Build R packages

package.skeleton(name="bmem", code_files="bmem.R")

Disclaimer: The instructions below describe what I've been doing to compile an R package for Windows. Check out the files “src/gnuwin32/INSTALL” and “src/gnuwin32/readme.packages” in the R source distribution for the official (and recommended) approach. Most importantly, see this page.

Also note: there is an online service (http://win-builder.r-project.org) for building and checking R packages for Windows.

1. Look at the Windows toolset appendix in the R Administration manual.
2. Go to the webpage http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/
3. Download and install the “Rtools.exe” file. This includes:
   1. A bunch of command-line tools
   2. Perl
   3. The MinGW compiler
4. You may also want:
   1. Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop
   2. MikTeX
5. Make sure your PATH contains all of the right directories (e.g., that the R bin directory is correct).
   1. Go to “Control Panel → System.”
   2. Click on the tab “Advanced” and then on “Environment Variables.”
   3. Highlight “Path” at the bottom and click “Edit”.
   4. In the character string in “Variable Value”, you want “c:\Rtools\bin;c:\Rtools\perl\bin;c:\Rtools\MinGW\bin;c:\R\bin” and then any other stuff at the end. (Most problems I've experienced have been due to incorrect directories here, or an incorrect order in the directories.)

With the latest versions of R, this is easy. I'll use, as an example, my own package, “qtl”.

1. Extract the package source to a directory, say “c:\MyRpackages\qtl”
2. Go to the directory “c:\MyRpackages”
3. Type “R CMD build –binary qtl”
4. A file like “qtl_0.98-52.zip” should be created.