[Rcpp-devel] RcppOctave on Windows: testing needed

[Dominick Samperi]

I don't think you need to worry about linking against the .dll files, as the
import libraries (.dll.a files) contain all of the information that the
linker needs,
and you PATH will tell Windows where to find the corresponding dll's.
It is possible to link against the dll's without using import libs,
but then various tricks have to be used to specify what is
exported from each dll.

I downloaded the source for 0.10.1 and it seems to build and install
ok provided I place Rcpp.dll on PATH. It would save the user some
trouble if PATH could be updated automatically, but it is probably not
a good idea to have R package installation or startup update the users
environment...



On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 10:52 AM, Renaud Gaujoux <
renaud at mancala.cbio.uct.ac.za> wrote:

> Thanks for the details Dominick.
> I think I got it working now, by ad Octave bin directory to the path prior
> loading RcppOctave library.
> I tested it by renaming the Octave root directory into something different
> than at building time.
>
> I added the option to specify Octave path via option octave.path (e.g.,
> see ?OctaveInit), so that the package loads fine even if Octave is not
> installed/found. The user can also define this option in the .Rprofile if
> Octave is not installed in the path by default.
>
> Please let me know if it works for you:
>
> install.packages('RcppOctave', repos = c(getOption('repos'), '
> http://web.cbio.uct.ac.za/~renaud/CRAN'))
> library(RcppOctave)
> .O$rand()
>
> Note that this version (0.10.1) was linked against the .dll.a files, but
> will load the .dll files... I will try later to link against the .dll files
> as you suggested.
>
> Bests,
> Renaud
>
>
>
> On 7 October 2013 16:24, Dominick Samperi <djsamperi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, I placed Octave bin on my path. This is required to find its dll's
>> for the same reason
>> that Rcpp libs (directory containing Rcpp.dll) needs to be on PATH. If
>> you enable clients
>> of RcppOctave.dll to link against functions provided by RcppOctave, then
>> these clients
>> will have to add the RcppOctave libs directory to their PATH.
>>
>> The Octave dll's must be in its bin directory due to another Windows dll
>> search rule:
>> when you run an executable (like octave.exe) that depends on dll's,
>> Windows will
>> resolve the dependencies when the dll's are in the same directory as the
>> executable.
>>
>> You should be able to link to liboctave-1.dll using '-loctave-1',
>> provided the bin
>> directory is on your PATH. The gcc '.dll.a' suffix means the file is an
>> import library,
>> not a static lib or a shared lib. Import libs tell Windows how to resolve
>> references
>> in the corresponding dll. Windows uses the '.lib' suffix for import libs.
>> For your
>> purposes you should link against the dll's, not the dll.a's.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 4:59 AM, Renaud Gaujoux <
>> renaud at mancala.cbio.uct.ac.za> wrote:
>>
>>> Dominick, just to be sure: did you have Octave bin directory in your
>>> PATH when you tested the package?
>>> Because Octave dlls are also in that directory.
>>>
>>> I am getting confused on which path/dll is to be used where. Currently I
>>> build RcppOctave.dll linking against the dll.a files found in
>>> "C:\Octave\Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2\lib\octave\3.6.4". But there are .dll files
>>> (although named liboctave-1.dll and not liboctave.dll as I would expect) in
>>> ""C:\Octave\Octave3.6.4_gcc4.6.2\bin" where octave.exe. and
>>> octave-config.exe also live.
>>> I had tried loading the .dll.a files with dyn.load in R but got errors.
>>> The -1.dll files load fine, and might be the ones I could load manually in
>>> .onLoad.
>>>
>>> Now, should I also link using the bin/ path and the -1.dll files?
>>>
>>> Renaud
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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