: Haigh, Rowan
Subject: Re: [R-pkg-devel] Trouble installing XML on Windows 7 (64-bit)
On 14/12/2017 1:59 PM, Haigh, Rowan wrote:
Yes, I saw his message.  I think it's a CRAN issue that they are 
distributing 3.4 binaries for R-devel, when they are known to be 
incompatible.

Re building from source on Windows:  I used to know how to do that, but 
I don't do it any more.  I don't know if anyone really knows how these 
days.  I'd like to suggest abandoning that horrible platform, but that's 
likely not an option.  You can complain to Microsoft (perhaps MRAN has 
binary builds that work), but that likely won't lead anywhere.

So I'm afraid I can't help you.

Duncan Murdoch
#
On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 12:02 PM, Haigh, Rowan
<Rowan.Haigh at dfo-mpo.gc.ca> wrote:
Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I've been building R from source on
Windows for years, although XML is one of the three packages I usually
build from binary (the other two being stringi and BH).

As per the instructions (which also tell you where to get the extras)
[1], you don't need to change MakeConf. You need to copy Mkrules.dist
to Mkrules.local and set LOCAL_SOFT to the directory you need and then
ensure EXT_LIBS = $(LOCAL_SOFT) is active. And yes, you need to put
the extra goodies in RLocalSoft (EXCEPT for Tcl), and that includes
Curl and ICU if you want to include that support.

Thanks,

Avi

[1] https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-admin.html#Building-from-source