installing RSRuby in Ubuntu 10.04

Question

I'm trying to install RSRuby on Ubuntu 10.04. I barely even know what error messages to report as the relevant ones; I've just been googling around for several hours and none of the commands I try solve the problem.

Here are a few sample error messages:

$ sudo gem install rsruby -- --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing rsruby:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R
checking for main() in -lR... yes
checking for R.h... no

ERROR: Cannot find the R header, aborting.


Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rsruby-0.5.1.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rsruby-0.5.1.1/ext/gem_make.out

or doing it with apt-get:

$ sudo gem install rsruby --include-dependencies -- --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R/lib64/R --with-R-lib=/usr/lib/R/lib64/R/bin --with-R-include=/usr/lib/R/lib64/R/include
INFO:  `gem install -y` is now default and will be removed
INFO:  use --ignore-dependencies to install only the gems you list
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing rsruby:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R/lib64/R --with-R-lib=/usr/lib/R/lib64/R/bin --with-R-include=/usr/lib/R/lib64/R/include
checking for main() in -lR... no

ERROR: Cannot find the R library, aborting.


Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rsruby-0.5.1.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rsruby-0.5.1.1/ext/gem_make.out

I also got the latest RSRuby from GitHub and following the instructions from its 2006 PDF manual:

$ ruby setup.rb config -- --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R
---> lib
---> lib/rsruby
<--- lib/rsruby
<--- lib
---> ext
/usr/bin/ruby1.8 /home/mars/R/rsruby/ext/extconf.rb --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R
checking for main() in -lR... yes
checking for R.h... no

ERROR: Cannot find the R header, aborting.
*** /home/mars/R/rsruby/ext/extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more
details.  You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
    --with-opt-dir
    --without-opt-dir
    --with-opt-include
    --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
    --with-opt-lib
    --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
    --with-make-prog
    --without-make-prog
    --srcdir=/home/mars/R/rsruby/ext
    --curdir
    --ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8
    --with-R-dir
    --with-R-include
    --without-R-include=${R-dir}/include
    --with-R-lib
    --without-R-lib=${R-dir}/lib
    --with-Rlib
    --without-Rlib
setup.rb:655:in `command': system("/usr/bin/ruby1.8" "/home/mars/R/rsruby/ext/extconf.rb" "--with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R") failed (RuntimeError)
    from setup.rb:660:in `ruby'
    from setup.rb:1238:in `extconf'
    from setup.rb:1230:in `config_dir_ext'
    from setup.rb:1532:in `__send__'
    from setup.rb:1532:in `traverse'
    from setup.rb:1549:in `dive_into'
    from setup.rb:1530:in `traverse'
    from setup.rb:1524:in `exec_task_traverse'
    from setup.rb:1519:in `each'
    from setup.rb:1519:in `exec_task_traverse'
    from setup.rb:1223:in `exec_config'
    from setup.rb:991:in `exec_config'
    from setup.rb:826:in `__send__'
    from setup.rb:826:in `invoke'
    from setup.rb:773:in `invoke'
    from setup.rb:1578

and in irb:

irb(main):002:0> require 'RSRuby'
LoadError: no such file to load -- RSRuby
    from (irb):2:in `require'
    from (irb):2
    from :0
irb(main):003:0> rsruby
NameError: undefined local variable or method `rsruby' for main:Object
    from (irb):3
    from :0

Sometimes I'm seemingly able to get something that looks like it works, but still can't load rsruby from the irb command line.

$ sudo gem install rsruby --include-dependencies -- --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R --with-R-lib=/usr/lib/R --with-R-include=/usr/share/R/include/
INFO:  `gem install -y` is now default and will be removed
INFO:  use --ignore-dependencies to install only the gems you list
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed rsruby-0.5.1.1
1 gem installed
Installing ri documentation for rsruby-0.5.1.1...
Installing RDoc documentation for rsruby-0.5.1.1...

then

$ irb
irb(main):001:0> require 'rsruby'
LoadError: no such file to load -- rsruby
    from (irb):1:in `require'
    from (irb):1
    from :0

Ruby is version 1.8.7, I did sudo apt-get install ruby1.8-dev today but I'm not sure if that left things worse, better, or unchanged. Or if this would be easier in ruby1.9.

R is working.

Answer 1

I don't read Japanese but this worked for me on Ubuntu 10.10, ruby 1.9: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/cuspos/20090520/1242825057

# gem install rsruby-0.5.1.1.gem -- --with-R-dir=/usr/lib/R --with-R-include=/usr/share/R/include 
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
Successfully installed rsruby-0.5.1.1
1 gem installed
# export R_HOME=/usr/lib/R
# irb 
irb(main):001:0> require 'rsruby'
=> true
irb(main):002:0>

Answer 2

You might want to check to see if your PATH variables or dynamic links are set up so that Ruby and friends are "looking" in the right place. Ruby appears to expect RSruby to be in /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rsruby-0.5.1.1/ or perhaps /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/ or perhaps /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rsruby-0.5.1.1/lib/, .... while your configure report says it was installed in /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /home/chris/R/. I don't have a ton of Linux experience, but what I do have tells me that each distro is different with respect to where it expects to find installed executables.

Answer 3

Your attempts with apt-get and gem install suggest that the installer cannot find the R header files. I would start by fixing this problem, not try other ways of installing RSruby. The next question is why it cannot find the R headers, there are two options:

• The headers are installed, but they cannot be found. Use locate R.h to find where the R header file is located, and make sure this is in your $PATH.
• The headers are not installed (which I suspect is the case). Often installing header files requires a development package to be installed. Try and see if there is an R-dev package or something named similarly which would contain, among others, the R header file. Installing this R-dev can be done using apt-get. The standard version of R in ubuntu 10.04 is not really up-to-date I think. CRAN has ubuntu repositories, where the dev package is called r-base-dev. Adding this repo to your sources.list gets you the latest version of R from CRAN through apt-get.

Answer 4

You have successfully installed rsruby, as shown by the output from your 5th example:

Successfully installed rsruby-0.5.1.1
1 gem installed

The library did not load in irb because using Ruby 1.8.7, you need to "require rubygems" first. Try this in irb:

require 'rubygems'
require 'rsruby'