This distribution contains the sources to build pqR on Windows. See
the file `README' for fuller details (written for R-2.15.0, but mostly
also applicable to pqR).
Details on building pqR are given in the `R Installation and
Administration Manual' in the doc/manual directory. An HTML version
is at doc/html/R-admin.html, unless you're using a development version
of pqR (from github). Information about success or lack thereof in
installing pqR on various systems can also be found via the
pqR-project.org site.
The short version of these instructions, easier to read but maybe not
always completely adequate, is as follows:
0) Some general notes:
o The build process takes a while, minutes to an hour or so,
depending on how fast your computer is. Don't conclude
that the "make" command used below has hung up just because
it's taking a while. It's important that the computer not
automatically decide to go to sleep while the build is
progressing.
o You may have to disable anti-virus software, which can
interfere with the build process by doing things like
opening a file that was created to snoop on it, leading to
an error when the build process tries to change the file
while another process has it open.
o Some general knowledge of how the Windows command prompt
window works will be helpful. In particular, note that if
any of the file names referred to below have spaces in them
(possible because your user name has spaces), it will be
necessary to enclose the file name in double quotes ("..").
o Text files in the distribution follow the Linux/Unix/Mac
convention of marking ends of lines with LF only, whereas
Windows uses CR + LF. Because of this, some Windows tools
won't show them correctly (though the "more" and "cat"
commands should work). If you already have a version of R
installed, you can edit such files with the RGui or RStudio
editor. On recent Windows 10 versions, notepad should also
work. You can also look at files with a web browser.
1) Obtain TeX from somewhere, such as http://miktex.org. (If you
get the basic MiKTeX version, note that it will at times ask
about downloading more parts of TeX, and that this may result in
the build process appearing to hang if the window that MiKTeX
puts up asking about this is covered by another window.)
2) Obtain Rtools33.exe from http://pqR-project.org/Rtools33.exe (do
not use the version obtainable via r-project.org, which is a
later version not tested with pqR). Run this to install the
required build tools, but do not choose the options to install
"extra" material for 32 or 64 bit builds of R itself (since this
can cause problems with ownership or permissions for files).
Enable the option to update your path to include Rtools programs.
3) Download the pqR source from pqR-project.org, as a file with a
name of the form pqR-YYYY-MM-DD.tar.gz.
4) Download one or the other of the files pqR-win-extras-32.tar.gz
or pqR-win-extras-64.tar.gz from pqR-project.org, for a 32-bit or
64-bit build. (If you like, you can do a 32-bit build on a
64-bit system.) These files contain some extra stuff to be added
to the source that is needed for some features of Windows builds,
which you will have skipped installing in step (2).
5) Start a Windows console ("command prompt") window, and issue the
following commands (which, apart from the first, you should also
issue when starting any other console windows you use):
mkdir c:\tmp
set TMPDIR=c:\tmp
set CYGWIN=nodosfilewarning
set TAR_OPTIONS=--no-same-owner
set TAR=<path-to-where-you-put-Rtools>\bin\tar.exe
You can replace c:\tmp with some other directory if you wish.
6) Change to a directory in which you wish the pqR source/build
directory to be created, using the "cd" command. Then untar the
file you downloaded in step (2) with the following command:
tar -xvf <path-to-where-you-put>\pqR-YYYY-MM-DD.tar.gz
This will create the directory pqR-YYYY-MM-DD, which is both the
source directory and the directory in which pqR will be built.
If you wish, you can rename this directory now (but not later),
using the "mv" command.
7) Change into the pqR-YYYY-MM-DD directory, and in it untar the
win-extra file you downloaded in step (4), as follows (or
similarly for 32 rather than 64):
tar -xvf <path-to-where-you-put>\pqR-win-extras-64.tar.gz
8) Change to the src\gnuwin32 sub-directory of the source/build
directory.
9) Copy either MkRules.dist32 or MkRules.dist64 to MkRules.local and
possibly edit MkRules.local as appropriate. For example, if
runing 64-bit Windows, you might use the command
cp MkRules.dist64 MkRules.local
Note that the names are case-sensitive!
MkRules.dist32 should work for any Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, or 10
system (in conjunction with pqR-win-extras-32), but on 64-bit systems
will be slower and more memory-limited than using MkRules.dist64
(with pqR-win-extras-64). See the comments in the MkRules files for
more details.
10) Possibly edit the options (eg, whether helper threads or
compressed pointers are enabled) at the start of fixed\h\config.h
(in src\gnuwin32).
11) (OPTIONAL) If you want the base and recommended packages to be byte
compiled, enter the commands
set R_NO_BASE_COMPILE=FALSE
set R_PKG_BYTECOMPILE=TRUE
Note that byte compilation is NOT recommended, so you should
probably NOT do this.
The compiled byte code will not actually be used unless the
following command is also entered each time before R is run:
set R_USE_BYTECODE=TRUE
12) Issue the following commands in a Windows console (command
prompt) window (after issuing the commands in step (5)), in order
to build pqR in-place in the source directory:
make all recommended >make.out 2>&1
cd bitmap
make >make.out 2>&1
cd ..
make cairodevices >make-cairo.out 2>&1
The first "make" command will take a while. You can monitor the
make.out files from another console window to see how things are
progressing during the build. Or you can view the file in a web
browser (eg, firefox), and refresh the page to see how the build
is progressing.
13) You should now be able to run Rterm.exe, by typing the command
<build-dir>\bin\<arch>\Rterm.exe to the Windows console, where
<build-dir> is the source/build directory you are using and
<arch> is i386 for 32-bit builds and x64 for 64-bit builds.
The number of helper threads to use can be specified by
set R_HELPERS=<number>
before running Rterm. The default if this is not set is 0.
14) You can check the installation by running the command
make check-all >check-all.out 2>&1
in src/gnuwin32. You can monitor the results by looking at
check-all.out in another console window. You can run this check
with varying numbers of helper threads, set as above.
15) You can make the PDF manuals (when in src/gnuwin32) with
make manuals >make-manuals.out 2>&1
16) You should be able to run the R Gui by typing the command
<build-dir>\bin\<arch>\RGui.exe to the Windows command prompt.
The number of helper threads can be set as for Rterm.
17) The programs R.exe and Rscript.exe in <build-dir>\bin should also
work now, with the number of helper threads set as above.