CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rwindowsmacospackagerstudio
tcarpenter
tcarpenter

Reputation: 265

Building R package for windows on mac

Question:

I am developing an R package. I have not yet submitted to CRAN (and it's not ready to at any rate). I want to send the package to friend for some preliminary testing (he's not a builder) and I just want to see if he can use a few features.

On my Mac version of RStudio, I can generate binaries easily. It creates a file called "iatgen_1.0.tgz"

Can my friend use that to install my early build on his windows machine? Or do I need to do something to that file to make it usable for a windows user. Let's assume I have NO access to a windows machine. What can I do from my mac to make this package usable by windows users?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1077

Answers (1)

Rich Scriven
Rich Scriven

Reputation: 99331

I am posting my comment as an (extended) answer because I think it will help you. When I built my package, I did not have access to Windows either and was suffering from the same issue. I discovered the the Windows build service offered at http://win-builder.r-project.org/ and it worked great. You'll need to do a few things before you send it in, and this is all explained on the site.

First, build your source package with R CMD build. Next, check the package with R CMD check. If this succeeds, follow the rest of the instructions on the site and if all goes well they will send you a link to the temporary directory on their server where you can download the Windows build. If all does not go well, Mr. Ligges will send you an email with the detailed issues so you can fix them and try again.

Like I said, the service worked very well for me. The response was prompt and there were absolutely no problems.

Upvotes: 4

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