[Rd] R v1.9.0 alpha w/ Rtools: gzip problem

[Prof Brian Ripley]

gzip is a Windows gzip: only tar expects Cygwin paths.

I have committed a fix keeping separate paths for tar and gzip.

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004, Henrik Bengtsson wrote:

> Hi, Gordon Smyth brought the following problem to my attention.
> 
> PROBLEM/"BUG":
> 
> Using R v1.9.0 alpha for Windows and the latest Rtools from Brian
> Ripley you get the following problem trying to R CMD build a package
> (or a bundle);
> 
> >R CMD build R.basic
> * checking for file 'R.basic/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
> * preparing 'R.basic':
> * checking whether 'INDEX' is up-to-date ... NO
> * use '--force' to overwrite the existing 'INDEX'
> * removing junk files
> * building 'R.basic_0.36.tar.gz'
> /cygdrive/C/users/braju.com.R/R.basic/R.basic_0.36.tar: No such file
> or directory
> 
> TROUBLESHOOTING:
> 
> Trying to gzip the tar-file manually (using gzip in B. Ripley's
> Rtools) you get the same error;
> 
> >gzip /cygdrive/C/users/braju.com.R/R.basic/R.basic_0.36.tar
> /cygdrive/C/users/braju.com.R/R.basic/R.basic_0.36.tar: No such file
> or directory
> 
> HOWEVER, if you do
> 
> >cd /cygdrive/C/users/braju.com.R/R.basic/
> >gzip R.basic_0.36.tar
> 
> it works. This is also the strategy in the R v1.8.1 build script. In
> the R v1.9.0 alpha script all gzip calls are on absolute pathnames;
> 
> 	R_system("$tar chf $filepath $pkgname");
> 	R_system("gzip -9f $filepath");
> 
> cf.
> 
> 	system("$tar chf $filepath $pkgname");
> 	chdir($startdir);
> 	rmtree($tmpdir);
> 	system("gzip -9f $filename");
> 
> Modifying the build v1.9.0 alpha to do the latter things works again.
> 
> More hints: Trying different strategies, it looks like gzip has a
> problem with /cygdrive/ and/or /cygdrive/C/. It is not clear from
> README.packages or README in Rtools if/how gzip has been modified.

It is *perfectly* clear: it says it was compiled from the sources in all
of INSTALL, README.packages and README.txt (sic).  (Had the sources been
modified I would be required to distribute the modified version, and I
don't.)

> Strangely(?) though, putting the tar-file in /tmp/ and doing
> 
> >gzip /tmp/R.basic_0.36.tar
> 
> works just fine.

That's a valid Windows path.

-- 
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