[BUGZILLA #16919] Makeconf sets BINPREF incorrectly when building packages from source

[MichaelChirico]

Building packages from source fails on Windows because BINPREF is set incorrectly when compiling both 32 and 64 bit versions.

1. Build package from source

R CMD build X && R CMD INSTALL X

2. 64-bit build fails

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Makeconf (both 32- and 64-bit) use conditional assignment for BINPREF (set-if-not-set):

BINPREF ?= X:/.../mingw_32/bin
BINPREF ?= X:/.../mingw_64/bin

This results in a problem. When compiling for both architectures, BINPREF gets set on the 32-bit compile and then does not get reset for the 64-bit compile. As a result the 64-bit compile will fail.

Since there is already a BINPREF64 field, perhaps set BINPREF to BINPREF64 if (and only if) BINPREF64 is set:

BINPREF ?= X:/.../mingw_64/bin
ifdef BINPREF64
BINPREF = BINPREF64
endif

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METADATA

• Bug author - duncan
• Creation time - 2016-05-22 16:43:06 UTC
• Bugzilla link
• Status - UNCONFIRMED
• Alias - None
• Component - Windows GUI / Window specific
• Version - R 3.3.*
• Hardware - Other Windows 64-bit
• Importance - P5 minor
• Assignee - R-core
• URL -
• Modification time - 2018-01-05 14:44 UTC

[MichaelChirico]

Not true, otherwise we would not have have

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METADATA

• Comment author - Uwe Ligges
• Timestamp - 2016-05-22 17:16:53 UTC

[MichaelChirico]

Not true, otherwise we would not have have < 100 ERRORS on Windows for > 8000 packages on CRAN. You may want to ask your question on an appropriate mailing list including in example of your code that reproduces the problem you see.

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METADATA

• Comment author - Uwe Ligges
• Timestamp - 2016-05-22 17:19:20 UTC

[MichaelChirico]

You're right, I mischaracterized the problem, sorry about that. I was attempting to generalize it. It is a problem, though. Let me explain it like this:

I have tools in a nonstandard location. There is no way for me to do a multiarchitecture build without editing Makeconf. That's a change from 3.2. In the new build system, if you set BINPREF in your environment before building, the same value will be reused in 32- and 64- bit builds, which will not work. (If you don't set BINPREF then you can't build).

I raised this as an issue because it is a change from 3.2 and seems like it is not what was intended. If it is what was intended, then fine, I can work around it.

Why do the 8000 packages build? Presumably because the build host has tools in the default location.

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METADATA

• Comment author - duncan
• Timestamp - 2016-05-22 20:04:50 UTC

[MichaelChirico]

I also encountered this issue. Since Rtools is not installed in C:/Rtools, BINPREF must be set for compilation to succeed. But 64-bit builds fail if you set BINPREF to .../Rtools/mingw_32/bin/ and BINPREF64 to .../Rtools/mingw_64/bin/ because BINPREF64 is not used for the x64 architecture build.

A minor change to Duncan's proposed solution worked for me. I added the following to $R_HOME/etc/x64/Makeconf:

ifdef BINPREF64
BINPREF = $(BINPREF64)
endif

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METADATA

• Comment author - Joshua Ulrich
• Timestamp - 2018-01-05 14:44:20 UTC