Pierre asked me on irc this afternoon to help him get R-rJava building, and when I looked at it, I discovered what was wrong. The Fedora R-core package (the minimum bits needed to get R working) does not require java. This is intentional, as java is not needed to use R, and it would be a notable increase in default footprint if we made it a strict dependency. In the %post for R-core, we run R CMD javareconf, but that only does something useful if you have a java environment present. When Pierre was trying to build rJava, R-devel and R-core were being installed before java-devel and java, thus, the R CMD javareconf run was happening with no java environment present in the buildroot. Initially, I tried to resolve this by having the R-rJava package run R CMD javareconf again during %prep, but this doesn't work, because the package isn't built as root, and R couldn't update the system configs. So, as a workaround, I added two new "subpackages" to the main R package: R-java : A metapackage with no files that simply Requires(post): R-core, java R-java-devel: A metapackage with no files that simple Requires(post): R-devel, java-devel Both metapackages call R CMD javareconf in their %post (its the same invocation that we use for R-core). There is some redundancy (it gets called when we install R-core, then again when we install R-java, for example), but it isn't harmful. By then changing the BuildRequires in the R-rJava package from R-devel to R-java-devel, I was able to get that package to build properly. There are several advantages to these metapackages: 1. Users who want an R install that comes with the Fedora OpenJDK preconfigured can yum install R-java. 2. Developers who want an R development environment that has the Fedora OpenJDK preconfigured can yum install R-java-devel. 3. It does not change the default behavior of the R-core, R-devel (and R) packages. 4. Any addon R modules that require java to be present and configured can now use BuildRequires: R-java-devel and be built for Fedora in koji. If you have any questions about this change, please feel free to ask! :) Thanks, ~spot _______________________________________________ Fedora-r-devel-list mailing list Fedora-r-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-r-devel-list
