R documentation is missing

[jrblevin@…]

Could the R port be updated to install the documentation? When I extract the source, there are texinfo sources in doc/manual which are not being installed in /opt/local/share/info. Unfortunately, I don't quite understand the build process well enough to provide a patch. If I understand the Makefile, however, the documentation should be getting built automatically (it's in the all rule), so I believe it's just a matter of copying the files after the build.

Furthermore, there are some HTML files installed in /opt/local/lib/R/doc/html/, but all of the links from the index page are broken. It seems the targets (e.g., R-lang.html and R-intro.html) should be built from the texinfo files.

[cooljeanius (Eric Gallager)]

Cc Me!

[kjellpk (Kjell Konis)]

The official way to view R's documentation is to run 'help.start()' from the R command prompt. I forget why but a new feature a while ago is that R now has its own embedded web server that it uses to provide documentation. I'm not even sure the stuff in doc/manual is up-to-date anymore. Let me know if you want me to follow up on a this a bit more.

[jrblevin@…]

Thanks for the reply. It appears that even help.start() is attempting to read the (nonexistent) HTML documentation. It sends me to http://127.0.0.1:30670/doc/html/index.html, but when I click, for example, "An Introduction to R", it gives an error:

URL /doc/manual/R-intro.html was not found.

[kjellpk (Kjell Konis)]

Strange, works for me. What does

$ port provides R RHOME/doc/manual/R-intro.html

say?

(hmmm, the R RHOME is supposed to be inside back-ticks but it looks like the WikiFormatting isn't displaying them).

[jrblevin@…]

On my system:

% port provides `R RHOME`/doc/manual/R-intro.html
/opt/local/lib/R/doc/manual/R-intro.html does not exist.
% port info R
R @2.15.2, Revision 2 (math, science)
...

My MacPorts version is 2.1.3.

[kjellpk (Kjell Konis)]

Okay, I really don't know what's going on. I checked on the 3 machines I've got here and all of them have the docs where they should be. You might consider installing the R-framework port instead of the R port.

[jrblevin@…]

Interesting. I checked a second machine that I have the R port installed on and the docs are indeed there. I also just did a fresh install on a third machine that has never had R installed and the documentation is there too. Something must have just went wrong with the install on this machine. Thanks for the help and sorry for the false alarm. (It would still be nice to have the texinfo files installed, but if I manage a patch for that, I'll let you know.)

Many thanks for maintaining this port!

[jrblevin@…]

I managed to update the Portfile so that the info files are installed after all. The attached patch is so simple it doesn't really even warrant an attachment. It sets the --infopath configure flag (much like --manpath) and runs make install install-info during destroot (instead of just make install).

The net result is that the (up-to-date) documentation gets installed in info format, which can conveniently be browsed using info or emacs:

/opt/local/share/info/R-FAQ.info.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-admin.info.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-data.info.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-exts.info-1.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-exts.info-2.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-exts.info.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-intro.info.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-ints.info.gz
/opt/local/share/info/R-lang.info.gz