Create R Windows Binary from .tar.gz linux

Question

This is sort of related to a previous post of mine. I have the need to use the bigmemory library on my 32bit Windows PC to do some ugly matrix calculations. Unfortunately, it appears that the maintainers have temporarily ceased production of Windows binaries. I have Ubuntu on my home PC. I would really like to take the .tar.gz file and build it into a Windows binary that I can actually run at work. I realize there are more efficient ways, like installing RTools on the Windows device. However, our IT keeps our admin rights on lockdown, so I can never edit my PATH enviro variable. Could anyone provide some general guidance for doing this? Are there any tools I need to install on my Ubuntu PC above and beyond R?

I found similar questions, but nothing that thoroughly answered my questions.

Answer 1

Windows has four sets of environment variables (system, user, volatile and process sets). The first three sets are stored in the registry but the process set is not so even if they have locked down the registry its typically still possible to set the process environment variables (including the PATH) in a local process, i.e. on a temporary basis, so you might double check your assumptions that you can't modify anything. Its more likely that you can't modify the system variables and registry but can still modify the set in your local process. To check this from the Windows cmd line enter this:

set mytest=123
set mytest

and if the second line shows that mytest has the value 123 then you likely have all the permissions you need.

Furthermore anything you need to set is all handled automatically for you by R.bat in the batchfiles distribution so you don't have to set anything yourself.

Just ensure that Rtools and R are installed into the standard locations (you can tell them to skip the setting of any registry keys during the installation process), ensure R.bat is on your path or in current directory and run:

R.bat CMD INSTALL mypackage.tar.gz

without setting environment variables, registry keys or path.

If that does not work try Rpathset.bat also from the batchfiles which is not automatic like R.bat but on the other hand is extremely flexible since you must modify the SET statments in it to whatever you want.

There is a PDF document that comes with the batchfiles which gives more info.

Answer 2

Unless the package source is incompatible with current versions of R, you could use the R project's win-builder site to build a Windows binary. Quoting from the linked site, win-builder is a service:

intended for useRs who do not have Windows available for checking and building Windows binary packages.

As a convenience, Hadley Wickham's devtools package includes a utility function, build_win(), that you can use for this purpose. From ?build_win:

Works by building source package, and then uploading to http://win-builder.r-project.org/>. Once building is complete you'll receive a link to the built package in the email address listed in the maintainer field. It usually takes around 30 minutes.