These files are shell and perl scripts used for configuring/building R. They are not required at run time, and hence not installed. The files are as follows. config.guess config.sub From http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.guess;hb=HEAD etc install-sh mdate-sh missing standard tools from GNU autoconf. Taken from the autoconf CVS (pserver:anoncvs@subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/autoconf, module 'autoconf'). GETCONFIG create API 'Rconfig.h' from the configure information in 'config.h'. GETDISTNAME get the name of the distribution tarball. GETMAKEVAL get the value of a Make variable from a Makefile [this needs to be improved]. GETVERSION create API 'Rversion.h' from 'VERSION' and 'SVN-REVISION'. copy-if-change copy a file if changed; otherwise, do nothing. getsp.class getsp.java Java class (source and compiled bytecode) used for extracting system properties when detecting Java support in configure. We don't require the existence of a Java compiler, so we need to supply the compiled version as well. help2man.pl generate simple manual pages from program output. Taken from the GNU help2man package (ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/). install-info.pl create or update entry in Info directory. Taken from the Debian GNU/Linux stable distribution. ldAIX4 writes an export file, assembling the exported symbols by reading the output of nm. This file is needed on AIX (4.2 and later) to compile shared libs. link-recommended create links with simplified names to the recommended packages. linkcheck.pl comment out links that are not available. ltmain.sh provide generalized library-building support services. Taken from Libtool 2.2.6a. move-if-change move a file if changed; otherwise, remove. rsync-recommended obtain sources for the recommended packages using rsync, and then create links with simplified names to these. updatefat updates a fat file by adding a new architecture (Mac OS X only) it is essentially a smart wrapper for "lipo".