From ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk  Fri Jun 13 18:07:41 2014
From: ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk (Prof Brian Ripley)
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 17:07:41 +0100
Subject: [Rd] Is it possible to make install.packages compile source
 code on Unix but use shipped binary on Windows?
In-Reply-To: <CAHavPHE1WW4JV735EQsGMdv_-wLY8_AnfAGqzCq=k96_D-wgYw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAHavPHE1WW4JV735EQsGMdv_-wLY8_AnfAGqzCq=k96_D-wgYw@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <539B21CD.6090704@stats.ox.ac.uk>

On 13/06/2014 11:10, Renaud Gaujoux wrote:
> Hi,
>
> is it possible to make install.packages install a source package by
> compiling it on Unix, but skip compilation and use a pre-built windows
> binary (shipped in exec/) if installing on Windows?

A 'pre-built windows binary' of what?

You can easily ship a DLL or .exe for use on Windows: just make use of 
configure.win and/or Makefile.win.  If you have a Makefile.win it will 
override the normal procedures for directory src.  OTOH, shipping 
something in exec will be installed everwhere.

Watch out for sub-architectures: 'Windows' is in fact two platforms.  We 
have over the years seen a lot of problem with people shipping 64-bit 
Windows binaries: 32-bit Windows does not recognize those.

> The package should be installable on Windows machines that do not have
> Rtools installed. This is to make the update process easier for users,
> because the C++ code does not change often, meaning that I can just
> send source packages built on Linux, with a binary executable built
> once in a while on win-builder.
>
> Note that this is for a package that is not meant for CRAN, so no
> policy issue here.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Bests,
> Renaud



-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595



[Rd] Is it possible to make install.packages compile source code on Unix but use shipped binary on Windows?
Prof Brian Ripley