R for Windows
=============
This distribution contains the sources to build a port of R to run on
Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 and XP on Intel/clone chips. See the
file `README.rw1xxx' for fuller details, including how to install the binary
versions.
Building From Source on Windows
===============================
[Some further details, including how to debug, are given in the rw-FAQ.]
First collect the tools that you need. There is a `portal' with
current links at http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/.
Collect the tools
-----------------
You will need suitable versions of at least make, sh, cat, cp, cut,
diff, echo, egrep, expr, grep, ls, mkdir, mv, rm, sed, touch; we use
those from the cygwin distribution
(http://www.cygwin.com/mirrors.html) or (gzip, makeinfo, texindex)
compiled from the sources. We have packaged a set at
http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/tools.zip.
BEWARE: `Native' ports of make are _not_ suitable (including that at
the mingw site). There were also problems with several earlier
versions of the cygwin tools and dll. To avoid frustration, please
use our tool set, and make sure it is at the front of your path.
To compile this version you need a recent version of the Mingw port of
gcc from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/. There will be a
distribution called something like MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe. Earlier
versions may work, but mingw-runtime >= 3.0 and w32api >= 2.0 are
essential. The release candidates of gcc-3.3.1 have also been tested.
No earlier Mingw compiler has been tested and support for using the
Cygwin compiler has been withdrawn. If you see errors about `-shared'
not being understood or `__imp_foo' missing, you are not using the
recommended compiler.
The Windows port of perl5, available via
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/.
BEWARE: you do need the *Windows* port and not the Cygwin one.
zip and unzip from the Info-ZIP project (http://www.info-zip.org and
mirrors, and included in our tools.zip).
If you want to make compiled html (.chm) files you will need the
Microsoft HTML Help Workshop, currently available for download at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/htmlhelp/html/hwmicrosofthtmlhelpdownloads.asp
and http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/xp/appndx/appa06.htm
You may need this on the same drive as the other tools. (Although we
have successfully used it elsewhere, others have reported problems).
All of these need to be installed and in your path, and the
appropriate environment variables set. You also need `.' in your
path. Do not use filepaths with spaces in: you can always use the
short forms (found by dir /x at the Windows command line).
Check your path
---------------
You need the following in your path (with the first two first):
.
our toolset
mingw\bin
Perl\bin
the latex bin directory
zip.exe, unzip.exe, hhc.exe
Do not use spaces nor unnecessary quotes in your PATH variable.
Do not have our toolset and any other version of cygwin1.dll in your path.
Building
--------
You also need the R source (R-1.x.y.tgz).
Then: untar R-1.x.y.tgz somewhere (with no spaces in the path names),
cd /somewhere
tar zxvf /path/to/R-1.x.y.tgz
cd /somewhere/R-1.x.y/src/gnuwin32
BEWARE: do untar the sources rather than use broken tools such as
WinZip that don't understand about symbolic links.
IMPORTANT: edit MkRules to set the appropriate paths as needed and to
set the type(s) of help that you want built. BEWARE: MkRules contains
tabs and some editors (e.g. WinEdt) silently remove them.
Then run
make
Note 1: The file bin/Rchtml.dll is only built if CHM help is
specified in MkRules. Its source is the help directory, and you need
the HTML Help Workshop files to build it. You can just
copy this from a binary distribution.
Note 2: we have had reports that earlier versions of Norton Anti-Virus
lock up the machine when windres is run, so you may need to disable
it. (Norton Anti-Virus 2002 causes no problems.)
Note 3: By default Doug Lea's malloc in the file src/gnuwin32/malloc.c
is used for R's internal memory allocations. You can opt out of this
by commenting the line LEA_MALLOC=YES in MkRules, in which case the
malloc in msvcrt.dll is used. This does work but imposes a
considerable performance penalty.
Note 4: You can run a parallel make by e.g.
make -j2
but this is only likely to be worthwhile on a dual-processor (or
perhaps a hyperthreaded P4) machine with ample (at least 384Mb) of
memory. On a dual AthlonXP it reduced the build time by about 30%
whereas on a single P4HT it reduced it by 10%.
You can test a build by (optionally) building the recommended packages
(see below) and running `make check'. You may need to set TMPDIR to
(the absolute path to) a suitable temporary directory: the default is
c:/TEMP. (Use forward slashes and do not use a path including spaces.)
Using ATLAS
-----------
You can make use of ATLAS (http://math-atlas.sourceforge.net/) fast
BLAS libraries by defining USE_ATLAS=YES in MkRules and specifying the
path to the libraries in macro ATLAS_PATH.
You will need to build the libraries optimized for your architecture
under the Cygwin compilers.
For convenience
make Rblas-clean Rblas
will re-make the Rblas.dll and so allows experimentation with different BLAS
configurations.
Prebuilt Rblas.dll for various Pentium and AthlonXP chips are available
in the windows/contrib/ATLAS area on CRAN.
Using K. Goto's BLAS
--------------------
Another tuned BLAS which is available for some CPUs is by Kazushige
Goto. He does not allow redistribution: they are currently available
via http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kgoto/signup_first.html. To make
use of this, put the DLL somewhere in your path or in R_HOME/bin, and
edit MkRules to define USE_GOTO=YES and the name of the DLL (something
like libgoto_p4_512-r0.9.dll).
Goto's BLAS takes preference over ATLAS, and seems a little faster.
However, as it is compiled for MSVC, we have been unable to make it
work for complex arithmetic and so it is only used in for real linear
algebra.
Mr Goto supplies DLLs for PIII, P4 and Opteron processors: that for
PIIIs runs on AthlonXP as well.
Building bitmap device support
------------------------------
The file bin/Rbitmap.dll is not built automatically: instructions on
how to build it are in the file bitmap/INSTALL.
If everything is set up in directory bitmap,
make bitmapdll
will work from this directory.
Building Tcl/Tk support
-----------------------
The TclTk support package is not built automatically. Get
http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/R_Tcl.zip and unzip it at the top
level of the R sources: it will add directories $RHOME/Tcl, $RHOME/Tcl/bin,
etc. Then
make tcl
will make the package.
Recommended packages
====================
The recommended packages can be built by
make recommended
and checked by
make check-recommended
If you are using a cvs/rsync version of the R sources, you need to put
the .tar.gz files for the recommended packages in
../library/Recommended, and copy foo_*.tar.gz to foo.tgz. If you have
rsync installed,
make rsync-recommended
does this from the CRAN master.
Building the Manuals
====================
To make the PDF versions of the manuals you will need pdftex installed
and configured to work with a large file: see doc/manual/README. You
also need texindex (included in our tool set). Then the pdf manuals
can be made by
make docs
If you want to make the info versions (not the Reference Manual), use
cd ../../doc/manual
make -f Makefile.win info
To make DVI versions of the manuals use
cd ../../doc/manual
make -f Makefile.win dvi
(assuming you have tex and latex installed and in your path).
To make HTML versions of the manuals (not the Reference Manual) use
cd ../../doc/manual
make -f Makefile.win html
The fptex distribution of TeX (via www.fptex.org) includes a suitable
port of pdftex.
Building the installers
=======================
See installer/INSTALL. You need to have the files for a complete R build,
including bitmap and Tcl/Tk support and the manuals, as well as the
recommended packages.
Once everything is set up
make distribution
make check-all
will make all the pieces and the installers and put them in the
gnuwin32/cran subdirectory, then check the build. This works by building
all the parts in the sequence:
Rpwd.exe (a utility needed in the build)
rbuild (the executables, the FAQ docs etc.)
rpackage (the base packages)
rdocs (the HTML documentation)
bitmapdll (the bitmap support files)
tcl (the TCL/TK support files and package)
recommended (the recommended packages)
docs (the manuals)
rinstaller (the install program)
crandir (the CRAN distribution directory)
The parts can be made individually if a full build is not needed, but
earlier parts must be built before later ones. (The Makefile doesn't
enforce this dependency---some build targets force a lot of
computation even if all files are up to date.) The first four targets
are the default build if just "make" is run.
Cross-building on ix86 Linux
============================
You will need i386-mingw32 cross-compilers installed and in your path.
There is currently a complete set of tools at
http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/mingw-cross2.tar.bz2
(Just unpack this somewhere and put its bin directory in your path.)
Note that as from R 1.7.0 you do need versions >= 2.0 of mingw-runtime
and w32api and so a later set of cross-compilers than is needed for R
1.6.x.
You will need Perl, zip and unzip installed and makeinfo >= 4.2
(part of GNU texinfo).
You also need the R source (R-1.x.y.tgz).
Then: untar R-1.x.y.tgz somewhere, and
cd /somewhere/R-1.x.y/src/gnuwin32
Edit MkRules to set BUILD=CROSS and the appropriate paths (including
HEADER) as needed.
Edit MkRules to set the type(s) of help that you want built. (You will
not be able to cross-build .chm files, so WINHELP is automatically set
to NO.)
You also need a working copy of this version of R on Linux: set
R_EXE in MkRules to point to it.
Packages can be made in the same way as natively: see the file
readme.packages.
(It is possible to cross-build the main installers using WINE, which
we leave as an exercise for the reader.)
Feedback
========
Please send comments and bug reports to
R-windows@r-project.org