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 auxiliary scripts for configure. 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'). install-sh may be set by configure as a substitute for the 'install' program. missing may be set by configure as a substitute for various GNU programs. mdate-sh is not currently used. 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]. Used by configure. 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 and R CMD javareconf. We don't require the existence of a Java compiler, so we need to supply the compiled version as well. There is another copy in ../share/java . help2man.pl generate simple manual pages from program output. Taken from the GNU help2man package (ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/). Used for a maintainer-mode build only: requires Perl. install-info.pl create or update entry in Info directory. Taken from the Debian GNU/Linux stable distribution in 2001. Only used if a suitable install-info program is not found: requires Perl. 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. 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". GETCONFIG, GETVERSION, copy-if-change and move-if-change are used on Windows, and require cmp, cp, echo, expr, grep, mv and sed.