Writing R Extensions

This is a guide to extending R, describing the process of creating R add-on packages, writing R documentation,
R’s system and foreign language interfaces, and the R API.
This manual is for R, version 4.2.0 (2022-04-22).
Copyright © 1999–2022 R Core Team

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright
notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions
for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms
of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under
the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the R Core Team.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1 Creating R packages
1.1 Package structure
1.1.1 The DESCRIPTION file
1.1.2 Licensing
1.1.3 Package Dependencies
1.1.3.1 Suggested packages
1.1.4 The INDEX file
1.1.5 Package subdirectories
1.1.6 Data in packages
1.1.7 Non-R scripts in packages
1.1.8 Specifying URLs
1.2 Configure and cleanup
1.2.1 Using Makevars
1.2.1.1 OpenMP support
1.2.1.2 Using pthreads
1.2.1.3 Compiling in sub-directories
1.2.2 Configure example
1.2.3 Using F9x code
1.2.4 Using C++ code
1.2.5 Using cmake
1.3 Checking and building packages
1.3.1 Checking packages
1.3.2 Building package tarballs
1.3.3 Building binary packages
1.4 Writing package vignettes
1.4.1 Encodings and vignettes
1.4.2 Non-Sweave vignettes
1.5 Package namespaces
1.5.1 Specifying imports and exports
1.5.2 Registering S3 methods
1.5.3 Load hooks
1.5.4 useDynLib
1.5.5 An example
 1.5.6 Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
1.6 Writing portable packages
1.6.1 PDF size
1.6.2 Check timing
1.6.3 Encoding issues
1.6.4 Portable C and C++ code
1.6.4.1 Common symbols
1.6.5 Binary distribution
1.7 Diagnostic messages
1.8 Internationalization
1.8.1 C-level messages
1.8.2 R messages
1.8.3 Preparing translations
1.9 CITATION files
1.10 Package types
1.10.1 Frontend
1.11 Services
2 Writing R documentation files
2.1 Rd format
2.1.1 Documenting functions
2.1.2 Documenting data sets
2.1.3 Documenting S4 classes and methods
2.1.4 Documenting packages
2.2 Sectioning
2.3 Marking text
2.4 Lists and tables
2.5 Cross-references
2.6 Mathematics
2.7 Figures
2.8 Insertions
2.9 Indices
2.10 Platform-specific documentation
2.11 Conditional text
2.12 Dynamic pages
2.13 User-defined macros
2.14 Encoding
2.15 Processing documentation files
2.16 Editing Rd files
3 Tidying and profiling R code
3.1 Tidying R code
3.2 Profiling R code for speed
3.3 Profiling R code for memory use
3.3.1 Memory statistics from Rprof
3.3.2 Tracking memory allocations
3.3.3 Tracing copies of an object
3.4 Profiling compiled code
3.4.1 Linux
3.4.1.1 sprof
3.4.1.2 oprofile and operf
3.4.2 macOS
4 Debugging
4.1 Browsing
4.2 Debugging R code
 4.3 Checking memory access
4.3.1 Using gctorture
4.3.2 Using valgrind
4.3.3 Using the Address Sanitizer
4.3.3.1 Using the Leak Sanitizer
4.3.4 Using the Undefined Behaviour Sanitizer
4.3.5 Other analyses with ‘clang’
4.3.6 Other analyses with ‘gcc’
4.3.7 Using ‘Dr. Memory’
4.3.8 Fortran array bounds checking
4.4 Debugging compiled code
4.4.1 Finding entry points in dynamically loaded code
4.4.2 Inspecting R objects when debugging
4.4.3 Debugging on macOS
4.5 Using Link-time Optimization
5 System and foreign language interfaces
5.1 Operating system access
5.2 Interface functions .C and .Fortran
5.3 dyn.load and dyn.unload
5.4 Registering native routines
5.4.1 Speed considerations
5.4.2 Example: converting a package to use registration
5.4.3 Linking to native routines in other packages
5.5 Creating shared objects
5.6 Interfacing C++ code
5.6.1 External C++ code
5.7 Fortran I/O
5.8 Linking to other packages
5.8.1 Unix-alikes
5.8.2 Windows
5.9 Handling R objects in C
5.9.1 Handling the effects of garbage collection
5.9.2 Allocating storage
5.9.3 Details of R types
5.9.4 Attributes
5.9.5 Classes
5.9.6 Handling lists
5.9.7 Handling character data
5.9.8 Finding and setting variables
5.9.9 Some convenience functions
5.9.9.1 Semi-internal convenience functions
5.9.10 Named objects and copying
5.10 Interface functions .Call and .External
5.10.1 Calling .Call
5.10.2 Calling .External
5.10.3 Missing and special values
5.11 Evaluating R expressions from C
5.11.1 Zero-finding
5.11.2 Calculating numerical derivatives
5.12 Parsing R code from C
5.12.1 Accessing source references
5.13 External pointers and weak references
5.13.1 An example
 5.14 Vector accessor functions
5.15 Character encoding issues
6 The R API: entry points for C code
6.1 Memory allocation
6.1.1 Transient storage allocation
6.1.2 User-controlled memory
6.2 Error signaling
6.2.1 Error signaling from Fortran
6.3 Random number generation
6.4 Missing and IEEE special values
6.5 Printing
6.5.1 Printing from Fortran
6.6 Calling C from Fortran and vice versa
6.6.1 Fortran character strings
6.6.2 Fortran LOGICAL
6.6.3 Passing functions
6.7 Numerical analysis subroutines
6.7.1 Distribution functions
6.7.2 Mathematical functions
6.7.3 Numerical Utilities
6.7.4 Mathematical constants
6.8 Optimization
6.9 Integration
6.10 Utility functions
6.11 Re-encoding
6.12 Condition handling and cleanup code
6.13 Allowing interrupts
6.14 Platform and version information
6.15 Inlining C functions
6.16 Controlling visibility
6.17 Using these functions in your own C code
6.18 Organization of header files
7 Generic functions and methods
7.1 Adding new generics
8 Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R
8.1 Embedding R under Unix-alikes
8.1.1 Compiling against the R library
8.1.2 Setting R callbacks
8.1.3 Registering symbols
8.1.4 Meshing event loops
8.1.5 Threading issues
8.2 Embedding R under Windows
8.2.1 Using (D)COM
8.2.2 Calling R.dll directly
8.2.3 Finding R_HOME
Function and variable index
Concept index

Next: Creating R packages, Previous: Writing R Extensions, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents][Index]

Acknowledgements
The contributions to early versions of this manual by Saikat DebRoy (who wrote the first draft of a guide to
using .Call and .External) and Adrian Trapletti (who provided information on the C++ interface) are gratefully
acknowledged.

Next: Writing R documentation files, Previous: Acknowledgements, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents]
[Index]

1 Creating R packages
Packages provide a mechanism for loading optional code, data and documentation as needed. The R distribution
itself includes about 30 packages.
In the following, we assume that you know the library() command, including its lib.loc argument, and we
also assume basic knowledge of the R CMD INSTALL utility. Otherwise, please look at R’s help pages on
?library
?INSTALL

before reading on.

For packages which contain code to be compiled, a computing environment including a number of tools is
assumed; the “R Installation and Administration” manual describes what is needed for each OS.
Once a source package is created, it must be installed by the command R CMD INSTALL. See Add-on-packages in
R Installation and Administration.
Other types of extensions are supported (but rare): See Package types.
Some notes on terminology complete this introduction. These will help with the reading of this manual, and also
in describing concepts accurately when asking for help.
A package is a directory of files which extend R, a source package (the master files of a package), or a tarball
containing the files of a source package, or an installed package, the result of running R CMD INSTALL on a source
package. On some platforms (notably macOS and Windows) there are also binary packages, a zip file or tarball
containing the files of an installed package which can be unpacked rather than installing from sources.
A package is not1 a library. The latter is used in two senses in R documentation.
A directory into which packages are installed, e.g. /usr/lib/R/library: in that sense it is sometimes
referred to as a library directory or library tree (since the library is a directory which contains packages as
directories, which themselves contain directories).
That used by the operating system, as a shared, dynamic or static library or (especially on Windows) a
DLL, where the second L stands for ‘library’. Installed packages may contain compiled code in what is
known on Unix-alikes as a shared object and on Windows as a DLL. The concept of a shared library
(dynamic library on macOS) as a collection of compiled code to which a package might link is also used,
especially for R itself on some platforms. On most platforms these concepts are interchangeable (shared
objects and DLLs can both be loaded into the R process and be linked against), but macOS distinguishes
between shared objects (extension .so) and dynamic libraries (extension .dylib).
There are a number of well-defined operations on source packages.
The most common is installation which takes a source package and installs it in a library using R CMD
INSTALL or install.packages.
Source packages can be built. This involves taking a source directory and creating a tarball ready for
distribution, including cleaning it up and creating PDF documentation from any vignettes it may contain.
Source packages (and most often tarballs) can be checked, when a test installation is done and tested
(including running its examples); also, the contents of the package are tested in various ways for
consistency and portability.
Compilation is not a correct term for a package. Installing a source package which contains C, C++ or
Fortran code will involve compiling that code. There is also the possibility of ‘byte’ compiling the R code
in a package (using the facilities of package compiler): nowadays this is enabled by default for all
packages. So compiling a package may come to mean byte-compiling its R code.
It used to be unambiguous to talk about loading an installed package using library(), but since the advent
of package namespaces this has been less clear: people now often talk about loading the package’s
namespace and then attaching the package so it becomes visible on the search path. Function library
 performs both steps, but a package’s namespace can be loaded without the package being attached (for
example by calls like splines::ns).
The concept of lazy loading of code or data is mentioned at several points. This is part of the installation, always
selected for R code but optional for data. When used the R objects of the package are created at installation time
and stored in a database in the R directory of the installed package, being loaded into the session at first use. This
makes the R session start up faster and use less (virtual) memory. (For technical details, see Lazy loading in R
Internals.)
CRAN is a network of WWW sites holding the R distributions and contributed code, especially R packages.
Users of R are encouraged to join in the collaborative project and to submit their own packages to CRAN:
current instructions are linked from https://CRAN.R-project.org/banner.shtml#submitting.
Package structure
Configure and cleanup
Checking and building packages
Writing package vignettes
Package namespaces
Writing portable packages
Diagnostic messages
Internationalization
CITATION files
Package types
Services

Next: Configure and cleanup, Previous: Creating R packages, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.1 Package structure

The sources of an R package consist of a subdirectory containing the files DESCRIPTION and NAMESPACE, and the
subdirectories R, data, demo, exec, inst, man, po, src, tests, tools and vignettes (some of which can be missing,
but which should not be empty). The package subdirectory may also contain files INDEX, configure, cleanup,
LICENSE, LICENCE and NEWS. Other files such as INSTALL (for non-standard installation instructions),
README/README.md2, or ChangeLog will be ignored by R, but may be useful to end users. The utility R CMD build
may add files in a build directory (but this should not be used for other purposes).
Except where specifically mentioned,3 packages should not contain Unix-style ‘hidden’ files/directories (that is,
those whose name starts with a dot).
The DESCRIPTION and INDEX files are described in the subsections below. The NAMESPACE file is described in the
section on Package namespaces.
The optional files configure and cleanup are (Bourne) shell scripts which are, respectively, executed before and
(if option --clean was given) after installation on Unix-alikes, see Configure and cleanup. The analogues on
Windows are configure.win and cleanup.win. Since R 4.2.0 on Windows, configure.ucrt and cleanup.ucrt are
supported and take precedence over configure.win and cleanup.win. They can hence be used to provide content
specific for UCRT or Rtools42, if needed, but the support for .ucrt files may be removed in the future when
building packages from source on the older versions of R will no longer be needed, and hence the files may be
renamed back to .win.
For the conventions for files NEWS and ChangeLog in the GNU project see
https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Documentation.
The package subdirectory should be given the same name as the package. Because some file systems (e.g., those
on Windows and by default on macOS) are not case-sensitive, to maintain portability it is strongly
recommended that case distinctions not be used to distinguish different packages. For example, if you have a
package named foo, do not also create a package named Foo.
To ensure that file names are valid across file systems and supported operating systems, the ASCII control
characters as well as the characters ‘"’, ‘*’, ‘:’, ‘/’, ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘?’, ‘\’, and ‘|’ are not allowed in file names. In
addition, files with names ‘con’, ‘prn’, ‘aux’, ‘clock$’, ‘nul’, ‘com1’ to ‘com9’, and ‘lpt1’ to ‘ lpt9’ after
conversion to lower case and stripping possible “extensions” (e.g., ‘lpt5.foo.bar’), are disallowed. Also, file
names in the same directory must not differ only by case (see the previous paragraph). In addition, the
basenames of ‘.Rd’ files may be used in URLs and so must be ASCII and not contain %. For maximal portability
filenames should only contain only ASCII characters not excluded already (that is A-Za-z0-9._!#$%&+,;=@^()
{}'[] — we exclude space as many utilities do not accept spaces in file paths): non-English alphabetic
characters cannot be guaranteed to be supported in all locales. It would be good practice to avoid the shell
metacharacters (){}'[]$~: ~ is also used as part of ‘8.3’ filenames on Windows. In addition, packages are
normally distributed as tarballs, and these have a limit on path lengths: for maximal portability 100 bytes.
A source package if possible should not contain binary executable files: they are not portable, and a security risk
if they are of the appropriate architecture. R CMD check will warn about them4 unless they are listed (one filepath
per line) in a file BinaryFiles at the top level of the package. Note that CRAN will not accept submissions
containing binary files even if they are listed.
The R function package.skeleton can help to create the structure for a new package: see its help page for details.
The DESCRIPTION file
Licensing
Package Dependencies
The INDEX file
Package subdirectories
Data in packages
Non-R scripts in packages
Specifying URLs

Next: Licensing, Previous: Package structure, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.1 The DESCRIPTION file

The DESCRIPTION file contains basic information about the package in the following format:

Package: pkgname
Version: 0.5-1
Date: 2015-01-01
Title: My First Collection of Functions
Authors@R: c(person("Joe", "Developer", role = c("aut", "cre"),
email = "[email protected]"),
person("Pat", "Developer", role = "aut"),
person("A.", "User", role = "ctb",
email = "[email protected]"))
Author: Joe Developer [aut, cre],
Pat Developer [aut],
A. User [ctb]
Maintainer: Joe Developer <[email protected]>
Depends: R (>= 3.1.0), nlme
Suggests: MASS
Description: A (one paragraph) description of what
the package does and why it may be useful.
License: GPL (>= 2)
URL: https://www.r-project.org, http://www.another.url
BugReports: https://pkgname.bugtracker.url

The format is that of a version of a ‘Debian Control File’ (see the help for ‘read.dcf’ and
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html: R does not require encoding in UTF-8 and does
not support comments starting with ‘#’). Fields start with an ASCII name immediately followed by a colon: the
value starts after the colon and a space. Continuation lines (for example, for descriptions longer than one line)
start with a space or tab. Field names are case-sensitive: all those used by R are capitalized.
For maximal portability, the DESCRIPTION file should be written entirely in ASCII — if this is not possible it must
contain an ‘Encoding’ field (see below).
Several optional fields take logical values: these can be specified as ‘yes’, ‘true’, ‘no’ or ‘false’: capitalized
values are also accepted.
The ‘Package’, ‘Version’, ‘License’, ‘Description’, ‘Title’, ‘Author’, and ‘Maintainer’ fields are mandatory, all
other fields are optional. Fields ‘Author’ and ‘Maintainer’ can be auto-generated from ‘Authors@R’, and may be
omitted if the latter is provided: however if they are not ASCII we recommend that they are provided.
The mandatory ‘Package’ field gives the name of the package. This should contain only (ASCII) letters, numbers
and dot, have at least two characters and start with a letter and not end in a dot. If it needs explaining, this should
be done in the ‘Description’ field (and not the ‘Title’ field).
The mandatory ‘Version’ field gives the version of the package. This is a sequence of at least two (and usually
three) non-negative integers separated by single ‘.’ or ‘-’ characters. The canonical form is as shown in the
example, and a version such as ‘0.01’ or ‘0.01.0’ will be handled as if it were ‘0.1-0’. It is not a decimal
number, so for example 0.9 < 0.75 since 9 < 75.
The mandatory ‘License’ field is discussed in the next subsection.
The mandatory ‘Title’ field should give a short description of the package. Some package listings may truncate
the title to 65 characters. It should use title case (that is, use capitals for the principal words: tools::toTitleCase
can help you with this), not use any markup, not have any continuation lines, and not end in a period (unless part
of …). Do not repeat the package name: it is often used prefixed by the name. Refer to other packages and
external software in single quotes, and to book titles (and similar) in double quotes.
The mandatory ‘Description’ field should give a comprehensive description of what the package does. One can
use several (complete) sentences, but only one paragraph. It should be intelligible to all the intended readership
(e.g. for a CRAN package to all CRAN users). It is good practice not to start with the package name, ‘This
package’ or similar. As with the ‘Title’ field, double quotes should be used for quotations (including titles of
books and articles), and single quotes for non-English usage, including names of other packages and external
software. This field should also be used for explaining the package name if necessary. URLs should be enclosed
in angle brackets, e.g. ‘<https://www.r-project.org>’: see also Specifying URLs.
The mandatory ‘Author’ field describes who wrote the package. It is a plain text field intended for human
readers, but not for automatic processing (such as extracting the email addresses of all listed contributors: for
that use ‘Authors@R’). Note that all significant contributors must be included: if you wrote an R wrapper for the
work of others included in the src directory, you are not the sole (and maybe not even the main) author.
The mandatory ‘Maintainer’ field should give a single name followed by a valid (RFC 2822) email address in
angle brackets. It should not end in a period or comma. This field is what is reported by the maintainer function
and used by bug.report. For a CRAN package it should be a person, not a mailing list and not a corporate
entity: do ensure that it is valid and will remain valid for the lifetime of the package.
Note that the display name (the part before the address in angle brackets) should be enclosed in double quotes if
it contains non-alphanumeric characters such as comma or period. (The current standard, RFC 5322, allows
periods but RFC 2822 did not.)
Both ‘Author’ and ‘Maintainer’ fields can be omitted if a suitable ‘Authors@R’ field is given. This field can be
used to provide a refined and machine-readable description of the package “authors” (in particular specifying
their precise roles), via suitable R code. It should create an object of class "person", by either a call to person or
a series of calls (one per “author”) concatenated by c(): see the example DESCRIPTION file above. The roles can
include ‘"aut"’ (author) for full authors, ‘ "cre"’ (creator) for the package maintainer, and ‘"ctb"’ (contributor)
for other contributors, ‘"cph"’ (copyright holder, which should be the legal name for an institution or corporate
body), among others. See ?person for more information. Note that no role is assumed by default. Auto-generated
package citation information takes advantage of this specification. The ‘Author’ and ‘Maintainer’ fields are
auto-generated from it if needed when building5 or installing.
An optional ‘Copyright’ field can be used where the copyright holder(s) are not the authors. If necessary, this
can refer to an installed file: the convention is to use file inst/COPYRIGHTS.
The optional ‘Date’ field gives the release date of the current version of the package. It is strongly
recommended6 to use the ‘yyyy-mm-dd’ format conforming to the ISO 8601 standard.
The ‘Depends’, ‘Imports’, ‘Suggests’, ‘Enhances’, ‘LinkingTo’ and ‘Additional_repositories’ fields are
discussed in a later subsection.
Dependencies external to the R system should be listed in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field, possibly amplified in
a separate README file. This includes specifying a non-default C++ standard and the need for GNU make.
The ‘URL’ field may give a list of URLs separated by commas or whitespace, for example the homepage of the
author or a page where additional material describing the software can be found. These URLs are converted to
active hyperlinks in CRAN package listings. See Specifying URLs.
The ‘BugReports’ field may contain a single URL to which bug reports about the package should be submitted.
This URL will be used by bug.report instead of sending an email to the maintainer. A browser is opened for a
‘http://’ or ‘https://’ URL. To specify another email address for bug reports, use ‘Contact’ instead: however
bug.report will try to extract an email address (preferably from a ‘mailto:’ URL or enclosed in angle brackets)
from ‘BugReports’.
Base and recommended packages (i.e., packages contained in the R source distribution or available from CRAN
and recommended to be included in every binary distribution of R) have a ‘Priority’ field with value ‘ base’ or
‘recommended’, respectively. These priorities must not be used by other packages.
A ‘Collate’ field can be used for controlling the collation order for the R code files in a package when these are
processed for package installation. The default is to collate according to the ‘C’ locale. If present, the collate
specification must list all R code files in the package (taking possible OS-specific subdirectories into account,
see Package subdirectories) as a whitespace separated list of file paths relative to the R subdirectory. Paths
containing white space or quotes need to be quoted. An OS-specific collation field (‘Collate.unix’ or
‘Collate.windows’) will be used in preference to ‘Collate’.
The ‘LazyData’ logical field controls whether the R datasets use lazy-loading. A ‘LazyLoad’ field was used in
versions prior to 2.14.0, but now is ignored.
The ‘KeepSource’ logical field controls if the package code is sourced using keep.source = TRUE or FALSE: it
might be needed exceptionally for a package designed to always be used with keep.source = TRUE.
The ‘ByteCompile’ logical field controls if the package R code is to be byte-compiled on installation: the default
is to byte-compile. This can be overridden by installing with flag --no-byte-compile.
The ‘UseLTO’ logical field is used on a Unix-alike to indicate if source code in the package is to be compiled with
Link-Time Optimization (see Using Link-time Optimization) if R was installed with --enable-lto (default true)
or --enable-lto=R (default false). This can be overridden by by the flags --use-LTO and --no-use-LTO. LTO is
said to give most size and performance improvements for large and complex (heavily templated) C++ projects.
The ‘StagedInstall’ logical field controls if package installation is ‘staged’, that is done to a temporary location
and moved to the final location when successfully completed. This field was introduced in R 3.6.0 and it true by
default: it is considered to be a temporary measure which may be withdrawn in future.
The ‘ZipData’ logical field has been ignored since R 2.13.0.
The ‘Biarch’ logical field is used on Windows to select the INSTALL option --force-biarch for this package.
The ‘BuildVignettes’ logical field can be set to a false value to stop R CMD build from attempting to build the
vignettes, as well as preventing7 R CMD check from testing this. This should only be used exceptionally, for
example if the PDFs include large figures which are not part of the package sources (and hence only in packages
which do not have an Open Source license).
The ‘VignetteBuilder’ field names (in a comma-separated list) packages that provide an engine for building
vignettes. These may include the current package, or ones listed in ‘Depends’, ‘Suggests’ or ‘Imports’. The utils
package is always implicitly appended. See Non-Sweave vignettes for details. Note that if, for example, a
vignette has engine ‘knitr::rmarkdown’, then knitr provides the engine but both knitr and rmarkdown are
needed for using it, so both these packages need to be in the ‘VignetteBuilder’ field and at least suggested (as
rmarkdown is only suggested by knitr, and hence not available automatically along with it). Many packages
using knitr also need the package formatR which it suggests and so the user package needs to do so too and
include this in ‘VignetteBuilder’.
If the DESCRIPTION file is not entirely in ASCII it should contain an ‘Encoding’ field specifying an encoding. This
is used as the encoding of the DESCRIPTION file itself and of the R and NAMESPACE files, and as the default encoding
of .Rd files. The examples are assumed to be in this encoding when running R CMD check, and it is used for the
encoding of the CITATION file. Only encoding names latin1, latin2 and UTF-8 are known to be portable. (Do not
specify an encoding unless one is actually needed: doing so makes the package less portable. If a package has a
specified encoding, you should run R CMD build etc in a locale using that encoding.)
The ‘NeedsCompilation’ field should be set to "yes" if the package contains native code which needs to be
compiled, otherwise "no" (when the package could be installed from source on any platform without additional
tools). This is used by install.packages(type = "both") in R >= 2.15.2 on platforms where binary packages
are the norm: it is normally set by R CMD build or the repository assuming compilation is required if and only if
the package has a src directory.
The ‘OS_type’ field specifies the OS(es) for which the package is intended. If present, it should be one of unix or
windows, and indicates that the package can only be installed on a platform with ‘.Platform$OS.type’ having that
value.
The ‘Type’ field specifies the type of the package: see Package types.
One can add subject classifications for the content of the package using the fields ‘Classification/ACM’ or
‘Classification/ACM-2012’ (using the Computing Classification System of the Association for Computing
Machinery, https://www.acm.org/publications/class-2012; the former refers to the 1998 version),
‘Classification/JEL’ (the Journal of Economic Literature Classification System,
https://www.aeaweb.org/econlit/jelCodes.php, or ‘Classification/MSC’ or ‘Classification/MSC-2010’ (the
Mathematics Subject Classification of the American Mathematical Society,
https://mathscinet.ams.org/msc/msc2010.html; the former refers to the 2000 version). The subject classifications
should be comma-separated lists of the respective classification codes, e.g., ‘Classification/ACM: G.4, H.2.8,
I.5.1’.
A ‘Language’ field can be used to indicate if the package documentation is not in English: this should be a
comma-separated list of standard (not private use or grandfathered) IETF language tags as currently defined by
RFC 5646 (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5646, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF_language_tag), i.e.,
use language subtags which in essence are 2-letter ISO 639-1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1) or 3-
letter ISO 639-3 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-3) language codes.
An ‘RdMacros’ field can be used to hold a comma-separated list of packages from which the current package will
import Rd macro definitions. These package should also be listed in ‘Imports’ (or ‘ Depends’). The macros in
these packages will be imported after the system macros, in the order listed in the ‘RdMacros’ field, before any
macro definitions in the current package are loaded. Macro definitions in individual .Rd files in the man directory
are loaded last, and are local to later parts of that file. In case of duplicates, the last loaded definition will be
used.8 Both R CMD Rd2pdf and R CMD Rdconv have an optional flag --RdMacros=pkglist. The option is also a
comma-separated list of package names, and has priority over the value given in DESCRIPTION. Packages using Rd
macros should depend on R 3.2.0 or later.

Note: There should be no ‘Built’ or ‘Packaged’ fields, as these are added by the package
management tools.

There is no restriction on the use of other fields not mentioned here (but using other capitalizations of these field
names would cause confusion). Fields Note, Contact (for contacting the authors/developers9) and MailingList
are in common use. Some repositories (including CRAN and R-forge) add their own fields.

Next: Package Dependencies, Previous: The DESCRIPTION file, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.2 Licensing

Licensing for a package which might be distributed is an important but potentially complex subject.
It is very important that you include license information! Otherwise, it may not even be legally correct for others
to distribute copies of the package, let alone use it.
The package management tools use the concept of ‘free or open source software’ (FOSS, e.g.,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOSS) licenses: the idea being that some users of R and its packages want to
restrict themselves to such software. Others need to ensure that there are no restrictions stopping them using a
package, e.g. forbidding commercial or military use. It is a central tenet of FOSS software that there are no
restrictions on users nor usage.
Do not use the ‘License’ field for information on copyright holders: if needed, use a ‘Copyright’ field.
The mandatory ‘License’ field in the DESCRIPTION file should specify the license of the package in a standardized
form. Alternatives are indicated via vertical bars. Individual specifications must be one of
One of the “standard” short specifications
 GPL-2 GPL-3 LGPL-2 LGPL-2.1 LGPL-3 AGPL-3 Artistic-2.0
BSD_2_clause BSD_3_clause MIT

as made available via https://www.R-project.org/Licenses/ and contained in subdirectory share/licenses

of the R source or home directory.
The names or abbreviations of other licenses contained in the license data base in file
share/licenses/license.db in the R source or home directory, possibly (for versioned licenses) followed
by a version restriction of the form ‘(op v)’ with ‘op’ one of the comparison operators ‘<’, ‘<=’, ‘>’, ‘>=’,
‘==’, or ‘!=’ and ‘v’ a numeric version specification (strings of non-negative integers separated by ‘.’),
possibly combined via ‘,’ (see below for an example). For versioned licenses, one can also specify the
name followed by the version, or combine an existing abbreviation and the version with a ‘-’.
Abbreviations GPL and LGPL are ambiguous and usually10 taken to mean any version of the license: but it is
better not to use them.
One of the strings ‘file LICENSE’ or ‘file LICENCE’ referring to a file named LICENSE or LICENCE in the
package (source and installation) top-level directory.
The string ‘Unlimited’, meaning that there are no restrictions on distribution or use other than those
imposed by relevant laws (including copyright laws).
Multiple licences can be specified separated by ‘|’ (surrounded by spaces) in which case the user can choose
any of the alternatives.
If a package license restricts a base license (where permitted, e.g., using GPL-3 or AGPL-3 with an attribution
clause), the additional terms should be placed in file LICENSE (or LICENCE), and the string ‘+ file LICENSE’ (or ‘+
file LICENCE’, respectively) should be appended to the corresponding individual license specification
(preferably with the ‘+’ surrounded by spaces). Note that several commonly used licenses do not permit
restrictions: this includes GPL-2 and hence any specification which includes it.
Examples of standardized specifications include
License: GPL-2
License: LGPL (>= 2.0, < 3) | Mozilla Public License
License: GPL-2 | file LICENCE
License: GPL (>= 2) | BSD_3_clause + file LICENSE
License: Artistic-2.0 | AGPL-3 + file LICENSE

Please note in particular that “Public domain” is not a valid license, since it is not recognized in some
jurisdictions.
Please ensure that the license you choose also covers any dependencies (including system dependencies) of your
package: it is particularly important that any restrictions on the use of such dependencies are evident to people
reading your DESCRIPTION file.
Fields ‘License_is_FOSS’ and ‘License_restricts_use’ may be added by repositories where information cannot
be computed from the name of the license. ‘License_is_FOSS: yes’ is used for licenses which are known to be
FOSS, and ‘License_restricts_use’ can have values ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if the LICENSE file is known to restrict users or
usage, or known not to. These are used by, e.g., the available.packages filters.
The optional file LICENSE/LICENCE contains a copy of the license of the package. To avoid any confusion only
include such a file if it is referred to in the ‘License’ field of the DESCRIPTION file.
Whereas you should feel free to include a license file in your source distribution, please do not arrange to install
yet another copy of the GNU COPYING or COPYING.LIB files but refer to the copies on https://www.R-
project.org/Licenses/ and included in the R distribution (in directory share/licenses). Since files named LICENSE
or LICENCE will be installed, do not use these names for standard license files. To include comments about the
licensing rather than the body of a license, use a file named something like LICENSE.note.
A few “standard” licenses are rather license templates which need additional information to be completed via ‘+
file LICENSE’ (with the ‘ +’ surrounded by spaces)

Next: The INDEX file, Previous: Licensing, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.3 Package Dependencies

The ‘Depends’ field gives a comma-separated list of package names which this package depends on. Those
packages will be attached before the current package when library or require is called. Each package name
may be optionally followed by a comment in parentheses specifying a version requirement. The comment
should contain a comparison operator, whitespace and a valid version number, e.g. ‘MASS (>= 3.1-20)’.
The ‘Depends’ field can also specify a dependence on a certain version of R — e.g., if the package works only
with R version 4.0.0 or later, include ‘R (>= 4.0)’ in the ‘Depends’ field. (As here, trailing zeroes can be dropped
and it is recommended that they are.) You can also require a certain SVN revision for R-devel or R-patched, e.g.
‘R (>= 2.14.0), R (>= r56550)’ requires a version later than R-devel of late July 2011 (including released
versions of 2.14.0).
It makes no sense to declare a dependence on R without a version specification, nor on the package base: this is
an R package and package base is always available.
A package or ‘R’ can appear more than once in the ‘Depends’ field, for example to give upper and lower bounds
on acceptable versions.
It is inadvisable to use a dependence on R with patchlevel (the third digit) other than zero. Doing so with
packages which others depend on will cause the other packages to become unusable under earlier versions in the
series, and e.g. versions 4.x.1 are widely used throughout the Northern Hemisphere academic year.
Both library and the R package checking facilities use this field: hence it is an error to use improper syntax or
misuse the ‘Depends’ field for comments on other software that might be needed. The R INSTALL facilities check
if the version of R used is recent enough for the package being installed, and the list of packages which is
specified will be attached (after checking version requirements) before the current package.
The ‘Imports’ field lists packages whose namespaces are imported from (as specified in the NAMESPACE file) but
which do not need to be attached. Namespaces accessed by the ‘::’ and ‘:::’ operators must be listed here, or in
‘Suggests’ or ‘Enhances’ (see below). Ideally this field will include all the standard packages that are used, and it
is important to include S4-using packages (as their class definitions can change and the DESCRIPTION file is used
to decide which packages to re-install when this happens). Packages declared in the ‘Depends’ field should not
also be in the ‘Imports’ field. Version requirements can be specified and are checked when the namespace is
loaded.
The ‘Suggests’ field uses the same syntax as ‘Depends’ and lists packages that are not necessarily needed. This
includes packages used only in examples, tests or vignettes (see Writing package vignettes), and packages
loaded in the body of functions. E.g., suppose an example11 from package foo uses a dataset from package bar.
Then it is not necessary to have bar use foo unless one wants to execute all the examples/tests/vignettes: it is
useful to have bar, but not necessary. Version requirements can be specified but should be checked by the code
which uses the package.
Finally, the ‘Enhances’ field lists packages “enhanced” by the package at hand, e.g., by providing methods for
classes from these packages, or ways to handle objects from these packages (so several packages have
‘Enhances: chron’ because they can handle datetime objects from chron even though they prefer R’s native
datetime functions). Version requirements can be specified, but are currently not used. Such packages cannot be
required to check the package: any tests which use them must be conditional on the presence of the package. (If
your tests use e.g. a dataset from another package it should be in ‘Suggests’ and not ‘Enhances’.)
The general rules are
A package should be listed in only one of these fields.
Packages whose namespace only is needed to load the package using library(pkgname) should be listed in
the ‘Imports’ field and not in the ‘Depends’ field. Packages listed in import or importFrom directives in the
NAMESPACE file should almost always be in ‘Imports’ and not ‘Depends’.
Packages that need to be attached to successfully load the package using library(pkgname) must be listed
in the ‘Depends’ field.
All packages that are needed12 to successfully run R CMD check on the package must be listed in one of
‘Depends’ or ‘Suggests’ or ‘Imports’. Packages used to run examples or tests conditionally (e.g. via
if(require(pkgname))) should be listed in ‘Suggests’ or ‘Enhances’. (This allows checkers to ensure that
all the packages needed for a complete check are installed.)
Packages needed to use datasets from the package should be in ‘Imports’: this includes those needed to
define S4 classes used.
In particular, packages providing “only” data for examples or vignettes should be listed in ‘Suggests’ rather than
‘Depends’ in order to make lean installations possible.
Version dependencies in the ‘Depends’ and ‘Imports’ fields are used by library when it loads the package, and
install.packages checks versions for the ‘Depends’, ‘Imports’ and (for dependencies = TRUE) ‘Suggests’ fields.
It is important that the information in these fields is complete and accurate: it is for example used to compute
which packages depend on an updated package and which packages can safely be installed in parallel.
This scheme was developed before all packages had namespaces (R 2.14.0 in October 2011), and good practice
changed once that was in place.
Field ‘Depends’ should nowadays be used rarely, only for packages which are intended to be put on the search
path to make their facilities available to the end user (and not to the package itself): for example it makes sense
that a user of package latticeExtra would want the functions of package lattice made available.
Almost always packages mentioned in ‘Depends’ should also be imported from in the NAMESPACE file: this ensures
that any needed parts of those packages are available when some other package imports the current package.
The ‘Imports’ field should not contain packages which are not imported from (via the NAMESPACE file or :: or :::
operators), as all the packages listed in that field need to be installed for the current package to be installed.
(This is checked by R CMD check.)
R code in the package should call library or require only exceptionally. Such calls are never needed for
packages listed in ‘Depends’ as they will already be on the search path. It used to be common practice to use
require calls for packages listed in ‘Suggests’ in functions which used their functionality, but nowadays it is
better to access such functionality via :: calls.
A package that wishes to make use of header files in other packages to compile its C/C++ code needs to declare
them as a comma-separated list in the field ‘LinkingTo’ in the DESCRIPTION file. For example
LinkingTo: link1, link2

The ‘LinkingTo’ field can have a version requirement which is checked at installation.
Specifying a package in ‘LinkingTo’ suffices if these are C/C++ headers containing source code or static linking
is done at installation: the packages do not need to be (and usually should not be) listed in the ‘Depends’ or
‘Imports’ fields. This includes CRAN package BH and almost all users of RcppArmadillo and RcppEigen.
Note that ‘LinkingTo’ applies only to installation: if a packages wishes to use headers to compile code in tests or
vignettes the package providing them needs to be listed in ‘Suggests’ or perhaps ‘Depends’.
For another use of ‘LinkingTo’ see Linking to native routines in other packages.
The ‘Additional_repositories’ field is a comma-separated list of repository URLs where the packages named
in the other fields may be found. It is currently used by R CMD check to check that the packages can be found, at
least as source packages (which can be installed on any platform).
Suggested packages

Previous: Package Dependencies, Up: Package Dependencies [Contents][Index]

1.1.3.1 Suggested packages

Note that someone wanting to run the examples/tests/vignettes may not have a suggested package available (and
it may not even be possible to install it for that platform). The recommendation used to be to make their use
conditional via if(require("pkgname")): this is OK if that conditioning is done in examples/tests/vignettes,
although using if(requireNamespace("pkgname")) is preferred, if possible.
However, using require for conditioning in package code is not good practice as it alters the search path for the
rest of the session and relies on functions in that package not being masked by other require or library calls. It
is better practice to use code like
if (requireNamespace("rgl", quietly = TRUE)) {
rgl::plot3d(...)
} else {
## do something else not involving rgl.
}
Note the use of rgl:: as that object would not necessarily be visible (and if it is, it need not be the one from that
namespace: plot3d occurs in several other packages). If the intention is to give an error if the suggested package
is not available, simply use e.g. rgl::plot3d.
If the conditional code produces print output, function withAutoprint can be useful.
Note that the recommendation to use suggested packages conditionally in tests does also apply to packages used
to manage test suites: a notorious example was testthat which in version 1.0.0 contained illegal C++ code and
hence could not be installed on standards-compliant platforms.
Some people have assumed that a ‘recommended’ package in ‘Suggests’ can safely be used unconditionally, but
this is not so. (R can be installed without recommended packages, and which packages are ‘recommended’ may
change.)
As noted above, packages in ‘Enhances’ must be used conditionally and hence objects within them should
always be accessed via ::.
On most systems, R CMD check can be run with only those packages declared in ‘Depends’ and ‘Imports’ by
setting environment variable _R_CHECK_DEPENDS_ONLY_=true, whereas setting _R_CHECK_SUGGESTS_ONLY_=true also
allows suggested packages, but not those in ‘Enhances’ nor those not mentioned in the DESCRIPTION file. It is
recommended that a package is checked with each of these set, as well as with neither.
WARNING: Be extremely careful if you do things which would be run at installation time depending on
whether suggested packages are available or not—this includes top-level code in R code files, .onLoad functions
and the definitions of S4 classes and methods. The problem is that once a namespace of a suggested package is
loaded, references to it may be captured in the installed package (most commonly in S4 methods), but the
suggested package may not be available when the installed package is used (which especially for binary
packages might be on a different machine). Even worse, the problems might not be confined to your package,
for the namespaces of your suggested packages will also be loaded whenever any package which imports yours
is installed and so may be captured there.

Next: Package subdirectories, Previous: Package Dependencies, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.4 The INDEX file

The optional file INDEX contains a line for each sufficiently interesting object in the package, giving its name and
a description (functions such as print methods not usually called explicitly might not be included). Normally this
file is missing and the corresponding information is automatically generated from the documentation sources
(using tools::Rdindex()) when installing from source.
The file is part of the information given by library(help = pkgname).
Rather than editing this file, it is preferable to put customized information about the package into an overview
help page (see Documenting packages) and/or a vignette (see Writing package vignettes).

Next: Data in packages, Previous: The INDEX file, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.5 Package subdirectories

The R subdirectory contains R code files, only. The code files to be installed must start with an ASCII (lower or
upper case) letter or digit and have one of the extensions13 .R, .S, .q, .r, or .s. We recommend using .R, as this
extension seems to be not used by any other software. It should be possible to read in the files using source(), so
R objects must be created by assignments. Note that there need be no connection between the name of the file
and the R objects created by it. Ideally, the R code files should only directly assign R objects and definitely
should not call functions with side effects such as require and options. If computations are required to create
objects these can use code ‘earlier’ in the package (see the ‘Collate’ field) plus functions in the ‘Depends’
packages provided that the objects created do not depend on those packages except via namespace imports.
Extreme care is needed if top-level computations are made to depend on availability or not of other packages. In
particular this applies to setMethods and setClass calls.
Two exceptions are allowed: if the R subdirectory contains a file sysdata.rda (a saved image of one or more R
objects: please use suitable compression as suggested by tools::resaveRdaFiles, and see also the
‘SysDataCompression’ DESCRIPTION field.) this will be lazy-loaded into the namespace environment – this is
intended for system datasets that are not intended to be user-accessible via data. Also, files ending in ‘.in’ will
be allowed in the R directory to allow a configure script to generate suitable files.
Only ASCII characters (and the control characters tab, formfeed, LF and CR) should be used in code files. Other
characters are accepted in comments14, but then the comments may not be readable in e.g. a UTF-8 locale. Non-
ASCII characters in object names will normally15 fail when the package is installed. Any byte will be allowed in
a quoted character string but ‘\uxxxx’ escapes should be used for non-ASCII characters. However, non-ASCII
character strings may not be usable in some locales and may display incorrectly in others.
Various R functions in a package can be used to initialize and clean up. See Load hooks.
The man subdirectory should contain (only) documentation files for the objects in the package in R
documentation (Rd) format. The documentation filenames must start with an ASCII (lower or upper case) letter
or digit and have the extension .Rd (the default) or .rd. Further, the names must be valid in ‘file://’ URLs,
which means16 they must be entirely ASCII and not contain ‘%’. See Writing R documentation files, for more
information. Note that all user-level objects in a package should be documented; if a package pkg contains user-
level objects which are for “internal” use only, it should provide a file pkg-internal.Rd which documents all
such objects, and clearly states that these are not meant to be called by the user. See e.g. the sources for package
grid in the R distribution. Note that packages which use internal objects extensively should not export those
objects from their namespace, when they do not need to be documented (see Package namespaces).
Having a man directory containing no documentation files may give an installation error.
The man subdirectory may contain a subdirectory named macros; this will contain source for user-defined Rd
macros. (See User-defined macros.) These use the Rd format, but may not contain anything but macro
definitions, comments and whitespace.
The R and man subdirectories may contain OS-specific subdirectories named unix or windows.
The sources and headers for the compiled code are in src, plus optionally a file Makevars or Makefile. When a
package is installed using R CMD INSTALL, make is used to control compilation and linking into a shared object for
loading into R. There are default make variables and rules for this (determined when R is configured and
recorded in R_HOME/etcR_ARCH/Makeconf), providing support for C, C++, fixed- or free-form Fortran, Objective C
and Objective C++17 with associated extensions .c, .cc or .cpp, .f, .f90 or .f95, .m, and .mm, respectively. We
recommend using .h for headers, also for C++18 or Fortran 9x include files. (Use of extension .C for C++ is no
longer supported.) Files in the src directory should not be hidden (start with a dot), and hidden files will under
some versions of R be ignored.
It is not portable (and may not be possible at all) to mix all these languages in a single package. Because R itself
uses it, we know that C and fixed-form Fortran can be used together, and mixing C, C++ and Fortran usually
work for the platform’s native compilers.
If your code needs to depend on the platform there are certain defines which can used in C or C++. On all
Windows builds (even 64-bit ones) ‘_WIN32’ will be defined: on 64-bit Windows builds also ‘_WIN64’. On macOS
‘__APPLE__’ is defined19; for an ‘Apple Silicon’ platform, test for both ‘__APPLE__’ and ‘__arm64__’.
The default rules can be tweaked by setting macros20 in a file src/Makevars (see Using Makevars). Note that this
mechanism should be general enough to eliminate the need for a package-specific src/Makefile. If such a file is
to be distributed, considerable care is needed to make it general enough to work on all R platforms. If it has any
targets at all, it should have an appropriate first target named ‘all’ and a (possibly empty) target ‘clean’ which
removes all files generated by running make (to be used by ‘R CMD INSTALL --clean’ and ‘R CMD INSTALL --
preclean’). There are platform-specific file names on Windows: src/Makevars.win takes precedence over
src/Makevars and src/Makefile.win must be used. Since R 4.2.0, src/Makevars.ucrt takes precedence over
src/Makevars.win and src/Makefile.ucrt takes precedence over src/Makefile.win. src/Makevars.ucrt and
src/Makefile.ucrt will be ignored by earlier versions of R, and hence can be used to provide content specific
for UCRT or Rtools42, but the support for .ucrt files may be removed in the future when building packages
from source on the older versions of R will no longer be needed, and hence the files may be renamed back to
.win. Some make programs require makefiles to have a complete final line, including a newline.

A few packages use the src directory for purposes other than making a shared object (e.g. to create executables).
Such packages should have files src/Makefile and src/Makefile.win or src/Makefile.ucrt (unless intended for
only Unix-alikes or only Windows).
In very special cases packages may create binary files other than the shared objects/DLLs in the src directory.
Such files will not be installed in a multi-architecture setting since R CMD INSTALL --libs-only is used to merge
multiple sub-architectures and it only copies shared objects/DLLs. If a package wants to install other binaries
(for example executable programs), it should provide an R script src/install.libs.R which will be run as part
of the installation in the src build directory instead of copying the shared objects/DLLs. The script is run in a
separate R environment containing the following variables: R_PACKAGE_NAME (the name of the package),
R_PACKAGE_SOURCE (the path to the source directory of the package), R_PACKAGE_DIR (the path of the target
installation directory of the package), R_ARCH (the arch-dependent part of the path, often empty), SHLIB_EXT (the
extension of shared objects) and WINDOWS (TRUE on Windows, FALSE elsewhere). Something close to the default
behavior could be replicated with the following src/install.libs.R file:
files <- Sys.glob(paste0("*", SHLIB_EXT))
dest <- file.path(R_PACKAGE_DIR, paste0('libs', R_ARCH))
dir.create(dest, recursive = TRUE, showWarnings = FALSE)
file.copy(files, dest, overwrite = TRUE)
if(file.exists("symbols.rds"))
file.copy("symbols.rds", dest, overwrite = TRUE)

On the other hand, executable programs could be installed along the lines of
execs <- c("one", "two", "three")
if(WINDOWS) execs <- paste0(execs, ".exe")
if ( any(file.exists(execs)) ) {
dest <- file.path(R_PACKAGE_DIR, paste0('bin', R_ARCH))
dir.create(dest, recursive = TRUE, showWarnings = FALSE)
file.copy(execs, dest, overwrite = TRUE)
}

Note the use of architecture-specific subdirectories of bin where needed.

The data subdirectory is for data files: See Data in packages.
The demo subdirectory is for R scripts (for running via demo()) that demonstrate some of the functionality of the
package. Demos may be interactive and are not checked automatically, so if testing is desired use code in the
tests directory to achieve this. The script files must start with a (lower or upper case) letter and have one of the
extensions .R or .r. If present, the demo subdirectory should also have a 00Index file with one line for each demo,
giving its name and a description separated by a tab or at least three spaces. (This index file is not generated
automatically.) Note that a demo does not have a specified encoding and so should be an ASCII file (see
Encoding issues). Function demo() will use the package encoding if there is one, but this is mainly useful for
non-ASCII comments.
The contents of the inst subdirectory will be copied recursively to the installation directory. Subdirectories of
inst should not interfere with those used by R (currently, R, data, demo, exec, libs, man, help, html and Meta, and
earlier versions used latex, R-ex). The copying of the inst happens after src is built so its Makefile can create
files to be installed. To exclude files from being installed, one can specify a list of exclude patterns in file
.Rinstignore in the top-level source directory. These patterns should be Perl-like regular expressions (see the
help for regexp in R for the precise details), one per line, to be matched case-insensitively against the file and
directory paths, e.g. doc/.*[.]png$ will exclude all PNG files in inst/doc based on the extension.
Note that with the exceptions of INDEX, LICENSE/LICENCE and NEWS, information files at the top level of the
package will not be installed and so not be known to users of Windows and macOS compiled packages (and not
seen by those who use R CMD INSTALL or install.packages() on the tarball). So any information files you wish
an end user to see should be included in inst. Note that if the named exceptions also occur in inst, the version
in inst will be that seen in the installed package.
Things you might like to add to inst are a CITATION file for use by the citation function, and a NEWS.Rd file for
use by the news function. See its help page for the specific format restrictions of the NEWS.Rd file.
Another file sometimes needed in inst is AUTHORS or COPYRIGHTS to specify the authors or copyright holders
when this is too complex to put in the DESCRIPTION file.
Subdirectory tests is for additional package-specific test code, similar to the specific tests that come with the R
distribution. Test code can either be provided directly in a .R (or .r as from R 3.4.0) file, or via a .Rin file
containing code which in turn creates the corresponding .R file (e.g., by collecting all function objects in the
package and then calling them with the strangest arguments). The results of running a .R file are written to a
.Rout file. If there is a corresponding21 .Rout.save file, these two are compared, with differences being reported
but not causing an error. The directory tests is copied to the check area, and the tests are run with the copy as
the working directory and with R_LIBS set to ensure that the copy of the package installed during testing will be
found by library(pkg_name). Note that the package-specific tests are run in a vanilla R session without setting
the random-number seed, so tests which use random numbers will need to set the seed to obtain reproducible
results (and it can be helpful to do so in all cases, to avoid occasional failures when tests are run).
If directory tests has a subdirectory Examples containing a file pkg-Ex.Rout.save, this is compared to the output
file for running the examples when the latter are checked. Reference output should be produced without having
the --timings option set (and note that --as-cran sets it).
If reference output is included for examples, tests or vignettes do make sure that it is fully reproducible, as it will
be compared verbatim to that produced in a check run, unless the ‘IGNORE_RDIFF’ markup is used. Things which
trip up maintainers include displayed version numbers from loading other packages, printing numerical results
to an unreproducibly high precision and printing timings. Another trap is small values which are in fact rounding
error from zero: consider using zapsmall.
Subdirectory exec could contain additional executable scripts the package needs, typically scripts for interpreters
such as the shell, Perl, or Tcl. NB: only files (and not directories) under exec are installed (and those with names
starting with a dot are ignored), and they are all marked as executable (mode 755, moderated by ‘umask’) on
POSIX platforms. Note too that this is not suitable for executable programs since some platforms (including
Windows) support multiple architectures using the same installed package directory.
Subdirectory po is used for files related to localization: see Internationalization.
Subdirectory tools is the preferred place for auxiliary files needed during configuration, and also for sources
need to re-create scripts (e.g. M4 files for autoconf: some prefer to put those in a subdirectory m4 of tools).

Next: Non-R scripts in packages, Previous: Package subdirectories, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.6 Data in packages

The data subdirectory is for data files, either to be made available via lazy-loading or for loading using data().
(The choice is made by the ‘LazyData’ field in the DESCRIPTION file: the default is not to do so.) It should not be
used for other data files needed by the package, and the convention has grown up to use directory inst/extdata
for such files.
Data files can have one of three types as indicated by their extension: plain R code (.R or .r), tables (.tab, .txt,
or .csv, see ?data for the file formats, and note that .csv is not the standard22 CSV format), or save() images
(.RData or .rda). The files should not be hidden (have names starting with a dot). Note that R code should be if
possible “self-sufficient” and not make use of extra functionality provided by the package, so that the data file
can also be used without having to load the package or its namespace: it should run as silently as possible and
not change the search() path by attaching packages or other environments.
Images (extensions .RData23 or .rda) can contain references to the namespaces of packages that were used to
create them. Preferably there should be no such references in data files, and in any case they should only be to
packages listed in the Depends and Imports fields, as otherwise it may be impossible to install the package. To
check for such references, load all the images into a vanilla R session, run str() on all the datasets, and look at
the output of loadedNamespaces().
Particular care is needed where a dataset or one of its components is of an S4 class, especially if the class is
defined in a different package. First, the package containing the class definition has to be available to do useful
things with the dataset, so that package must be listed in Imports or Depends (even if this gives a check warning
about unused imports). Second, the definition of an S4 class can change, and often is unnoticed when in a
package with a different author. So it may be wiser to use the .R form and use that to create the dataset object
when needed (loading package namespaces but not attaching them by using requireNamespace(pkg, quietly =
TRUE) and using pkg:: to refer to objects in the namespace).
If you are not using ‘LazyData’ and either your data files are large or e.g., you use data/foo.R scripts to produce
your data, loading your namespace, you can speed up installation by providing a file datalist in the data
subdirectory. This should have one line per topic that data() will find, in the format ‘foo’ if data(foo) provides
‘foo’, or ‘foo: bar bah’ if data(foo) provides ‘bar’ and ‘bah’. R CMD build will automatically add a datalist
file to data directories of over 1Mb, using the function tools::add_datalist.
Tables (.tab, .txt, or .csv files) can be compressed by gzip, bzip2 or xz, optionally with additional extension
.gz, .bz2 or .xz.

If your package is to be distributed, do consider the resource implications of large datasets for your users: they
can make packages very slow to download and use up unwelcome amounts of storage space, as well as taking
many seconds to load. It is normally best to distribute large datasets as .rda images prepared by save(,
compress = TRUE) (the default). Using bzip2 or xz compression will usually reduce the size of both the package
tarball and the installed package, in some cases by a factor of two or more.
Package tools has a couple of functions to help with data images: checkRdaFiles reports on the way the image
was saved, and resaveRdaFiles will re-save with a different type of compression, including choosing the best
type for that particular image.
Many packages using ‘LazyData’ will benefit from using a form of compression other than gzip in the installed
lazy-loading database. This can be selected by the --data-compress option to R CMD INSTALL or by using the
‘LazyDataCompression’ field in the DESCRIPTION file. Useful values are bzip2, xz and the default, gzip: value none
is also accepted. The only way to discover which is best is to try them all and look at the size of the
pkgname/data/Rdata.rdb file. A function to do that (quoting sizes in KB) is

CheckLazyDataCompression <- function(pkg)

{
pkg_name <- sub("_.*", "", pkg)
lib <- tempfile(); dir.create(lib)
zs <- c("gzip", "bzip2", "xz")
res <- integer(3); names(res) <- zs
for (z in zs) {
opts <- c(paste0("--data-compress=", z),
"--no-libs", "--no-help", "--no-demo", "--no-exec", "--no-test-load")
install.packages(pkg, lib, INSTALL_opts = opts, repos = NULL, quiet = TRUE)
res[z] <- file.size(file.path(lib, pkg_name, "data", "Rdata.rdb"))
}
ceiling(res/1024)
}

(applied to a source package without any ‘LazyDataCompression’ field). R CMD check will warn if it finds a
pkgname/data/Rdata.rdb file of more than 5MB without ‘LazyDataCompression’ being set. If you see that, run
CheckLazyDataCompression() and set the field – to gzip in the unlikely event24 that is the best choice.

The analogue for sysdata.rda is field ‘SysDataCompression’: the default is xz for files bigger than 1MB
otherwise gzip.
Lazy-loading is not supported for very large datasets (those which when serialized exceed 2GB, the limit for the
format on 32-bit platforms).

Next: Specifying URLs, Previous: Data in packages, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.7 Non-R scripts in packages

Code which needs to be compiled (C, C++, Fortran …) is included in the src subdirectory and discussed
elsewhere in this document.
Subdirectory exec could be used for scripts for interpreters such as the shell, BUGS, JavaScript, Matlab, Perl,
php (amap), Python or Tcl (Simile), or even R. However, it seems more common to use the inst directory, for
example WriteXLS/inst/Perl, NMF/inst/m-files, RnavGraph/inst/tcl, RProtoBuf/inst/python and
emdbook/inst/BUGS and gridSVG/inst/js.

Java code is a special case: except for very small programs, .java files should be byte-compiled (to a .class
file) and distributed as part of a .jar file: the conventional location for the .jar file(s) is inst/java. It is
desirable (and required under an Open Source license) to make the Java source files available: this is best done
in a top-level java directory in the package—the source files should not be installed.
If your package requires one of these interpreters or an extension then this should be declared in the
‘SystemRequirements’ field of its DESCRIPTION file. (Users of Java most often do so via rJava, when depending
on/importing that suffices unless there is a version requirement on Java code in the package.)
Windows and Mac users should be aware that the Tcl extensions ‘BWidget’ and ‘Tktable’ (which have
sometimes been included in the Windows25 and macOS R installers) are extensions and do need to be declared
(and that ‘Tktable’ is less widely available than it used to be, including not in the main repositories for major
Linux distributions). ‘BWidget’ needs to be installed by the user on other OSes. This is fairly easy to do: first find
the Tcl search path:
library(tcltk)
strsplit(tclvalue('auto_path'), " ")[[1]]

then download the sources from https://sourceforge.net/projects/tcllib/files/BWidget/ and in a terminal run

something like
tar xf bwidget-1.9.14.tar.gz
sudo mv bwidget-1.9.14 /usr/local/lib

substituting a location on the Tcl search path for /usr/local/lib if needed. (If no location on that search path is
writeable, you will need to add one each time BWidget is to be used with tcltk::addTclPath().)
To (silently) test for the presence of ‘Tktable’ one can use
library(tcltk)
have_tktable <- !isFALSE(suppressWarnings(tclRequire('Tktable')))

Installing ‘Tktable’ needs a C compiler and the Tk headers (not necessarily installed with Tcl/Tk). At the time of
writing the latest sources (from 2008) were available from
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tktable/files/tktable/2.10/Tktable2.10.tar.gz, but needed patching for current Tk
(8.6.11, but not 8.6.10) – a patch can be found at https://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/bdr/Tktable/. For a system
installation of Tk you may need to install Tktable as ‘root’ as on e.g. Fedora all the locations on auto_path are
owned by ‘root’.

Previous: Non-R scripts in packages, Up: Package structure [Contents][Index]

1.1.8 Specifying URLs

URLs in many places in the package documentation will be converted to clickable hyperlinks in at least some of
their renderings. So care is needed that their forms are correct and portable.
The full URL should be given, including the scheme (often ‘http://’ or ‘ https://’) and a final ‘/’ for
references to directories.
Spaces in URLs are not portable and how they are handled does vary by HTTP server and by client. There
should be no space in the host part of an ‘http://’ URL, and spaces in the remainder should be encoded, with
each space replaced by ‘%20’.
Other characters may benefit from being encoded: see the help on URLencode().
The canonical URL for a CRAN package is
https://cran.r-project.org/package=pkgname

and not a version starting ‘https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/pkgname’.

Next: Checking and building packages, Previous: Package structure, Up: Creating R packages [Contents]
[Index]

1.2 Configure and cleanup

Note that most of this section is specific to Unix-alikes: see the comments later on about the Windows port of R.
If your package needs some system-dependent configuration before installation you can include an executable
(Bourne26 shell script configure in your package which (if present) is executed by R CMD INSTALL before any
other action is performed. This can be a script created by the Autoconf mechanism, but may also be a script
written by yourself. Use this to detect if any nonstandard libraries are present such that corresponding code in
the package can be disabled at install time rather than giving error messages when the package is compiled or
used. To summarize, the full power of Autoconf is available for your extension package (including variable
substitution, searching for libraries, etc.). Background and useful tips on Autoconf and related tools (including
pkg-config described below) can be found at https://autotools.io/.

A configure script is run in an environment which has all the environment variables set for an R session (see
R_HOME/etc/Renviron) plus R_PACKAGE_NAME (the name of the package), R_PACKAGE_DIR (the path of the target
installation directory of the package, a temporary location for staged installs) and R_ARCH (the arch-dependent
part of the path, often empty).
Under a Unix-alike only, an executable (Bourne shell) script cleanup is executed as the last thing by R CMD
INSTALL if option --clean was given, and by R CMD build when preparing the package for building from its
source.
As an example consider we want to use functionality provided by a (C or Fortran) library foo. Using Autoconf,
we can create a configure script which checks for the library, sets variable HAVE_FOO to TRUE if it was found and
to FALSE otherwise, and then substitutes this value into output files (by replacing instances of ‘@HAVE_FOO@’ in
input files with the value of HAVE_FOO). For example, if a function named bar is to be made available by linking
against library foo (i.e., using -lfoo), one could use
AC_CHECK_LIB(foo, fun, [HAVE_FOO=TRUE], [HAVE_FOO=FALSE])
AC_SUBST(HAVE_FOO)
......
AC_CONFIG_FILES([foo.R])
AC_OUTPUT

in configure.ac (assuming Autoconf 2.50 or later).

The definition of the respective R function in foo.R.in could be
foo <- function(x) {
if(!@HAVE_FOO@)
stop("Sorry, library ‘foo’ is not available")
...

From this file configure creates the actual R source file foo.R looking like
foo <- function(x) {
if(!FALSE)
stop("Sorry, library ‘foo’ is not available")
...

if library foo was not found (with the desired functionality). In this case, the above R code effectively disables
the function.
One could also use different file fragments for available and missing functionality, respectively.
You will very likely need to ensure that the same C compiler and compiler flags are used in the configure tests
as when compiling R or your package. Under a Unix-alike, you can achieve this by including the following
fragment early in configure.ac (before calling AC_PROG_CC or anything which calls it)
: ${R_HOME=`R RHOME`}
if test -z "${R_HOME}"; then
echo "could not determine R_HOME"
exit 1
fi
CC=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CC`
CFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CFLAGS`
CPPFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CPPFLAGS`

(Using ‘${R_HOME}/bin/R’ rather than just ‘R’ is necessary in order to use the correct version of R when running
the script as part of R CMD INSTALL, and the quotes since ‘${R_HOME}’ might contain spaces.)
If your code does load checks (for example, to check for an entry point in a library or to run code) then you will
also need
LDFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config LDFLAGS`

Packages written with C++ need to pick up the details for the C++ compiler and switch the current language to
C++ by something like
 CXX=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CXX`
if test -z "$CXX"; then
AC_MSG_ERROR([No C++ compiler is available])
fi
CXXFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CXXFLAGS`
CPPFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CPPFLAGS`
AC_LANG(C++)

The latter is important, as for example C headers may not be available to C++ programs or may not be written to
avoid C++ name-mangling. Note that an R installation is not required to have a C++ compiler so ‘CXX’ may be
empty. If the package specifies a non-default C++ standard, use the config variable names (such as CXX17)
appropriate to the standard, but still set CXX and CXXFLAGS.
You can use R CMD config to get the value of the basic configuration variables, and also the header and library
flags necessary for linking a front-end executable program against R, see R CMD config --help for details. If you
do, it is essential that you use both the command and the appropriate flags, so that for example ‘CC’ must always
be used with ‘CFLAGS’ and (for code to be linked into a shared library) ‘CPICFLAGS’. For Fortran, be careful to use
‘FC FFLAGS FPICFLAGS’ for fixed-form Fortran and ‘FC FCFLAGS FPICFLAGS’ for free-form Fortran.
To check for an external BLAS library using the AX_BLAS macro from the official Autoconf Macro Archive27,
one can use
FC=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config FC`
FCLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config FFLAGS`
AC_PROG_FC
FLIBS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config FLIBS`
AX_BLAS([], AC_MSG_ERROR([could not find your BLAS library], 1))

Note that FLIBS as determined by R must be used to ensure that Fortran code works on all R platforms.
N.B.: If the configure script creates files, e.g. src/Makevars, you do need a cleanup script to remove them.
Otherwise R CMD build may ship the files that are created. For example, package RODBC has
#!/bin/sh

rm -f config.* src/Makevars src/config.h

As this example shows, configure often creates working files such as config.log.
If your configure script needs auxiliary files, it is recommended that you ship them in a tools directory (as R
itself does).
You should bear in mind that the configure script will not be used on Windows systems. If your package is to be
made publicly available, please give enough information for a user on a non-Unix-alike platform to configure it
manually, or provide a configure.win script (or configure.ucrt) to be used on that platform. (Optionally, there
can be a cleanup.win script (or cleanup.ucrt). Both should be shell scripts to be executed by ash, which is a
minimal version of Bourne-style sh.) When configure.win (or configure.ucrt) is run the environment variables
R_HOME (which uses ‘/’ as the file separator), R_ARCH and R_ARCH_BIN will be set. Use R_ARCH to decide if this is a
64-bit build (its value there is ‘/x64’) and to install DLLs to the correct place (${R_HOME}/libs${R_ARCH}). Use
R_ARCH_BIN to find the correct place under the bin directory, e.g. ${R_HOME}/bin${R_ARCH_BIN}/Rscript.exe.

In some rare circumstances, the configuration and cleanup scripts need to know the location into which the
package is being installed. An example of this is a package that uses C code and creates two shared
object/DLLs. Usually, the object that is dynamically loaded by R is linked against the second, dependent, object.
On some systems, we can add the location of this dependent object to the object that is dynamically loaded by R.
This means that each user does not have to set the value of the LD_LIBRARY_PATH (or equivalent) environment
variable, but that the secondary object is automatically resolved. Another example is when a package installs
support files that are required at run time, and their location is substituted into an R data structure at installation
time. The names of the top-level library directory (i.e., specifiable via the ‘-l’ argument) and the directory of the
package itself are made available to the installation scripts via the two shell/environment variables
R_LIBRARY_DIR and R_PACKAGE_DIR. Additionally, the name of the package (e.g. ‘ survival’ or ‘MASS’) being
installed is available from the environment variable R_PACKAGE_NAME. (Currently the value of R_PACKAGE_DIR is
always ${R_LIBRARY_DIR}/${R_PACKAGE_NAME}, but this used not to be the case when versioned installs were
allowed. Its main use is in configure.win (or configure.ucrt) scripts for the installation path of external
software’s DLLs.) Note that the value of R_PACKAGE_DIR may contain spaces and other shell-unfriendly
characters, and so should be quoted in makefiles and configure scripts.
One of the more tricky tasks can be to find the headers and libraries of external software. One tool which is
increasingly available on Unix-alikes (but not by default28 on macOS) to do this is pkg-config. The configure
script will need to test for the presence of the command itself29 (see for example package tiff), and if present it
can be asked if the software is installed, of a suitable version and for compilation/linking flags by e.g.
$ pkg-config --exists ‘libtiff-4 >= 4.1.0’ --print-errors # check the status
$ pkg-config --modversion libtiff-4
4.3.0
$ pkg-config --cflags libtiff-4
-I/usr/local/include
$ pkg-config --libs libtiff-4
-L/usr/local/lib -ltiff
$ pkg-config --static --libs libtiff-4
-L/usr/local/lib -ltiff -lwebp -llzma -ljpeg -lz

Note that pkg-config --libs gives the information required to link against the default version30 of that library
(usually the dynamic one), and pkg-config --static --libs may be needed if the static library is to be used.
Static libraries are commonly used on macOS (and Windows) to facilitate bundling external software with
binary distributions of packages. This means that portable (source) packages need to allow for this. It is not safe
to just use pkg-config --static --libs, as that will often include further libraries that are not necessarily
installed on the user’s system (or maybe only the versioned library such as libjbig.so.2.1 is installed and not
libjbig.so which would be needed to use -ljbig sometimes included in pkg-config --static --libs libtiff-
4).

Another issue is that pkg-config --exists may not be reliable. It checks not only that the ‘module’ is available
but all of the dependencies, including those in principle needed for static linking. (XQuartz 2.8.x only
distributed dynamic libraries and not some of the .pc files needed for --exists.)
Sometimes the name by which the software is known to pkg-config is not what one might expect (e.g.
‘gtk+-2.0’ even for 2.22). To get a complete list use
pkg-config --list-all | sort

Some external software provides a -config command to do a similar job to pkg-config, including
curl-config freetype-config gdal-config geos-config
gsl-config iodbc-config libpng-config nc-config
pcre-config pcre2-config xml2-config xslt-config

(curl-config is for libcurl not curl. nc-config is for netcdf.) Most have an option to use static libraries.
If using Autoconf it is good practice to include all the Autoconf sources in the the package (and required for an
Open Source package and tested by R CMD check --as-cran). This will include the file configure.ac31 in the
top-level directory of the package. If extensions written in m4 are needed, these should be included under the
directory tools and included from configure.ac via e.g.,
m4_include([tools/ax_pthread.m4])

Alternatively, Autoconf can be asked to search all .m4 files in a directory by including something like32
AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([tools/m4])

One source of such extensions is the ‘Autoconf Archive’ (https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf-archive/. It is

not safe to assume this is installed on users’ machines, so the extension should be shipped with the package
(taking care to comply with its licence).
Using Makevars
Configure example
Using F9x code
Using C++ code
Using cmake
Next: Configure example, Previous: Configure and cleanup, Up: Configure and cleanup [Contents][Index]

1.2.1 Using Makevars

Sometimes writing your own configure script can be avoided by supplying a file Makevars: also one of the most
common uses of a configure script is to make Makevars from Makevars.in.
A Makevars file is a makefile and is used as one of several makefiles by R CMD SHLIB (which is called by R CMD
INSTALL to compile code in the src directory). It should be written if at all possible in a portable style, in
particular (except for Makevars.win and Makevars.ucrt) without the use of GNU extensions.
The most common use of a Makevars file is to set additional preprocessor options (for example include paths and
definitions) for C/C++ files via PKG_CPPFLAGS, and additional compiler flags by setting PKG_CFLAGS, PKG_CXXFLAGS
or PKG_FFLAGS, for C, C++ or Fortran respectively (see Creating shared objects).
N.B.: Include paths are preprocessor options, not compiler options, and must be set in PKG_CPPFLAGS as
otherwise platform-specific paths (e.g. ‘-I/usr/local/include’) will take precedence. PKG_CPPFLAGS should
contain ‘-I’, ‘-D’, ‘-U’ and (where supported) ‘-include’ and ‘-pthread’ options: everything else should be a
compiler flag. The order of flags matters, and using ‘-I’ in PKG_CFLAGS or PKG_CXXFLAGS has led to hard-to-debug
platform-specific errors.
Makevars can also be used to set flags for the linker, for example ‘-L’ and ‘-l’ options, via PKG_LIBS.
When writing a Makevars file for a package you intend to distribute, take care to ensure that it is not specific to
your compiler: flags such as -O2 -Wall -pedantic (and all other -W flags: for the Oracle compilers these are used
to pass arguments to compiler phases) are all specific to GCC (and compilers such as clang which aim to be
options-compatible with it).
Also, do not set variables such as CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS etc.: these should be settable by users (sites) through
appropriate personal (site-wide) Makevars files. See Customizing package compilation in R Installation and
Administration,
There are some macros33 which are set whilst configuring the building of R itself and are stored in
R_HOME/etcR_ARCH/Makeconf. That makefile is included as a Makefile after Makevars[.win], and the macros it
defines can be used in macro assignments and make command lines in the latter. These include

FLIBS
A macro containing the set of libraries need to link Fortran code. This may need to be included in
PKG_LIBS: it will normally be included automatically if the package contains Fortran source files in the src
directory.
BLAS_LIBS
A macro containing the BLAS libraries used when building R. This may need to be included in PKG_LIBS.
Beware that if it is empty then the R executable will contain all the double-precision and double-complex
BLAS routines, but no single-precision nor complex routines. If BLAS_LIBS is included, then FLIBS also
needs to be34 included following it, as most BLAS libraries are written at least partially in Fortran.
LAPACK_LIBS
A macro containing the LAPACK libraries (and paths where appropriate) used when building R. This may
need to be included in PKG_LIBS. It may point to a dynamic library libRlapack which contains the main
double-precision LAPACK routines as well as those double-complex LAPACK routines needed to build
R, or it may point to an external LAPACK library, or may be empty if an external BLAS library also
contains LAPACK.
[libRlapack includes all the double-precision LAPACK routines which were current in 2003: a list of
which routines are included is in file src/modules/lapack/README. Note that an external LAPACK/BLAS
library need not do so, as some were ‘deprecated’ (and not compiled by default) in LAPACK 3.6.0 in late
2015.]
For portability, the macros BLAS_LIBS and FLIBS should always be included after LAPACK_LIBS (and in that
order).
SAFE_FFLAGS
 A macro containing flags which are needed to circumvent over-optimization of FORTRAN code: it is
might be ‘-g -O2 -ffloat-store’ or ‘-g -O2 -msse2 -mfpmath=sse’ on ‘ix86’ platforms using gfortran.
Note that this is not an additional flag to be used as part of PKG_FFLAGS, but a replacement for FFLAGS. See
the example later in this section.

Setting certain macros in Makevars will prevent R CMD SHLIB setting them: in particular if Makevars sets ‘OBJECTS’
it will not be set on the make command line. This can be useful in conjunction with implicit rules to allow other
types of source code to be compiled and included in the shared object. It can also be used to control the set of
files which are compiled, either by excluding some files in src or including some files in subdirectories. For
example
OBJECTS = 4dfp/endianio.o 4dfp/Getifh.o R4dfp-object.o

Note that Makevars should not normally contain targets, as it is included before the default makefile and make
will call the first target, intended to be all in the default makefile. If you really need to circumvent that, use a
suitable (phony) target all before any actual targets in Makevars.[win]: for example package fastICA used to
have
PKG_LIBS = @BLAS_LIBS@

SLAMC_FFLAGS=$(R_XTRA_FFLAGS) $(FPICFLAGS) $(SHLIB_FFLAGS) $(SAFE_FFLAGS)

all: $(SHLIB)

slamc.o: slamc.f
$(FC) $(SLAMC_FFLAGS) -c -o slamc.o slamc.f

needed to ensure that the LAPACK routines find some constants without infinite looping. The Windows
equivalent was
all: $(SHLIB)

slamc.o: slamc.f
$(FC) $(SAFE_FFLAGS) -c -o slamc.o slamc.f

(since the other macros are all empty on that platform, and R’s internal BLAS was not used). Note that the first
target in Makevars will be called, but for back-compatibility it is best named all.
If you want to create and then link to a library, say using code in a subdirectory, use something like
.PHONY: all mylibs

all: $(SHLIB)
$(SHLIB): mylibs

mylibs:
(cd subdir; $(MAKE))

Be careful to create all the necessary dependencies, as there is no guarantee that the dependencies of all will be
run in a particular order (and some of the CRAN build machines use multiple CPUs and parallel makes). In
particular,
all: mylibs

does not suffice. GNU make does allow the construct

.NOTPARALLEL: all
all: mylibs $(SHLIB)

but that is not portable. dmake and pmake allow the similar .NO_PARALLEL, also not portable: some variants of
pmake accept .NOTPARALLEL as an alias for .NO_PARALLEL.

Note that on Windows it is required that Makevars[.win, .ucrt] does create a DLL: this is needed as it is the
only reliable way to ensure that building a DLL succeeded. If you want to use the src directory for some
purpose other than building a DLL, use a Makefile.win or Makefile.ucrt file.
It is sometimes useful to have a target ‘clean’ in Makevars, Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt: this will be used by R
CMD build to clean up (a copy of) the package sources. When it is run by build it will have fewer macros set, in
particular not $(SHLIB), nor $(OBJECTS) unless set in the file itself. It would also be possible to add tasks to the
target ‘shlib-clean’ which is run by R CMD INSTALL and R CMD SHLIB with options --clean and --preclean.
An unfortunately common error is to have
all: $(SHLIB) clean

which asks make to clean in parallel with compiling the code. Not only does this lead to hard-to-debug
installation errors, it wipes out all the evidence of any error (from a parallel make or not). It is much better to
leave cleaning to the end user using the facilities in the previous paragraph.
If you want to run R code in Makevars, e.g. to find configuration information, please do ensure that you use the
correct copy of R or Rscript: there might not be one in the path at all, or it might be the wrong version or
architecture. The correct way to do this is via
"$(R_HOME)/bin$(R_ARCH_BIN)/Rscript" filename
"$(R_HOME)/bin$(R_ARCH_BIN)/Rscript" -e ‘R expression’

where $(R_ARCH_BIN) is only needed currently on Windows.

Environment or make variables can be used to select different macros for 32- and 64-bit code, for example
(GNU make syntax, allowed on Windows)
ifeq "$(WIN)" "64"
PKG_LIBS = value for 64-bit Windows
else
PKG_LIBS = value for 32-bit Windows
endif

On Windows there is normally a choice between linking to an import library or directly to a DLL. Where
possible, the latter is much more reliable: import libraries are tied to a specific toolchain, and in particular on 64-
bit Windows two different conventions have been commonly used. So for example instead of
PKG_LIBS = -L$(XML_DIR)/lib -lxml2

one can use

PKG_LIBS = -L$(XML_DIR)/bin -lxml2

since on Windows -lxxx will look in turn for

libxxx.dll.a
xxx.dll.a
libxxx.a
xxx.lib
libxxx.dll
xxx.dll

where the first and second are conventionally import libraries, the third and fourth often static libraries (with
.lib intended for Visual C++), but might be import libraries. See for example
https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs-2.20/ld/WIN32.html#WIN32.
The fly in the ointment is that the DLL might not be named libxxx.dll, and in fact on 32-bit Windows there is a
libxml2.dll whereas on one build for 64-bit Windows the DLL is called libxml2-2.dll. Using import libraries
can cover over these differences but can cause equal difficulties.
If static libraries are available they can save a lot of problems with run-time finding of DLLs, especially when
binary packages are to be distributed and even more when these support both architectures. Where using DLLs
is unavoidable we normally arrange (via configure.win or configure.ucrt) to ship them in the same directory as
the package DLL.
OpenMP support
Using pthreads
Compiling in sub-directories
Next: Using pthreads, Previous: Using Makevars, Up: Using Makevars [Contents][Index]

1.2.1.1 OpenMP support

There is some support for packages which wish to use OpenMP35. The make macros
SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS
SHLIB_OPENMP_CXXFLAGS
SHLIB_OPENMP_FFLAGS

are available for use in src/Makevars, src/Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt. Include the appropriate macro in
PKG_CFLAGS, PKG_CXXFLAGS and so on, and also in PKG_LIBS (but see below for Fortran). C/C++ code that needs to
be conditioned on the use of OpenMP can be used inside #ifdef _OPENMP: note that some toolchains used for R
(including Apple’s for macOS and some others using clang36) have no OpenMP support at all, not even omp.h.
For example, a package with C code written for OpenMP should have in src/Makevars the lines
PKG_CFLAGS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS)
PKG_LIBS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS)

Note that the macro SHLIB_OPENMP_CXXFLAGS applies to the default C++ compiler and not necessarily to the
C++17/20 compiler: users of the latter should do their own configure checks. If you do use your own checks,
make sure that OpenMP support is complete by compiling and linking an OpenMP-using program: on some
platforms the runtime library is optional and on others that library depends on other optional libraries.
Some care is needed when compilers are from different families which may use different OpenMP runtimes (e.g.
clang vs GCC including gfortran, although it is often possible to use the clang runtime with GCC but not vice
versa: however gfortran >= 9 may generate calls not in the clang runtime). For a package with Fortran code
using OpenMP the appropriate lines are
PKG_FFLAGS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_FFLAGS)
PKG_LIBS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS)

as the C compiler will be used to link the package code. There are platforms on which this does not work for
some OpenMP-using code and installation will fail. Since R >= 3.6.2 the best alternative for a package with only
Fortran sources using OpenMP is to use
USE_FC_TO_LINK =
PKG_FFLAGS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_FFLAGS)
PKG_LIBS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_FFLAGS)

in src/Makevars, src/Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt. Note however, that when this is used $(FLIBS) should not
be included in PKG_LIBS since it is for linking Fortran-compiled code by the C compiler.
Common platforms may inline all OpenMP calls and so tolerate the omission of the OpenMP flag from
PKG_LIBS, but this usually results in an installation failure with a different compiler or compilation flags. So
cross-check that e.g. -fopenmp appears in the linking line in the installation logs.
It is not portable to use OpenMP with more than one of C, C++ and Fortran in a single package since it is not
uncommon that the compilers are of different families.
For portability, any C/C++ code using the omp_* functions should include the omp.h header: some compilers (but
not all) include it when OpenMP mode is switched on (e.g. via flag -fopenmp).
There is nothing37 to say what version of OpenMP is supported: version 4.0 (and much of 4.5 or 5.0) is
supported by recent versions of the Linux, Windows and Solaris platforms, but portable packages cannot assume
that end users have recent versions. Apple clang on macOS has no OpenMP support.
https://www.openmp.org/resources/openmp-compilers-tools/ gives some idea of what compilers support what
versions.
Rarely, using OpenMP with clang on Linux generates calls in libatomic, resulting in loading messages like
undefined symbol: __atomic_compare_exchange
undefined symbol: __atomic_load

The workaround is to link with -latomic (having checked it exists).

The performance of OpenMP varies substantially between platforms. The Windows implementation has
substantial overheads, so is only beneficial if quite substantial tasks are run in parallel. Also, on Windows new
threads are started with the default38 FPU control word, so computations done on OpenMP threads will not
make use of extended-precision arithmetic which is the default for the main process.
Do not include these macros unless your code does make use of OpenMP (possibly for C++ via included
external headers): this can result in the OpenMP runtime being linked in, threads being started, ….
Calling any of the R API from threaded code is ‘for experts only’ and strongly discouraged. Many functions in
the R API modify internal R data structures and might corrupt these data structures if called simultaneously
from multiple threads. Most R API functions can signal errors, which must only happen on the R main thread.
Also, external libraries (e.g. LAPACK) may not be thread-safe.
Packages are not standard-alone programs, and an R process could contain more than one OpenMP-enabled
package as well as other components (for example, an optimized BLAS) making use of OpenMP. So careful
consideration needs to be given to resource usage. OpenMP works with parallel regions, and for most
implementations the default is to use as many threads as ‘CPUs’ for such regions. Parallel regions can be nested,
although it is common to use only a single thread below the first level. The correctness of the detected number
of ‘CPUs’ and the assumption that the R process is entitled to use them all are both dubious assumptions. One
way to limit resources is to limit the overall number of threads available to OpenMP in the R process: this can
be done via environment variable OMP_THREAD_LIMIT, where implemented.39 Alternatively, the number of threads
per region can be limited by the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS or API call omp_set_num_threads, or,
better, for the regions in your code as part of their specification. E.g. R uses40
#pragma omp parallel for num_threads(nthreads) …

That way you only control your own code and not that of other OpenMP users.
Note that setting environment variables to control OpenMP is implementation-dependent and may need to be
done outside the R process or before any use of OpenMP (which might be by another process or R itself). Also,
implementation-specific variables such as KMP_THREAD_LIMIT might take precedence.

Next: Compiling in sub-directories, Previous: OpenMP support, Up: Using Makevars [Contents][Index]

1.2.1.2 Using pthreads

There is no direct support for the POSIX threads (more commonly known as pthreads): by the time we
considered adding it several packages were using it unconditionally so it seems that nowadays it is universally
available on POSIX operating systems (hence not Windows).
For reasonably recent versions of gcc and clang the correct specification is
PKG_CPPFLAGS = -pthread
PKG_LIBS = -pthread

(and the plural version is also accepted on some systems/versions). For other platforms the specification is
PKG_CPPFLAGS = -D_REENTRANT
PKG_LIBS = -lpthread

(and note that the library name is singular). This is what -pthread does on all known current platforms (although
earlier versions of OpenBSD used a different library name).
For a tutorial see https://hpc-tutorials.llnl.gov/posix/.
POSIX threads are not normally used on Windows, which has its own native concepts of threads. However,
there are two projects implementing pthreads on top of Windows, pthreads-w32 and winpthreads (part of the
MinGW-w64 project).
Whether Windows toolchains implement pthreads is up to the toolchain provider. A make variable
SHLIB_PTHREAD_FLAGS is available for use in src/Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt: this should be included in both
PKG_CPPFLAGS (or the Fortran compiler flags) and PKG_LIBS.

The presence of a working pthreads implementation cannot be unambiguously determined without testing for
yourself: however, that ‘_REENTRANT’ is defined41 in C/C++ code is a good indication.
Note that not all pthreads implementations are equivalent as parts are optional (see
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/pthread.h.html): for example, macOS lacks the
‘Barriers’ option.
See also the comments on thread-safety and performance under OpenMP: on all known R platforms OpenMP is
implemented via pthreads and the known performance issues are in the latter.

Previous: Using pthreads, Up: Using Makevars [Contents][Index]

1.2.1.3 Compiling in sub-directories

Package authors fairly often want to organize code in sub-directories of src, for example if they are including a
separate piece of external software to which this is an R interface.
One simple way is simply to set OBJECTS to be all the objects that need to be compiled, including in sub-
directories. For example, CRAN package RSiena has
SOURCES = $(wildcard data/*.cpp network/*.cpp utils/*.cpp model/*.cpp model/*/*.cpp model/*/*/*.cpp)

OBJECTS = siena07utilities.o siena07internals.o siena07setup.o siena07models.o $(SOURCES:.cpp=.o)

One problem with that approach is that unless GNU make extensions are used, the source files need to be listed
and kept up-to-date. As in the following from CRAN package lossDev:
OBJECTS.samplers = samplers/ExpandableArray.o samplers/Knots.o \
samplers/RJumpSpline.o samplers/RJumpSplineFactory.o \
samplers/RealSlicerOV.o samplers/SliceFactoryOV.o samplers/MNorm.o
OBJECTS.distributions = distributions/DSpline.o \
distributions/DChisqrOV.o distributions/DTOV.o \
distributions/DNormOV.o distributions/DUnifOV.o distributions/RScalarDist.o
OBJECTS.root = RJump.o

OBJECTS = $(OBJECTS.samplers) $(OBJECTS.distributions) $(OBJECTS.root)

Where the subdirectory is self-contained code with a suitable makefile, the best approach is something like
PKG_LIBS = -LCsdp/lib -lsdp $(LAPACK_LIBS) $(BLAS_LIBS) $(FLIBS)

$(SHLIB): Csdp/lib/libsdp.a

Csdp/lib/libsdp.a:
@(cd Csdp/lib && $(MAKE) libsdp.a \
CC="$(CC)" CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS) $(CPICFLAGS)" AR="$(AR)" RANLIB="$(RANLIB)")

Note the quotes: the macros can contain spaces, e.g. CC = "gcc -m64 -std=gnu99". Several authors have
forgotten about parallel makes: the static library in the subdirectory must be made before the shared object
($(SHLIB)) and so the latter must depend on the former. Others forget the need42 for position-independent code.
We really do not recommend using src/Makefile instead of src/Makevars, and as the example above shows, it is
not necessary.

Next: Using F9x code, Previous: Using Makevars, Up: Configure and cleanup [Contents][Index]

1.2.2 Configure example

It may be helpful to give an extended example of using a configure script to create a src/Makevars file: this is
based on that in the RODBC package.
The configure.ac file follows: configure is created from this by running autoconf in the top-level package
directory (containing configure.ac).
AC_INIT([RODBC], 1.1.8) dnl package name, version

dnl A user-specifiable option

odbc_mgr=""
AC_ARG_WITH([odbc-manager],
AC_HELP_STRING([--with-odbc-manager=MGR],
 [specify the ODBC manager, e.g. odbc or iodbc]),
[odbc_mgr=$withval])

if test "$odbc_mgr" = "odbc" ; then

AC_PATH_PROGS(ODBC_CONFIG, odbc_config)
fi

dnl Select an optional include path, from a configure option

dnl or from an environment variable.
AC_ARG_WITH([odbc-include],
AC_HELP_STRING([--with-odbc-include=INCLUDE_PATH],
[the location of ODBC header files]),
[odbc_include_path=$withval])
RODBC_CPPFLAGS="-I."
if test [ -n "$odbc_include_path" ] ; then
RODBC_CPPFLAGS="-I. -I${odbc_include_path}"
else
if test [ -n "${ODBC_INCLUDE}" ] ; then
RODBC_CPPFLAGS="-I. -I${ODBC_INCLUDE}"
fi
fi

dnl ditto for a library path

AC_ARG_WITH([odbc-lib],
AC_HELP_STRING([--with-odbc-lib=LIB_PATH],
[the location of ODBC libraries]),
[odbc_lib_path=$withval])
if test [ -n "$odbc_lib_path" ] ; then
LIBS="-L$odbc_lib_path ${LIBS}"
else
if test [ -n "${ODBC_LIBS}" ] ; then
LIBS="-L${ODBC_LIBS} ${LIBS}"
else
if test -n "${ODBC_CONFIG}"; then
odbc_lib_path=`odbc_config --libs | sed s/-lodbc//`
LIBS="${odbc_lib_path} ${LIBS}"
fi
fi
fi

dnl Now find the compiler and compiler flags to use

: ${R_HOME=`R RHOME`}
if test -z "${R_HOME}"; then
echo "could not determine R_HOME"
exit 1
fi
CC=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CC`
CFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CFLAGS`
CPPFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CPPFLAGS`

if test -n "${ODBC_CONFIG}"; then

RODBC_CPPFLAGS=`odbc_config --cflags`
fi
CPPFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS} ${RODBC_CPPFLAGS}"

dnl Check the headers can be found

AC_CHECK_HEADERS(sql.h sqlext.h)
if test "${ac_cv_header_sql_h}" = no ||
test "${ac_cv_header_sqlext_h}" = no; then
AC_MSG_ERROR("ODBC headers sql.h and sqlext.h not found")
fi

dnl search for a library containing an ODBC function

if test [ -n "${odbc_mgr}" ] ; then
AC_SEARCH_LIBS(SQLTables, ${odbc_mgr}, ,
AC_MSG_ERROR("ODBC driver manager ${odbc_mgr} not found"))
else
AC_SEARCH_LIBS(SQLTables, odbc odbc32 iodbc, ,
AC_MSG_ERROR("no ODBC driver manager found"))
fi
 dnl for 64-bit ODBC need SQL[U]LEN, and it is unclear where they are defined.
AC_CHECK_TYPES([SQLLEN, SQLULEN], , , [# include <sql.h>])
dnl for unixODBC header
AC_CHECK_SIZEOF(long, 4)

dnl substitute RODBC_CPPFLAGS and LIBS

AC_SUBST(RODBC_CPPFLAGS)
AC_SUBST(LIBS)
AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([src/config.h])
dnl and do substitution in the src/Makevars.in and src/config.h
AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/Makevars])
AC_OUTPUT

where src/Makevars.in would be simply

PKG_CPPFLAGS = @RODBC_CPPFLAGS@
PKG_LIBS = @LIBS@

A user can then be advised to specify the location of the ODBC driver manager files by options like (lines
broken for easier reading)
R CMD INSTALL \
--configure-args='--with-odbc-include=/opt/local/include \
--with-odbc-lib=/opt/local/lib --with-odbc-manager=iodbc' \
RODBC

or by setting the environment variables ODBC_INCLUDE and ODBC_LIBS.

Next: Using C++ code, Previous: Configure example, Up: Configure and cleanup [Contents][Index]

1.2.3 Using F9x code

R assumes that source files with extension .f are fixed-form Fortran 90 (which includes Fortran 77), and passes
them to the compiler specified by macro ‘FC’. On known platforms the Fortran compiler will also accept free-
form Fortran 90/95 code with extension .f90 or .f95, but those are not used by R itself so this is not required.
The same compiler is used43 for both fixed-form and free-form Fortran code (with different file extensions and
possibly different flags). Macro PKG_FFLAGS can be used for package-specific flags: for the un-encountered case
that both are included in a single package and that different flags are needed for the two forms, macro
PKG_FCFLAGS is also available for free-form Fortran.

The code used to build R allows a ‘Fortran 90’ compiler to be selected as ‘FC’, so platforms might be
encountered which only support Fortran 90. However, Fortran 95 is widely supported.
Some compilers specified by ‘FC’ will accept Fortran 2003, 2008 or 2018 code: such code should still use file
extension .f90 or .f95. Most platforms use gfortran where you may need to include -std=f2003, -std=f2008 or
(from version 8) -std=f2018 in PKG_FFLAGS or PKG_FCFLAGS: the default is ‘GNU Fortran’, Fortran 95 with non-
standard extensions. The Oracle f95 compiler ‘accepts some Fortran 2003/8 features’ (search for ‘Oracle
Developer Studio 12.6: Fortran User’s Guide’ and look for §4.6). Intel Fortran has full Fortran 2008 support
from version 17.0, and some 2018 support in version 16.0 and more in version 19.0.
Modern versions of Fortran support modules, whereby compiling one source file creates a module file which is
then included in others. (Module files typically have a .mod extension: they do depend on the compiler used and
so should never be included in a package.) This creates a dependence which make will not know about and often
causes installation with a parallel make to fail. Thus it is necessary to add explicit dependencies to src/Makevars
to tell make the constraints on the order of compilation. For example, if file iface.f90 creates a module ‘iface’
used by files cmi.f90 and dmi.f90 then src/Makevars needs to contain something like
cmi.o dmi.o: iface.o

Note that it is not portable (although some platforms do accept it) to define a module of the same name in
multiple source files.

Next: Using cmake, Previous: Using F9x code, Up: Configure and cleanup [Contents][Index]
1.2.4 Using C++ code

R can be built without a C++ compiler although one is available (but not necessarily installed) on all known R
platforms. As from R 4.0.0 a C++ compiler will be selected only if it conforms to the 2011 standard (‘C++11’).
A minor update44 (‘C++14’) was published in December 2014 and will be used by default as from R 4.1.0 if
supported. Further revisions ‘C++17’ (in December 2017), and ‘C++20’ (with many new features in December
2020) have been published since.
What standard a C++ compiler aims to support can be hard to determine: the value45 of __cplusplus may help
but some compilers use it to denote a standard which is partially supported and some the latest standard which is
(almost) fully supported.
The webpage https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support gives some information on which compilers
are known to support recent C++ features.
Different versions of R have specified different minimum C++ standards, so for maximal portability a package
should specify the standard it requires. In order to specify C++11 code in a package, Makevars file (or
Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt on Windows) should include the line

CXX_STD = CXX11

Compilation and linking will then be done with the C++11 compiler (if any).
Packages without a src/Makevars or src/Makefile file may specify that they require C++11 for code in the src
directory by including ‘C++11’ in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field of the DESCRIPTION file, e.g.
SystemRequirements: C++11

If a package does have a src/Makevars[.win] file then setting the make variable ‘CXX_STD’ is preferred, as it
allows R CMD SHLIB to work correctly in the package’s src directory.
If a package using C++ has a configure script it is essential that it selects the correct C++ standard, via
something like
CXX11=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CXX11`
if test -z "$CXX11"; then
AC_MSG_ERROR([No C++11 compiler is available])
fi
CXX11STD=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CXX11STD`
CXX="${CXX11} ${CXX11STD}"
CXXFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CXX11FLAGS`
AC_LANG(C++)

if C++11 was specified, but using CXX instead of CXX11 if no standard was specified.
If you want to compile C++ code in a subdirectory, make sure you pass down the macros to specify the
appropriate compiler, e.g. in src/Makevars
sublibs:
@(cd libs && $(MAKE) \
CXX="$(CXX11) $(CXX11STD)" CXXFLAGS="$(CXX11FLAGS) $(CXX11PICFLAGS)")

Note that the mechanisms described here specify C++11 for code compiled by R CMD SHLIB as used by default
by R CMD INSTALL. They do not necessarily apply if there is a src/Makefile file, nor to compilation done in
vignettes or via other packages.
Support for a C++14 compiler (where available) has been in R since version 3.4.0. Similar considerations to
C++11 apply, with the variables associated with the C++14 compiler using the prefix ‘CXX14’ instead of ‘CXX11’.
For example, to use C++14 code in a package, the package’s Makevars file (or Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt on
Windows) should include the line
CXX_STD = CXX14

Essentially complete C++14 support is available from GCC 5, LLVM clang 3.4 and currently-used versions of
Apple clang.
Code needing C++14 features can check for their presence via ‘SD-6 feature tests’46. Such a check could be
 #include <memory> // header where this is defined
#if defined(__cpp_lib_make_unique) && (__cpp_lib_make_unique >= 201304)
using std::make_unique;
#else
// your emulation
#endif

Note that Windows builds prior to R 4.0.0 used g++ 4.9.x which had only partial C++14 support, and the flag to
obtain that support was not included in the default Windows build of R — one could try something like
CXX14="$(BINPREF)g++ $(M_ARCH)"
CXX14FLAGS="-O2 -Wall"
CXX14STD=-std=gnu1y

in HOME/.R/Makevars.win. The g++ version used from R 4.0.0 supports C++14 with flag -std=gnu14 and for back-
compatibility -std=gnu1y.
C++17 (as from R 3.4.0) and C++20 (as from R 4.0.0) can be specified in an analogous way (replacing 14 by 17
or 20) but compiler/OS support is platform-dependent. Some C++17 and C++20 support is available with the
default builds of R on macOS and Windows as from R 4.0.0. Much of g++’s support for C++17 needs version 7
or later: that is more recent than some still-current Linux distributions and the OpenCSW compilers for Solaris.
Note that C++17 or C++20 ‘support’ does not mean complete support: use feature tests as well as resources such
as https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/compiler_support, https://gcc.gnu.org/projects/cxx-status.html and
https://clang.llvm.org/cxx_status.html to see if the features you want to use are widely implemented.
A requirement of C++17 or later should always be declared in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field (as well as in
src/Makevars or src/Makefile) so this is shown on the package’s summary pages on CRAN or similar.

Previous: Using C++ code, Up: Configure and cleanup [Contents][Index]

1.2.5 Using cmake

Packages often wish to include the sources of other software and compile that for inclusion in their .so or .dll,
which is normally done by including (or unpacking) the sources in a subdirectory of src, as considered above.
Further issues arise when the external software uses another build system such as cmake, principally to ensure
that that all the settings for compilers, include and load paths etc are made. This section has already mentioned
the need to set at least some of
CC CFLAGS CXX CXXFLAGS CPPFLAGS LDFLAGS

CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS will need to include CPICFLAGS and CXXPICFLAGS respectively unless (as below) cmake is
asked to generate PIC code.
Setting these (and more) as environment variables controls the behaviour of cmake
(https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-env-variables.7.html#manual:cmake-env-variables(7)), but
it may be desirable to translate these into native settings such as
CMAKE_C_COMPILER
CMAKE_C_FLAGS
CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER
CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS
CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH
CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH
CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_INIT
CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET

and it is often necessary to ensure a static library of PIC code is built by

-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:bool=OFF
-DCMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE:bool=ON

If R is to be detected or used, this must be the build being used for package installation – "${R_HOME}"/bin/R.
To fix ideas, consider a package with sources for a library myLib under src/libs. Two approaches have been
used. It is often most convenient to build the external software in a directory other than its sources (particularly
during development when the build directory can be removed between builds rather than attempting to clean the
sources) – this is illustrated in the first approach.

1. Use the package’s configure script to create a static library src/build/libmyLib.a. This can then be
treated in the same way as external software, for example having in src/Makevars
PKG_CPPFLAGS = -Ilibs/include
PKG_LIBS = build/libmyLib.a

(-Lbuild -lmyLib could also be used but this explicit specification avoids any confusion with dynamic
libraries of the same name.)
The configure script will need to contain something like (for C code)
: ${R_HOME=`R RHOME`}
if test -z "${R_HOME}"; then
echo "could not determine R_HOME"
exit 1
fi
CC=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CC`
CFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CFLAGS`
CPPFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config CPPFLAGS`
LDFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin/R" CMD config LDFLAGS`

cd src
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ../libs \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:bool=OFF \
-DCMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE:bool=ON
${MAKE}

2. Use src/Makevars (or src/Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt) to build within the subdirectory. This could be
something like (for C code)
PKG_CPPFLAGS = -Ilibs/include
PKG_LIBS = libs/libmyLib.a

$(SHLIB): mylibs

mylibs:
(cd libs; \
CC="$(CC)" CFLAGS="$(CFLAGS)" \
CPPFLAGS="$(CPPFLAGS)" LDFLAGS="$(LDFLAGS)" \
cmake . \
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:bool=OFF \
-DCMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE:bool=ON; \
$(MAKE))

the compiler and other settings having been set as Make variables by an R makefile included by INSTALL
before src/Makevars.

A complication is that on macOS cmake (where installed) is commonly not on the path but at
/Applications/CMake.app/Contents/bin/cmake. One way to work around this is for the package’s configure
script to include
if test -z "$CMAKE"; then CMAKE="`which cmake`"; fi
if test -z "$CMAKE"; then CMAKE=/Applications/CMake.app/Contents/bin/cmake; fi
if test -f "$CMAKE"; then echo "no ‘cmake’ command found"; exit 1; fi

and for the second approach to substitute CMAKE into src//Makevars.

Next: Writing package vignettes, Previous: Configure and cleanup, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.3 Checking and building packages

Before using these tools, please check that your package can be installed. R CMD check will inter alia do this, but
you may get more detailed error messages doing the install directly.
If your package specifies an encoding in its DESCRIPTION file, you should run these tools in a locale which makes
use of that encoding: they may not work at all or may work incorrectly in other locales (although UTF-8 locales
will most likely work).

Note: R CMD check and R CMD build run R processes with --vanilla in which none of the user’s
startup files are read. If you need R_LIBS set (to find packages in a non-standard library) you can set
it in the environment: also you can use the check and build environment files (as specified by the
environment variables R_CHECK_ENVIRON and R_BUILD_ENVIRON; if unset, files47 ~/.R/check.Renviron
and ~/.R/build.Renviron are used) to set environment variables when using these utilities.

Note to Windows users: R CMD build may make use of the Windows toolset (see the “R
Installation and Administration” manual) if present and in your path, and it is required for packages
which need it to install (including those with configure.win, cleanup.win, configure.ucrt or
cleanup.ucrt scripts or a src directory) and e.g. need vignettes built.

You may need to set the environment variable TMPDIR to point to a suitable writable directory with a
path not containing spaces – use forward slashes for the separators. Also, the directory needs to be
on a case-honouring file system (some network-mounted file systems are not).

Checking packages
Building package tarballs
Building binary packages

Next: Building package tarballs, Previous: Checking and building packages, Up: Checking and building
packages [Contents][Index]

1.3.1 Checking packages

Using R CMD check, the R package checker, one can test whether source R packages work correctly. It can be run
on one or more directories, or compressed package tar archives with extension .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2 or
.tar.xz.

It is strongly recommended that the final checks are run on a tar archive prepared by R CMD build.
This runs a series of checks, including

1. The package is installed. This will warn about missing cross-references and duplicate aliases in help files.
2. The file names are checked to be valid across file systems and supported operating system platforms.
3. The files and directories are checked for sufficient permissions (Unix-alikes only).
4. The files are checked for binary executables, using a suitable version of file if available48. (There may be
rare false positives.)
5. The DESCRIPTION file is checked for completeness, and some of its entries for correctness. Unless
installation tests are skipped, checking is aborted if the package dependencies cannot be resolved at run
time. (You may need to set R_LIBS in the environment if dependent packages are in a separate library tree.)
One check is that the package name is not that of a standard package, nor one of the defunct standard
packages (‘ctest’, ‘eda’, ‘lqs’, ‘mle’, ‘modreg’, ‘mva’, ‘nls’, ‘stepfun’ and ‘ts’). Another check is that all
packages mentioned in library or requires or from which the NAMESPACE file imports or are called via ::
or ::: are listed (in ‘Depends’, ‘Imports’, ‘Suggests’): this is not an exhaustive check of the actual imports.
6. Available index information (in particular, for demos and vignettes) is checked for completeness.
7. The package subdirectories are checked for suitable file names and for not being empty. The checks on
file names are controlled by the option --check-subdirs=value. This defaults to ‘default’, which runs the
checks only if checking a tarball: the default can be overridden by specifying the value as ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Further, the check on the src directory is only run if the package does not contain a configure script
(which corresponds to the value ‘yes-maybe’) and there is no src/Makefile or src/Makefile.in.
To allow a configure script to generate suitable files, files ending in ‘.in’ will be allowed in the R
directory.
 A warning is given for directory names that look like R package check directories – many packages have
been submitted to CRAN containing these.
8. The R files are checked for syntax errors. Bytes which are non-ASCII are reported as warnings, but these
should be regarded as errors unless it is known that the package will always be used in the same locale.
9. It is checked that the package can be loaded, first with the usual default packages and then only with
package base already loaded. It is checked that the namespace can be loaded in an empty session with
only the base namespace loaded. (Namespaces and packages can be loaded very early in the session,
before the default packages are available, so packages should work then.)
10. The R files are checked for correct calls to library.dynam. Package startup functions are checked for
correct argument lists and (incorrect) calls to functions which modify the search path or inappropriately
generate messages. The R code is checked for possible problems using codetools. In addition, it is
checked whether S3 methods have all the arguments of the corresponding generic, and whether the final
argument of replacement functions is called ‘value’. All foreign function calls (.C, .Fortran, .Call and
.External calls) are tested to see if they have a PACKAGE argument, and if not, whether the appropriate DLL
might be deduced from the namespace of the package. Any other calls are reported. (The check is
generous, and users may want to supplement this by examining the output of tools::checkFF("mypkg",
verbose=TRUE), especially if the intention were to always use a PACKAGE argument)
11. The Rd files are checked for correct syntax and metadata, including the presence of the mandatory fields
(\name, \alias, \title and \description). The Rd name and title are checked for being non-empty, and
there is a check for missing cross-references (links).
12. A check is made for missing documentation entries, such as undocumented user-level objects in the
package.
13. Documentation for functions, data sets, and S4 classes is checked for consistency with the corresponding
code.
14. It is checked whether all function arguments given in \usage sections of Rd files are documented in the
corresponding \arguments section.
15. The data directory is checked for non-ASCII characters and for the use of reasonable levels of
compression.
16. C, C++ and Fortran source and header files49 are tested for portable (LF-only) line endings. If there is a
Makefile or Makefile.in or Makevars or Makevars.in file under the src directory, it is checked for portable
line endings and the correct use of ‘$(BLAS_LIBS)’ and ‘$(LAPACK_LIBS)’
Compiled code is checked for symbols corresponding to functions which might terminate R or write to
stdout/stderr instead of the console. Note that the latter might give false positives in that the symbols
might be pulled in with external libraries and could never be called. Windows50 users should note that the
Fortran and C++ runtime libraries are examples of such external libraries.
17. Some checks are made of the contents of the inst/doc directory. These always include checking for files
that look like leftovers, and if suitable tools (such as qpdf) are available, checking that the PDF
documentation is of minimal size.
18. The examples provided by the package’s documentation are run. (see Writing R documentation files, for
information on using \examples to create executable example code.) If there is a file tests/Examples/pkg-
Ex.Rout.save, the output of running the examples is compared to that file.
Of course, released packages should be able to run at least their own examples. Each example is run in a
‘clean’ environment (so earlier examples cannot be assumed to have been run), and with the variables T
and F redefined to generate an error unless they are set in the example: See Logical vectors in An
Introduction to R.
19. If the package sources contain a tests directory then the tests specified in that directory are run.
(Typically they will consist of a set of .R source files and target output files .Rout.save.) Please note that
the comparison will be done in the end user’s locale, so the target output files should be ASCII if at all
possible. (The command line option --test-dir=foo may be used to specify tests in a non-standard
location. For example, unusually slow tests could be placed in inst/slowTests and then R CMD check --
test-dir=inst/slowTests would be used to run them. Other names that have been suggested are, for
example, inst/testWithOracle for tests that require Oracle to be installed, inst/randomTests for tests
which use random values and may occasionally fail by chance, etc.)
20. The code in package vignettes (see Writing package vignettes) is executed, and the vignette PDFs re-made
from their sources as a check of completeness of the sources (unless there is a ‘BuildVignettes’ field in
 the package’s DESCRIPTION file with a false value). If there is a target output file .Rout.save in the vignette
source directory, the output from running the code in that vignette is compared with the target output file
and any differences are reported (but not recorded in the log file). (If the vignette sources are in the
deprecated location inst/doc, do mark such target output files to not be installed in .Rinstignore.)
If there is an error51 in executing the R code in vignette foo.ext, a log file foo.ext.log is created in the
check directory. The vignette PDFs are re-made in a copy of the package sources in the vign_test
subdirectory of the check directory, so for further information on errors look in directory
pkgname/vign_test/vignettes. (It is only retained if there are errors or if environment variable
_R_CHECK_CLEAN_VIGN_TEST_ is set to a false value.)

21. The PDF version of the package’s manual is created (to check that the Rd files can be converted
successfully). This needs LaTeX and suitable fonts and LaTeX packages to be installed. See Making the
manuals in R Installation and Administration.

All these tests are run with collation set to the C locale, and for the examples and tests with environment variable
LANGUAGE=en: this is to minimize differences between platforms.
Use R CMD check --help to obtain more information about the usage of the R package checker. A subset of the
checking steps can be selected by adding command-line options. It also allows customization by setting
environment variables _R_CHECK_*_ as described in Tools in R Internals: a set of these customizations similar to
those used by CRAN can be selected by the option --as-cran (which works best if Internet access is available).
Some Windows users may need to set environment variable R_WIN_NO_JUNCTIONS to a non-empty value. The test
of cyclic declarations52in DESCRIPTION files needs repositories (including CRAN) set: do this in ~/.Rprofile, by
e.g.
options(repos = c(CRAN="https://cran.r-project.org"))

One check customization which can be revealing is

_R_CHECK_CODETOOLS_PROFILE_="suppressLocalUnused=FALSE"

which reports unused local assignments. Not only does this point out computations which are unnecessary
because their results are unused, it also can uncover errors. (Two such are to intend to update an object by
assigning a value but mistype its name or assign in the wrong scope, for example using <- where <<- was
intended.) This can give false positives, most commonly because of non-standard evaluation for formulae and
because the intention is to return objects in the environment of a function for later use.
Complete checking of a package which contains a file README.md needs a reasonably current version of pandoc
installed: see https://pandoc.org/installing.html.
You do need to ensure that the package is checked in a suitable locale if it contains non-ASCII characters. Such
packages are likely to fail some of the checks in a C locale, and R CMD check will warn if it spots the problem.
You should be able to check any package in a UTF-8 locale (if one is available). Beware that although a C locale
is rarely used at a console, it may be the default if logging in remotely or for batch jobs.

Multiple sub-architectures: On systems which support multiple sub-architectures (principally

Windows), R CMD check will install and check a package which contains compiled code under all
available sub-architectures. (Use option --force-multiarch to force this for packages without
compiled code, which are otherwise only checked under the main sub-architecture.) This will run
the loading tests, examples and tests directory under each installed sub-architecture in turn, and
give an error if any fail. Where environment variables (including perhaps PATH) need to be set
differently for each sub-architecture, these can be set in architecture-specific files such as
R_HOME/etc/i386/Renviron.site.

An alternative approach is to use R CMD check --no-multiarch to check the primary sub-
architecture, and then to use something like R --arch=x86_64 CMD check --extra-arch or
(Windows) /path/to/R/bin/x64/Rcmd check --extra-arch to run for each additional sub-
architecture just the checks53 which differ by sub-architecture. (This approach is required for
packages which are installed by R CMD INSTALL --merge-multiarch.)
Where packages need additional commands to install all the sub-architectures these can be supplied
by e.g. --install-args=--force-biarch.
Next: Building binary packages, Previous: Checking packages, Up: Checking and building packages
[Contents][Index]

1.3.2 Building package tarballs

Packages may be distributed in source form as “tarballs” (.tar.gz files) or in binary form. The source form can
be installed on all platforms with suitable tools and is the usual form for Unix-like systems; the binary form is
platform-specific, and is the more common distribution form for the Windows and macOS platforms.
Using R CMD build, the R package builder, one can build R package tarballs from their sources (for example, for
subsequent release). It is recommended that packages are built for release by the current release version of R or
‘r-patched’, to avoid inadvertently picking up new features of a development version of R.
Prior to actually building the package in the standard gzipped tar file format, a few diagnostic checks and
cleanups are performed. In particular, it is tested whether object indices exist and can be assumed to be up-to-
date, and C, C++ and Fortran source files and relevant makefiles in a src directory are tested and converted to
LF line-endings if necessary.
Run-time checks whether the package works correctly should be performed using R CMD check prior to invoking
the final build procedure.
To exclude files from being put into the package, one can specify a list of exclude patterns in file .Rbuildignore
in the top-level source directory. These patterns should be Perl-like regular expressions (see the help for regexp
in R for the precise details), one per line, to be matched case-insensitively against the file and directory names
relative to the top-level package source directory. In addition, directories from source control systems54 or from
eclipse55, directories with names check, chm, or ending .Rcheck or Old or old and files GNUMakefile56, Read-and-
delete-me or with base names starting with ‘.#’, or starting and ending with ‘#’, or ending in ‘~’, ‘.bak’ or
‘.swp’, are excluded by default57. In addition, same-package tarballs (from previous builds) and their binary
forms will be excluded from the top-level directory, as well as those files in the R, demo and man directories which
are flagged by R CMD check as having invalid names.
Use R CMD build --help to obtain more information about the usage of the R package builder.
Unless R CMD build is invoked with the --no-build-vignettes option (or the package’s DESCRIPTION contains
‘BuildVignettes: no’ or similar), it will attempt to (re)build the vignettes (see Writing package vignettes) in the
package. To do so it installs the current package into a temporary library tree, but any dependent packages need
to be installed in an available library tree (see the Note: at the top of this section).
Similarly, if the .Rd documentation files contain any \Sexpr macros (see Dynamic pages), the package will be
temporarily installed to execute them. Post-execution binary copies of those pages containing build-time macros
will be saved in build/partial.rdb. If there are any install-time or render-time macros, a .pdf version of the
package manual will be built and installed in the build subdirectory. (This allows CRAN or other repositories to
display the manual even if they are unable to install the package.) This can be suppressed by the option --no-
manual or if package’s DESCRIPTION contains ‘BuildManual: no’ or similar.

One of the checks that R CMD build runs is for empty source directories. These are in most (but not all) cases
unintentional, if they are intentional use the option --keep-empty-dirs (or set the environment variable
_R_BUILD_KEEP_EMPTY_DIRS_ to ‘TRUE’, or have a ‘BuildKeepEmpty’ field with a true value in the DESCRIPTION file).

The --resave-data option allows saved images (.rda and .RData files) in the data directory to be optimized for
size. It will also compress tabular files and convert .R files to saved images. It can take values no, gzip (the
default if this option is not supplied, which can be changed by setting the environment variable
_R_BUILD_RESAVE_DATA_) and best (equivalent to giving it without a value), which chooses the most effective
compression. Using best adds a dependence on R (>= 2.10) to the DESCRIPTION file if bzip2 or xz compression
is selected for any of the files. If this is thought undesirable, --resave-data=gzip (which is the default if that
option is not supplied) will do what compression it can with gzip. A package can control how its data is resaved
by supplying a ‘BuildResaveData’ field (with one of the values given earlier in this paragraph) in its DESCRIPTION
file.
The --compact-vignettes option will run tools::compactPDF over the PDF files in inst/doc (and its
subdirectories) to losslessly compress them. This is not enabled by default (it can be selected by environment
variable _R_BUILD_COMPACT_VIGNETTES_) and needs qpdf (http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/) to be available.
It can be useful to run R CMD check --check-subdirs=yes on the built tarball as a final check on the contents.
Where a non-POSIX file system is in use which does not utilize execute permissions, some care is needed with
permissions. This applies on Windows and to e.g. FAT-formatted drives and SMB-mounted file systems on other
OSes. The ‘mode’ of the file recorded in the tarball will be whatever file.info() returns. On Windows this will
record only directories as having execute permission and on other OSes it is likely that all files have reported
‘mode’ 0777. A particular issue is packages being built on Windows which are intended to contain executable
scripts such as configure and cleanup: R CMD build ensures those two are recorded with execute permission.
Directory build of the package sources is reserved for use by R CMD build: it contains information which may
not easily be created when the package is installed, including index information on the vignettes and, rarely,
information on the help pages and perhaps a copy of the PDF reference manual (see above).

Previous: Building package tarballs, Up: Checking and building packages [Contents][Index]

1.3.3 Building binary packages

Binary packages are compressed copies of installed versions of packages. They contain compiled shared
libraries rather than C, C++ or Fortran source code, and the R functions are included in their installed form. The
format and filename are platform-specific; for example, a binary package for Windows is usually supplied as a
.zip file, and for the macOS platform the default binary package file extension is .tgz.

The recommended method of building binary packages is to use

R CMD INSTALL --build pkg where pkg is either the name of a source tarball (in the usual .tar.gz format) or the
location of the directory of the package source to be built. This operates by first installing the package and then
packing the installed binaries into the appropriate binary package file for the particular platform.
By default, R CMD INSTALL --build will attempt to install the package into the default library tree for the local
installation of R. This has two implications:
If the installation is successful, it will overwrite any existing installation of the same package.
The default library tree must have write permission; if not, the package will not install and the binary will
not be created.
To prevent changes to the present working installation or to provide an install location with write access, create a
suitably located directory with write access and use the -l option to build the package in the chosen location.
The usage is then
R CMD INSTALL -l location --build pkg
where location is the chosen directory with write access. The package will be installed as a subdirectory of
location, and the package binary will be created in the current directory.
Other options for R CMD INSTALL can be found using R CMD INSTALL --help, and platform-specific details for
special cases are discussed in the platform-specific FAQs.
Finally, at least one web-based service is available for building binary packages from (checked) source code:
WinBuilder (see https://win-builder.R-project.org/) is able to build Windows binaries. Note that this is intended
for developers on other platforms who do not have access to Windows but wish to provide binaries for the
Windows platform.

Next: Package namespaces, Previous: Checking and building packages, Up: Creating R packages [Contents]
[Index]

1.4 Writing package vignettes

In addition to the help files in Rd format, R packages allow the inclusion of documents in arbitrary other formats.
The standard location for these is subdirectory inst/doc of a source package, the contents will be copied to
subdirectory doc when the package is installed. Pointers from package help indices to the installed documents
are automatically created. Documents in inst/doc can be in arbitrary format, however we strongly recommend
providing them in PDF format, so users on almost all platforms can easily read them. To ensure that they can be
accessed from a browser (as an HTML index is provided), the file names should start with an ASCII letter and
be comprised entirely of ASCII letters or digits or hyphen or underscore.
A special case is package vignettes. Vignettes are documents in PDF or HTML format obtained from plain-text
literate source files from which R knows how to extract R code and create output (in PDF/HTML or
intermediate LaTeX). Vignette engines do this work, using “tangle” and “weave” functions respectively.
Sweave, provided by the R distribution, is the default engine. Other vignette engines besides Sweave are
supported; see Non-Sweave vignettes.
Package vignettes have their sources in subdirectory vignettes of the package sources. Note that the location of
the vignette sources only affects R CMD build and R CMD check: the tarball built by R CMD build includes in
inst/doc the components intended to be installed.
Sweave vignette sources are normally given the file extension .Rnw or .Rtex, but for historical reasons
extensions58 .Snw and .Stex are also recognized. Sweave allows the integration of LaTeX documents: see the
Sweave help page in R and the Sweave vignette in package utils for details on the source document format.

Package vignettes are tested by R CMD check by executing all R code chunks they contain (except those marked
for non-evaluation, e.g., with option eval=FALSE for Sweave). The R working directory for all vignette tests in R
CMD check is a copy of the vignette source directory. Make sure all files needed to run the R code in the vignette
(data sets, …) are accessible by either placing them in the inst/doc hierarchy of the source package or by using
calls to system.file(). All other files needed to re-make the vignettes (such as LaTeX style files, BibTeX input
files and files for any figures not created by running the code in the vignette) must be in the vignette source
directory. R CMD check will check that vignette production has succeeded by comparing modification times of
output files in inst/doc with the source in vignettes.
R CMD build will automatically59 create the (PDF or HTML versions of the) vignettes in inst/doc for
distribution with the package sources. By including the vignette outputs in the package sources it is not
necessary that these can be re-built at install time, i.e., the package author can use private R packages, screen
snapshots and LaTeX extensions which are only available on their machine.60
By default R CMD build will run Sweave on all Sweave vignette source files in vignettes. If Makefile is found in
the vignette source directory, then R CMD build will try to run make after the Sweave runs, otherwise texi2pdf is
run on each .tex file produced.
The first target in the Makefile should take care of both creation of PDF/HTML files and cleaning up afterwards
(including after Sweave), i.e., delete all files that shall not appear in the final package archive. Note that if the
make step runs R it needs to be careful to respect the environment values of R_LIBS and R_HOME61. Finally, if there
is a Makefile and it has a ‘clean:’ target, make clean is run.
All the usual caveats about including a Makefile apply. It must be portable (no GNU extensions), use LF line
endings and must work correctly with a parallel make: too many authors have written things like
## BAD EXAMPLE
all: pdf clean

pdf: ABC-intro.pdf ABC-details.pdf

%.pdf: %.tex
texi2dvi --pdf $*

clean:
rm *.tex ABC-details-*.pdf

which will start removing the source files whilst pdflatex is working.
Metadata lines can be placed in the source file, preferably in LaTeX comments in the preamble. One such is a
\VignetteIndexEntry of the form

%\VignetteIndexEntry{Using Animal}

Others you may see are \VignettePackage (currently ignored), \VignetteDepends and \VignetteKeyword (which
replaced \VignetteKeywords). These are processed at package installation time to create the saved data frame
Meta/vignette.rds, but only the \VignetteIndexEntry and \VignetteKeyword statements are currently used. The
\VignetteEngine statement is described in Non-Sweave vignettes.
At install time an HTML index for all vignettes in the package is automatically created from the
\VignetteIndexEntry statements unless a file index.html exists in directory inst/doc. This index is linked from
the HTML help index for the package. If you do supply a inst/doc/index.html file it should contain relative
links only to files under the installed doc directory, or perhaps (not really an index) to HTML help files or to the
DESCRIPTION file, and be valid HTML as confirmed via the W3C Markup Validation Service or Validator.nu.

Sweave/Stangle allows the document to specify the split=TRUE option to create a single R file for each code
chunk: this will not work for vignettes where it is assumed that each vignette source generates a single file with
the vignette extension replaced by .R.
Do watch that PDFs are not too large – one in a CRAN package was 72MB! This is usually caused by the
inclusion of overly detailed figures, which will not render well in PDF viewers. Sometimes it is much better to
generate fairly high resolution bitmap (PNG, JPEG) figures and include those in the PDF document.
When R CMD build builds the vignettes, it copies these and the vignette sources from directory vignettes to
inst/doc. To install any other files from the vignettes directory, include a file vignettes/.install_extras
which specifies these as Perl-like regular expressions on one or more lines. (See the description of the
.Rinstignore file for full details.)
Encodings and vignettes
Non-Sweave vignettes

Next: Non-Sweave vignettes, Previous: Writing package vignettes, Up: Writing package vignettes [Contents]
[Index]

1.4.1 Encodings and vignettes

Vignettes will in general include descriptive text, R input, R output and figures, LaTeX include files and
bibliographic references. As any of these may contain non-ASCII characters, the handling of encodings can
become very complicated.
The vignette source file should be written in ASCII or contain a declaration of the encoding (see below). This
applies even to comments within the source file, since vignette engines process comments to look for options
and metadata lines. When an engine’s weave and tangle functions are called on the vignette source, it will be
converted to the encoding of the current R session.
Stangle() will produce an R code file in the current locale’s encoding: for a non-ASCII vignette what that is is
recorded in a comment at the top of the file.
Sweave() will produce a .tex file in the current encoding, or in UTF-8 if that is declared. Non-ASCII encodings
need to be declared to LaTeX via a line like
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

(It is also possible to use the more recent ‘inputenx’ LaTeX package.) For files where this line is not needed
(e.g. chapters included within the body of a larger document, or non-Sweave vignettes), the encoding may be
declared using a comment like
%\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8}

If the encoding is UTF-8, this can also be declared using the declaration
%\SweaveUTF8

If no declaration is given in the vignette, it will be assumed to be in the encoding declared for the package. If
there is no encoding declared in either place, then it is an error to use non-ASCII characters in the vignette.
In any case, be aware that LaTeX may require the ‘usepackage’ declaration.
Sweave() will also parse and evaluate the R code in each chunk. The R output will also be in the current locale
(or UTF-8 if so declared), and should be covered by the ‘inputenc’ declaration. One thing people often forget is
that the R output may not be ASCII even for ASCII R sources, for many possible reasons. One common one is
the use of ‘fancy’ quotes: see the R help on sQuote: note carefully that it is not portable to declare UTF-8 or
CP1252 to cover such quotes, as their encoding will depend on the locale used to run Sweave(): this can be
circumvented by setting options(useFancyQuotes="UTF-8") in the vignette.
The final issue is the encoding of figures – this applies only to PDF figures and not PNG etc. The PDF figures
will contain declarations for their encoding, but the Sweave option pdf.encoding may need to be set
appropriately: see the help for the pdf() graphics device.
As a real example of the complexities, consider the fortunes package version ‘1.4-0’. That package did not
have a declared encoding, and its vignette was in ASCII. However, the data it displays are read from a UTF-8
CSV file and will be assumed to be in the current encoding, so fortunes.tex will be in UTF-8 in any locale. Had
read.table been told the data were UTF-8, fortunes.tex would have been in the locale’s encoding.

Previous: Encodings and vignettes, Up: Writing package vignettes [Contents][Index]

1.4.2 Non-Sweave vignettes

Vignettes in formats other than Sweave are supported via “vignette engines”. For example knitr version 1.1 or
later can create .tex files from a variation on Sweave format, and .html files from a variation on “markdown”
format. These engines replace the Sweave() function with other functions to convert vignette source files into
LaTeX files for processing into .pdf, or directly into .pdf or .html files. The Stangle() function is replaced with
a function that extracts the R source from a vignette.
R recognizes non-Sweave vignettes using filename extensions specified by the engine. For example, the knitr
package supports the extension .Rmd (standing for “R markdown”). The user indicates the vignette engine within
the vignette source using a \VignetteEngine line, for example
%\VignetteEngine{knitr::knitr}

This specifies the name of a package and an engine to use in place of Sweave in processing the vignette. As
Sweave is the only engine supplied with the R distribution, the package providing any other engine must be
specified in the ‘VignetteBuilder’ field of the package DESCRIPTION file, and also specified in the ‘Suggests’,
‘Imports’ or ‘Depends’ field (since its namespace must be available to build or check your package). If more than
one package is specified as a builder, they will be searched in the order given there. The utils package is always
implicitly appended to the list of builder packages, but may be included earlier to change the search order.
Note that a package with non-Sweave vignettes should always have a ‘VignetteBuilder’ field in the DESCRIPTION
file, since this is how R CMD check recognizes that there are vignettes to be checked: packages listed there are
required when the package is checked.
The vignette engine can produce .tex, .pdf, or .html files as output. If it produces .tex files, R will call
texi2pdf to convert them to .pdf for display to the user (unless there is a Makefile in the vignettes directory).

Package writers who would like to supply vignette engines need to register those engines in the package .onLoad
function. For example, that function could make the call
tools::vignetteEngine("knitr", weave = vweave, tangle = vtangle,
pattern = "[.]Rmd$", package = "knitr")

(The actual registration in knitr is more complicated, because it supports other input formats.) See the ?
tools::vignetteEngine help topic for details on engine registration.

Next: Writing portable packages, Previous: Writing package vignettes, Up: Creating R packages [Contents]
[Index]

1.5 Package namespaces

R has a namespace management system for code in packages. This system allows the package writer to specify
which variables in the package should be exported to make them available to package users, and which variables
should be imported from other packages.
The namespace for a package is specified by the NAMESPACE file in the top level package directory. This file
contains namespace directives describing the imports and exports of the namespace. Additional directives
register any shared objects to be loaded and any S3-style methods that are provided. Note that although the file
looks like R code (and often has R-style comments) it is not processed as R code. Only very simple conditional
processing of if statements is implemented.
Packages are loaded and attached to the search path by calling library or require. Only the exported variables
are placed in the attached frame. Loading a package that imports variables from other packages will cause these
other packages to be loaded as well (unless they have already been loaded), but they will not be placed on the
search path by these implicit loads. Thus code in the package can only depend on objects in its own namespace
and its imports (including the base namespace) being visible62.
Namespaces are sealed once they are loaded. Sealing means that imports and exports cannot be changed and that
internal variable bindings cannot be changed. Sealing allows a simpler implementation strategy for the
namespace mechanism and allows code analysis and compilation tools to accurately identify the definition
corresponding to a global variable reference in a function body.
The namespace controls the search strategy for variables used by functions in the package. If not found locally,
R searches the package namespace first, then the imports, then the base namespace and then the normal search
path (so the base namespace precedes the normal search rather than being at the end of it).
Specifying imports and exports
Registering S3 methods
Load hooks
useDynLib
An example
Namespaces with S4 classes and methods

Next: Registering S3 methods, Previous: Package namespaces, Up: Package namespaces [Contents][Index]

1.5.1 Specifying imports and exports

Exports are specified using the export directive in the NAMESPACE file. A directive of the form
export(f, g)

specifies that the variables f and g are to be exported. (Note that variable names may be quoted, and reserved
words and non-standard names such as [<-.fractions must be.)
For packages with many variables to export it may be more convenient to specify the names to export with a
regular expression using exportPattern. The directive
exportPattern("^[^\\.]")

exports all variables that do not start with a period. However, such broad patterns are not recommended for
production code: it is better to list all exports or use narrowly-defined groups. (This pattern applies to S4
classes.) Beware of patterns which include names starting with a period: some of these are internal-only
variables and should never be exported, e.g. ‘.__S3MethodsTable__.’ (and loading excludes known cases).
Packages implicitly import the base namespace. Variables exported from other packages with namespaces need
to be imported explicitly using the directives import and importFrom. The import directive imports all exported
variables from the specified package(s). Thus the directives
import(foo, bar)

specifies that all exported variables in the packages foo and bar are to be imported. If only some of the exported
variables from a package are needed, then they can be imported using importFrom. The directive
importFrom(foo, f, g)

specifies that the exported variables f and g of the package foo are to be imported. Using importFrom selectively
rather than import is good practice and recommended notably when importing from packages with more than a
dozen exports and especially from those written by others (so what they export can change in future).
To import every symbol from a package but for a few exceptions, pass the except argument to import. The
directive
import(foo, except=c(bar, baz))

imports every symbol from foo except bar and baz. The value of except should evaluate to something coercible
to a character vector, after substituting each symbol for its corresponding string.
It is possible to export variables from a namespace which it has imported from other namespaces: this has to be
done explicitly and not via exportPattern.
If a package only needs a few objects from another package it can use a fully qualified variable reference in the
code instead of a formal import. A fully qualified reference to the function f in package foo is of the form
foo::f. This is slightly less efficient than a formal import and also loses the advantage of recording all
dependencies in the NAMESPACE file (but they still need to be recorded in the DESCRIPTION file). Evaluating foo::f
will cause package foo to be loaded, but not attached, if it was not loaded already—this can be an advantage in
delaying the loading of a rarely used package.
Using foo:::f instead of foo::f allows access to unexported objects. This is generally not recommended, as the
semantics of unexported objects may be changed by the package author in routine maintenance.

Next: Load hooks, Previous: Specifying imports and exports, Up: Package namespaces [Contents][Index]

1.5.2 Registering S3 methods

The standard method for S3-style UseMethod dispatching might fail to locate methods defined in a package that is
imported but not attached to the search path. To ensure that these methods are available the packages defining
the methods should ensure that the generics are imported and register the methods using S3method directives. If a
package defines a function print.foo intended to be used as a print method for class foo, then the directive
S3method(print, foo)

ensures that the method is registered and available for UseMethod dispatch, and the function print.foo does not
need to be exported. Since the generic print is defined in base it does not need to be imported explicitly.
(Note that function and class names may be quoted, and reserved words and non-standard names such as [<- and
function must be.)

It is possible to specify a third argument to S3method, the function to be used as the method, for example
S3method(print, check_so_symbols, .print.via.format)

when print.check_so_symbols is not needed.

As from R 3.6.0 one can also use S3method() directives to perform delayed registration. With
if(getRversion() >= "3.6.0") {
S3method(pkg::gen, cls)
}

function gen.cls will get registered as an S3 method for class cls and generic gen from package pkg only when
the namespace of pkg is loaded. This can be employed to deal with situations where the method is not
“immediately” needed, and having to pre-load the namespace of pkg (and all its strong dependencies) in order to
perform immediate registration is considered too onerous.

Next: useDynLib, Previous: Registering S3 methods, Up: Package namespaces [Contents][Index]

1.5.3 Load hooks

There are a number of hooks called as packages are loaded, attached, detached, and unloaded. See
help(".onLoad") for more details.

Since loading and attaching are distinct operations, separate hooks are provided for each. These hook functions
are called .onLoad and .onAttach. They both take arguments63 libname and pkgname; they should be defined in
the namespace but not exported.
Packages can use a .onDetach or .Last.lib function (provided the latter is exported from the namespace) when
detach is called on the package. It is called with a single argument, the full path to the installed package. There
is also a hook .onUnload which is called when the namespace is unloaded (via a call to unloadNamespace, perhaps
called by detach(unload = TRUE)) with argument the full path to the installed package’s directory. Functions
.onUnload and .onDetach should be defined in the namespace and not exported, but .Last.lib does need to be
exported.
Packages are not likely to need .onAttach (except perhaps for a start-up banner); code to set options and load
shared objects should be placed in a .onLoad function, or use made of the useDynLib directive described next.
User-level hooks are also available: see the help on function setHook.
These hooks are often used incorrectly. People forget to export .Last.lib. Compiled code should be loaded in
.onLoad (or via a useDynLb directive: see below) and unloaded in .onUnload. Do remember that a package’s
namespace can be loaded without the namespace being attached (e.g. by pkgname::fun) and that a package can
be detached and re-attached whilst its namespace remains loaded.
It is good practice for these functions to be quiet. Any messages should use packageStartupMessage so users
(include check scripts) can suppress them if desired.

Next: An example, Previous: Load hooks, Up: Package namespaces [Contents][Index]

1.5.4 useDynLib

A NAMESPACE file can contain one or more useDynLib directives which allows shared objects that need to be
loaded.64 The directive
useDynLib(foo)

registers the shared object foo65 for loading with library.dynam. Loading of registered object(s) occurs after the
package code has been loaded and before running the load hook function. Packages that would only need a load
hook function to load a shared object can use the useDynLib directive instead.
The useDynLib directive also accepts the names of the native routines that are to be used in R via the .C, .Call,
.Fortran and .External interface functions. These are given as additional arguments to the directive, for
example,
useDynLib(foo, myRoutine, myOtherRoutine)

By specifying these names in the useDynLib directive, the native symbols are resolved when the package is
loaded and R variables identifying these symbols are added to the package’s namespace with these names. These
can be used in the .C, .Call, .Fortran and .External calls in place of the name of the routine and the PACKAGE
argument. For instance, we can call the routine myRoutine from R with the code
.Call(myRoutine, x, y)

rather than
.Call("myRoutine", x, y, PACKAGE = "foo")

There are at least two benefits to this approach. Firstly, the symbol lookup is done just once for each symbol
rather than each time the routine is invoked. Secondly, this removes any ambiguity in resolving symbols that
might be present in more than one DLL. However, this approach is nowadays deprecated in favour of supplying
registration information (see below).
In some circumstances, there will already be an R variable in the package with the same name as a native
symbol. For example, we may have an R function in the package named myRoutine. In this case, it is necessary
to map the native symbol to a different R variable name. This can be done in the useDynLib directive by using
named arguments. For instance, to map the native symbol name myRoutine to the R variable myRoutine_sym, we
would use
useDynLib(foo, myRoutine_sym = myRoutine, myOtherRoutine)

We could then call that routine from R using the command

.Call(myRoutine_sym, x, y)

Symbols without explicit names are assigned to the R variable with that name.
In some cases, it may be preferable not to create R variables in the package’s namespace that identify the native
routines. It may be too costly to compute these for many routines when the package is loaded if many of these
routines are not likely to be used. In this case, one can still perform the symbol resolution correctly using the
DLL, but do this each time the routine is called. Given a reference to the DLL as an R variable, say dll, we can
call the routine myRoutine using the expression
.Call(dll$myRoutine, x, y)
The $ operator resolves the routine with the given name in the DLL using a call to getNativeSymbol. This is the
same computation as above where we resolve the symbol when the package is loaded. The only difference is
that this is done each time in the case of dll$myRoutine.
In order to use this dynamic approach (e.g., dll$myRoutine), one needs the reference to the DLL as an R variable
in the package. The DLL can be assigned to a variable by using the variable = dllName format used above for
mapping symbols to R variables. For example, if we wanted to assign the DLL reference for the DLL foo in the
example above to the variable myDLL, we would use the following directive in the NAMESPACE file:
myDLL = useDynLib(foo, myRoutine_sym = myRoutine, myOtherRoutine)

Then, the R variable myDLL is in the package’s namespace and available for calls such as myDLL$dynRoutine to
access routines that are not explicitly resolved at load time.
If the package has registration information (see Registering native routines), then we can use that directly rather
than specifying the list of symbols again in the useDynLib directive in the NAMESPACE file. Each routine in the
registration information is specified by giving a name by which the routine is to be specified along with the
address of the routine and any information about the number and type of the parameters. Using the
.registration argument of useDynLib, we can instruct the namespace mechanism to create R variables for these
symbols. For example, suppose we have the following registration information for a DLL named myDLL:
static R_NativePrimitiveArgType foo_t[] = {
REALSXP, INTSXP, STRSXP, LGLSXP
};

static const R_CMethodDef cMethods[] = {

{"foo", (DL_FUNC) &foo, 4, foo_t},
{"bar_sym", (DL_FUNC) &bar, 0},
{NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

static const R_CallMethodDef callMethods[] = {

{"R_call_sym", (DL_FUNC) &R_call, 4},
{"R_version_sym", (DL_FUNC) &R_version, 0},
{NULL, NULL, 0}
};

Then, the directive in the NAMESPACE file

useDynLib(myDLL, .registration = TRUE)

causes the DLL to be loaded and also for the R variables foo, bar_sym, R_call_sym and R_version_sym to be
defined in the package’s namespace.
Note that the names for the R variables are taken from the entry in the registration information and do not need
to be the same as the name of the native routine. This allows the creator of the registration information to map
the native symbols to non-conflicting variable names in R, e.g. R_version to R_version_sym for use in an R
function such as
R_version <- function()
{
.Call(R_version_sym)
}

Using argument .fixes allows an automatic prefix to be added to the registered symbols, which can be useful
when working with an existing package. For example, package KernSmooth has
useDynLib(KernSmooth, .registration = TRUE, .fixes = "F_")

which makes the R variables corresponding to the Fortran symbols F_bkde and so on, and so avoid clashes with
R code in the namespace.
NB: Using these arguments for a package which does not register native symbols merely slows down the
package loading (although many CRAN packages have done so). Once symbols are registered, check that the
corresponding R variables are not accidentally exported by a pattern in the NAMESPACE file.
Next: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods, Previous: useDynLib, Up: Package namespaces [Contents]
[Index]

1.5.5 An example

As an example consider two packages named foo and bar. The R code for package foo in file foo.R is

x <- 1
f <- function(y) c(x,y)
foo <- function(x) .Call("foo", x, PACKAGE="foo")
print.foo <- function(x, ...) cat("<a foo>\n")

Some C code defines a C function compiled into DLL foo (with an appropriate extension). The NAMESPACE file
for this package is

useDynLib(foo)
export(f, foo)
S3method(print, foo)

The second package bar has code file bar.R

c <- function(...) sum(...)

g <- function(y) f(c(y, 7))
h <- function(y) y+9

and NAMESPACE file

import(foo)
export(g, h)

Calling library(bar) loads bar and attaches its exports to the search path. Package foo is also loaded but not
attached to the search path. A call to g produces
> g(6)
[1] 1 13

This is consistent with the definitions of c in the two settings: in bar the function c is defined to be equivalent to
sum, but in foo the variable c refers to the standard function c in base.

Previous: An example, Up: Package namespaces [Contents][Index]

1.5.6 Namespaces with S4 classes and methods

Some additional steps are needed for packages which make use of formal (S4-style) classes and methods (unless
these are purely used internally). The package should have Depends: methods in its DESCRIPTION and
import(methods) or importFrom(methods, ...) plus any classes and methods which are to be exported need to
be declared in the NAMESPACE file. For example, the stats4 package has
export(mle) # exporting methods implicitly exports the generic
importFrom("stats", approx, optim, pchisq, predict, qchisq, qnorm, spline)
## For these, we define methods or (AIC, BIC, nobs) an implicit generic:
importFrom("stats", AIC, BIC, coef, confint, logLik, nobs, profile,
update, vcov)
exportClasses(mle, profile.mle, summary.mle)
## All methods for imported generics:
exportMethods(coef, confint, logLik, plot, profile, summary,
show, update, vcov)
 ## implicit generics which do not have any methods here
export(AIC, BIC, nobs)

All S4 classes to be used outside the package need to be listed in an exportClasses directive. Alternatively, they
can be specified using exportClassPattern66 in the same style as for exportPattern. To export methods for
generics from other packages an exportMethods directive can be used.
Note that exporting methods on a generic in the namespace will also export the generic, and exporting a generic
in the namespace will also export its methods. If the generic function is not local to this package, either because
it was imported as a generic function or because the non-generic version has been made generic solely to add S4
methods to it (as for functions such as coef in the example above), it can be declared via either or both of export
or exportMethods, but the latter is clearer (and is used in the stats4 example above). In particular, for primitive
functions there is no generic function, so export would export the primitive, which makes no sense. On the other
hand, if the generic is local to this package, it is more natural to export the function itself using export(), and
this must be done if an implicit generic is created without setting any methods for it (as is the case for AIC in
stats4).
A non-local generic function is only exported to ensure that calls to the function will dispatch the methods from
this package (and that is not done or required when the methods are for primitive functions). For this reason, you
do not need to document such implicitly created generic functions, and undoc in package tools will not report
them.
If a package uses S4 classes and methods exported from another package, but does not import the entire
namespace of the other package67, it needs to import the classes and methods explicitly, with directives
importClassesFrom(package, ...)
importMethodsFrom(package, ...)

listing the classes and functions with methods respectively. Suppose we had two small packages A and B with B
using A. Then they could have NAMESPACE files

export(f1, ng1)
exportMethods("[")
exportClasses(c1)

and

importFrom(A, ng1)
importClassesFrom(A, c1)
importMethodsFrom(A, f1)
export(f4, f5)
exportMethods(f6, "[")
exportClasses(c1, c2)

respectively.
Note that importMethodsFrom will also import any generics defined in the namespace on those methods.
It is important if you export S4 methods that the corresponding generics are available. You may for example
need to import coef from stats to make visible a function to be converted into its implicit generic. But it is better
practice to make use of the generics exported by stats4 as this enables multiple packages to unambiguously set
methods on those generics.

Next: Diagnostic messages, Previous: Package namespaces, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.6 Writing portable packages

This section contains advice on writing packages to be used on multiple platforms or for distribution (for
example to be submitted to a package repository such as CRAN).
Portable packages should have simple file names: use only alphanumeric ASCII characters and period (.), and
avoid those names not allowed under Windows (see Package structure).
Many of the graphics devices are platform-specific: even X11() (aka x11()) which although emulated on
Windows may not be available on a Unix-alike (and is not the preferred screen device on OS X). It is rarely
necessary for package code or examples to open a new device, but if essential,68 use dev.new().
Use R CMD build to make the release .tar.gz file.
R CMD check provides a basic set of checks, but often further problems emerge when people try to install and use
packages submitted to CRAN – many of these involve compiled code. Here are some further checks that you
can do to make your package more portable.
If your package has a configure script, provide a configure.win or configure.ucrt script to be used on
Windows (an empty configure.win file if no actions are needed).
If your package has a Makevars or Makefile file, make sure that you use only portable make features. Such
files should be LF-terminated69 (including the final line of the file) and not make use of GNU extensions.
(The POSIX specification is available at
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/make.html; anything not documented there
should be regarded as an extension to be avoided. Further advice can be found at
https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Portable-Make. ) Commonly misused
GNU extensions are conditional inclusions (ifeq and the like), ${shell ...}, ${wildcard ...} and
similar, and the use of +=70 and :=. Also, the use of $< other than in implicit rules is a GNU extension, as
is the $^ macro. As is the use of .PHONY (some other makes ignore it). Unfortunately makefiles which use
GNU extensions often run on other platforms but do not have the intended results.
Note that the -C flag for make is not included in the POSIX specification and is not implemented by some
of the makes used with R.
The use of ${shell ...} can be avoided by using backticks, e.g.
PKG_CPPFLAGS = `gsl-config --cflags`

which works in all versions of make known71 to be used with R.

If you really must require GNU make, declare it in the DESCRIPTION file by
SystemRequirements: GNU make

and ensure that you use the value of environment variable MAKE (and not just make) in your scripts. (On
some platforms GNU make is available under a name such as gmake, and there SystemRequirements is used
to set MAKE.)
If you only need GNU make for parts of the package which are rarely needed (for example to create
bibliography files under vignettes), use a file called GNUmakefile rather than Makefile as GNU make
(only) will use the former.
macOS has used GNU make for many years (it previously used BSD make), but the version has been
frozen at 3.81 (from 2006).
Since the only viable make for Windows is GNU make, it is permissible to use GNU extensions in files
Makevars.win, Makevars.ucrt, Makefile.win or Makefile.ucrt.

If you use src/Makevars to compile code in a subdirectory, ensure that you have followed all the advice
above. In particular
Anticipate a parallel make. See Using Makevars.
Pass macros down to the makefile in the subdirectory, including all the needed compiler flags
(including PIC and visibility flags). If they are used in the subdirectory’s Makefile, this includes
macros ‘AR’ and ‘RANLIB’. See Compiling in sub-directories, which has a C example. A C++
example:
pkg/libpkg.a:
(cd pkg && $(MAKE) -f make_pkg libpkg.a \
CXX="$(CXX)" CXXFLAGS="$(CXXFLAGS) $(CXXPICFLAGS) $(C_VISIBILITY)" \
AR="$(AR)" RANLIB="$(RANLIB)")
 Ensure that cleanup will be performed by R CMD build, for example in a cleanup script or a ‘clean’
target.
If your package uses a src/Makefile file to compile code to be linked into R, ensure that it uses exactly
the same compiler and flag settings that R uses when compiling such code: people often forget ‘PIC’ flags.
If R CMD config is used, this needs something like (for C++)
RBIN = `"${R_HOME}/bin/R"`
CXX = `"${RBIN}" CMD config CXX`
CXXFLAGS = `"${RBIN}" CMD config CXXFLAGS` `"${RBIN}" CMD config CXXPICFLAGS`

Names of source files including = (such as src/complex_Sig=gen.c) will confuse some make programs and
should be avoided.
Bash extensions also need to be avoided in shell scripts, including expressions in Makefiles (which are
passed to the shell for processing). Some R platforms use strict72 Bourne shells: an earlier R toolset on
Windows73 and some Unix-alike OSes use ash (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almquist_shell), a ‘slim’
shell with few builtins or variants such as dash. Beware of assuming that all the POSIX command-line
utilities are available, especially on Windows where only a subset (which has changed by version of
Rtools) is provided for use with R. One particular issue is the use of echo, for which two behaviours are
allowed (https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/echo.html) and both have occurred
as defaults on R platforms: portable applications should use neither -n (as the first argument) nor escape
sequences. The recommended replacement for echo -n is the command printf. Another common issue is
the construction
export FOO=value

which is bash-specific (first set the variable then export it by name).

Using test -e (or [ -e ]) in shell scripts is not fully portable74: -f is normally what is intended. Flags -a
and -o are nowadays declared obsolescent by POSIX and should not be used.
Use of ‘brace expansion’, e.g.,
rm -f src/*.{o,so,d}

is not portable.
The -o flag for set in shell scripts is optional in POSIX and not supported on all the platforms R is used
on.
The variable ‘OSTYPE’ is shell-specific and its values are rather unpredictable and may include a version
such as ‘darwin19.0’: `uname` is often what is intended (with common values ‘Darwin’, ‘Linux’ and
‘SunOS’).
On macOS which shell /bin/sh invokes is user- and platform-dependent: it might be bash version 3.2,
dash or zsh (for new accounts it is zsh, for accounts ported from Mojave or earlier it is usually bash).

Make use of the abilities of your compilers to check the standards-conformance of your code. For
example, gcc and gfortran75 can be used with options -Wall -pedantic to alert you to potential problems.
This is particularly important for C++, where g++ -Wall -pedantic will alert you to the use of some of the
GNU extensions which fail to compile on most other C++ compilers. If R was not configured accordingly,
one can achieve this via personal Makevars files. See Customizing package compilation in R Installation
and Administration,
Portable C++ code needs to follow both the 2011 and 2014 standards or to specify C+11/14/17/20 where
available (which is not the case on all R platforms). Currently C++17/20 support is patchy across R
platforms.
If using Fortran with the GNU compiler, use the flags -std=f95 -Wall -pedantic which reject most GNU
extensions and features from later standards. (Although R only requires Fortran 90, gfortran does not
have a way to specify that standard.)
R has tested that DOUBLE COMPLEX works and so is preferred to COMPLEX*16. (One can also use something
like COMPLEX(KIND=KIND(0.0D0)).)
The use of Fortran types such as REAL(KIND=8) is very far from portable. According of the standards this
merely enumerates different supported types, so DOUBLE PRECISION might be REAL(KIND=3) (and is on an
actual compiler). Even if for a particular compiler the value indicates the size in bytes, which values are
supported is platform-specific — for example gfortran supports values of 4 and 8 on all current platforms
and 10 and 16 on a few (but not for example on ‘arm’ CPUs).
Not all common R platforms conform to the expected standards, e.g. C99 for C code. One common area
of problems is the *printf functions where Windows did not support %lld, %Lf and similar formats (and
has its own formats such as %I64d for 64-bit integers). It is very rare to need to output such types, and 64-
bit integers can usually be converted to doubles for output. However, the C11 standard (section 7.8.1)
includes PRIxNN macros76 in C header inttypes.h (for example PRId64) so the portable approach is to test
for these and if not available provide emulations in the package.
As from macOS 11 (late 2020), its C compiler sets the flag -Werror=implicit-function-declaration by
default which forces stricter conformance to C99. This can be used on other platforms with gcc or clang.
If your package has a (autoconf-generated) configure script, try installing it whilst using this flag, and
read through the config.log file — compilation warnings and errors can lead to features which are present
not being detected. (If possible do this on several platforms.)
R CMD check performs some checks for non-portable compiler/linker flags in src/Makevars. However, it
cannot check the meaning of such flags, and some are commonly accepted but with compiler-specific
meanings. There are other non-portable flags which are not checked, nor are src/Makefile files and
makefiles in sub-directories. As a comment in the code says

It is hard to think of anything apart from -I* and -D* that is safe for general use …

although -pthread is pretty close to portable. (Option -U is portable but little use on the command line as it
will only cancel built-in defines (not portable) and those defined earlier on the command line (R does not
use any).)
People have used configure to customize src/Makevars, including for specific compilers. This is unsafe
for several reasons. First, unintended compilers might meet the check—for example, several compilers
other than GCC identify themselves as ‘GCC’ whilst being only partially conformant. Second, future
versions of compilers may behave differently (including updates to quite old series) so for example -
Werror (and specializations) can make a package non-installable under a future version. Third, using flags
to suppress diagnostic messages can hide important information for debugging on a platform not tested by
the package maintainer. (R CMD check can optionally report on unsafe flags which were used.)
Avoid the use of -march and especially -march=native. This allows the compiler to generate code that will
only run on a particular class of CPUs (that of the compiling machine for ‘native’). People assume this is
a ‘minimum’ CPU specification, but that is not how it is documented for gcc (it is accepted by clang but
apparently it is undocumented what precisely it does, and it can be accepted and may be ignored for other
compilers). (For personal use -mtune is safer, but still not portable enough to be used in a public package.)
Not even gcc supports ‘native’ for all CPUs, and it can do surprising things if it finds a CPU released later
than its version.
Do be very careful with passing arguments between R, C and Fortran code. In particular, long in C will be
32-bit on some R platforms (including 64-bit Windows), but 64-bit on most modern Unix and Linux
platforms. It is rather unlikely that the use of long in C code has been thought through: if you need a
longer type than int you should use a configure test for a C99/C++11 type such as int_fast64_t (and
failing that, long long) and typedef your own type, or use another suitable type (such as size_t, but
beware that is unsigned and ssize_t is not portable).
It is not safe to assume that long and pointer types are the same size, and they are not on 64-bit Windows.
If you need to convert pointers to and from integers use the C99/C++11 integer types intptr_t and
uintptr_t (in the headers <stdint.h> and <cstdint>: they are not required to be implemented by the
standards but are used in C code by R itself).
Note that integer in Fortran corresponds to int in C on all R platforms.
Under no circumstances should your compiled code ever call abort or exit77: these terminate the user’s R
process, quite possibly losing all unsaved work. One usage that could call abort is the assert macro in C
or C++ functions, which should never be active in production code. The normal way to ensure that is to
define the macro NDEBUG, and R CMD INSTALL does so as part of the compilation flags. Beware of including
headers (including from other packages) which could undefine it, now or in future versions. If you wish to
use assert during development. you can include -UNDEBUG in PKG_CPPFLAGS or #undef it in your headers or
code files. Note that your own src/Makefile or makefiles in sub-directories may also need to define
NDEBUG.
This applies not only to your own code but to any external software you compile in or link to.
Compiled code should not write to stdout or stderr and C++ and Fortran I/O should not be used. As with
the previous item such calls may come from external software and may never be called, but package
authors are often mistaken about that.
Compiled code should not call the system random number generators such as rand, drand48 and random78,
but rather use the interfaces to R’s RNGs described in Random number generation. In particular, if more
than one package initializes a system RNG (e.g. via srand), they will interfere with each other.
Nor should the C++11 random number library be used, nor any other third-party random number
generators such as those in GSL.
Errors in memory allocation and reading/writing outside arrays are very common causes of crashes (e.g.,
segfaults) on some machines. See Checking memory access for tools which can be used to look for this.
Many platforms will allow unsatisfied entry points in compiled code, but will crash the application (here
R) if they are ever used. Some (notably Windows) will not. Looking at the output of
nm -pg mypkg.so

and checking if any of the symbols marked U is unexpected is a good way to avoid this.
Linkers have a lot of freedom in how to resolve entry points in dynamically-loaded code, so the results
may differ by platform. One area that has caused grief is packages including copies of standard system
software such as libz (especially those already linked into R). In the case in point, entry point gzgets was
sometimes resolved against the old version compiled into the package, sometimes against the copy
compiled into R and sometimes against the system dynamic library. The only safe solution is to rename
the entry points in the copy in the package. We have even seen problems with entry point name myprintf,
which is a system entry point79 on some Linux systems.
A related issue is the naming of libraries built as part of the package installation. macOS and Windows
have case-insensitive file systems, so using
-L. -lLZ4

in PKG_LIBS will match liblz4. And -L. only appends to the list of searched locations, and liblz4 might
be found in an earlier-searched location (and has been). The only safe way is to give an explicit path, for
example
./libLZ4.a

Conflicts between symbols in DLLs are handled in very platform-specific ways. Good ways to avoid
trouble are to make as many symbols as possible static (check with nm -pg), and to use names which are
clearly tied to your package (which also helps users if anything does go wrong). Note that symbol names
starting with R_ are regarded as part of R’s namespace and should not be used in packages.
It is good practice for DLLs to register their symbols (see Registering native routines), restrict visibility
(see Controlling visibility) and not allow symbol search (see Registering native routines). It should be
possible for a DLL to have only one visible symbol, R_init_pkgname, on suitable platforms80, which
would completely avoid symbol conflicts.
It is not portable to call compiled code in R or other packages via .Internal, .C, .Fortran, .Call or
.External, since such interfaces are subject to change without notice and will probably result in your code
terminating the R process.
Do not use (hard or symbolic) file links in your package sources. Where possible R CMD build will replace
them by copies.
If you do not yourself have a Windows system, consider submitting your source package to WinBuilder
(https://win-builder.r-project.org/) before distribution. If you need to check on an M1 Mac, there is a
check service at https://mac.r-project.org/macbuilder/submit.html.
It is bad practice for package code to alter the search path using library, require or attach and this often
does not work as intended. For alternatives, see Suggested packages and with().
Examples can be run interactively via example as well as in batch mode when checking. So they should
behave appropriately in both scenarios, conditioning by interactive() the parts which need an operator or
observer. For instance, progress bars81 are only appropriate in interactive use, as is displaying help pages
or calling View() (see below).
Be careful with the order of entries in macros such as PKG_LIBS. Some linkers will re-order the entries, and
behaviour can differ between dynamic and static libraries. Generally -L options should precede82 the
libraries (typically specified by -l options) to be found from those directories, and libraries are searched
once in the order they are specified. Not all linkers allow a space after -L .
Care is needed with the use of LinkingTo. This puts one or more directories on the include search path
ahead of system headers but (prior to R 3.4.0) after those specified in the CPPFLAGS macro of the R build
(which normally includes -I/usr/local/include, but most platforms ignore that and include it with the
system headers).
Any confusion would be avoided by having LinkingTo headers in a directory named after the package. In
any case, name conflicts of headers and directories under package include directories should be avoided,
both between packages and between a package and system and third-party software.
The ar utility is often used in makefiles to make static libraries. Its modifier u is defined by POSIX but is
disabled in GNU ar on some Linux distributions which use ‘deterministic mode’. The safest way to make
a static library is to first remove any existing file of that name then use ar -cr and then ranlib if needed
(which is system-dependent: on most systems83 ar always maintains a symbol table). The POSIX
standard says options should be preceded by a hyphen (as in -cr), although most OSes accept them
without. Note that on some systems ar -cr must have at least one file specified.
The s modifier (to replace a separate call to ranlib) is required by X/OPEN but not POSIX, so ar -crs is
not portable.
The strip utility is platform-specific (and CRAN prohibits removing debug symbols). For example the
options --strip-debug and --strip-unneeded of the GNU version are not supported on macOS nor
Solaris84: the POSIX standard for strip does not mention any options, and what calling it without options
does is platform-dependent. Stripping a .so file could even prevent it being dynamically loaded into R on
an untested platform.
ld -S invokes strip --strip-debug on GNU ld but is not portable: in particular on Solaris it does
something completely different and takes an argument.
Some people have a need to set a locale. Locale names are not portable, and e.g. ‘fr_FR.utf8’ is
commonly used on Linux but not accepted on either Solaris or macOS. ‘fr_FR.UTF-8’ is more portable,
being accepted on recent Linux, AIX, FreeBSD, macOS and Solaris (at least). However, some Linux
distributions micro-package, so locales defined by glibc (including these examples) may not be installed.
Avoid spaces in file names, not least as they can cause difficulties for external tools. An example was a
package with a knitr vignette that used spaces in plot names: this caused some older versions of pandoc to
fail with a baffling error message.
Non-ASCII filenames can also cause problems (particularly in non-UTF-8 locales).
Take care in naming LaTeX macros (also known as ‘commands’) in vignette sources: if these are also
defined in a future version of one of the LaTeX packages used there will be a fatal error. One instance in
2021 was package ‘hyperref’ newly defining ‘\C’, ‘\F’, ‘\G’, ‘\U’ and ‘\textapprox’. If you are confident
that your definitions will be the only ones relevant you can use ‘\renewcommand’ but it is better to use
names clearly associated with your package.
Make sure that any version requirement for Java code is both declared in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field85
and tested at runtime (not least as the Java installation when the package is installed might not be the same
as when the package is run and will not be for binary packages). Java 8 is available for fewer platforms
than Java 7 was, and Java 11 for fewer still (at the time of writing, only ‘x86_64’ Linux, macOS, 64-bit
Windows and 64-bit Solaris 11 from Oracle; Linux on several 64-bit CPUs, Intel-based macOS, 32- and
64-bit Windows and AIX from from https://adoptium.net/ and ‘arm64’ macOS from Zulu – several OSes
provide builds of OpenJDK including FreeBSD and most Linux distributions).
When specifying a minimum Java version please use the official version names, which are (confusingly)
 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 5.0 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 (announced 19 20)

and as from 2018 a year.month scheme such as ‘18.9’ is also in use. Fortunately only the integer values
are likely to be relevant.
A suitable test for Java at least version 8 for packages using rJava would be something like
.jinit()
jv <- .jcall("java/lang/System", "S", "getProperty", "java.runtime.version")
if(substr(jv, 1L, 2L) == "1.") {
jvn <- as.numeric(paste0(strsplit(jv, "[.]")[[1L]][1:2], collapse = "."))
if(jvn < 1.8) stop("Java >= 8 is needed for this package but not available")
}

Java 9 changed the format of this string (which used to be something like ‘1.8.0_292-b10’); Java 11 gave
jv as ‘11+28’ whereas Java 11.0.11 gives ‘ 11.0.11+9’. (https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/322 details the current
scheme. Note that it is necessary to allow for pre-releases like ‘11-ea+22’.)
Note too that the compiler used to produce a jar can impose a minimum Java version, often resulting in
an arcane message like
java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: ... Unsupported major.minor version 52.0

(Where https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_class_file maps class-file version numbers to Java versions.)

Compile with something like javac -target 1.6 to ensure this is avoided. (As from Java 8, javac defaults
to compiling for Java 8. Versions as old as ‘1.6’ are already deprecated and will give a warning with Java
10’s javac.) Note this also applies to packages distributing (or even downloading) compiled Java code
produced by others, so their requirements need to be checked (they are often not documented accurately)
and accounted for. It should be possible to check the class-file version via command-line utility javap, if
necessary after extracting the .class files from a .jar archive.
Some packages have stated a requirement on a particular JDK, but a package should only be requiring a
JRE unless providing its own Java interface.
Java 8 is still in widespread use (and may remain so because of licence changes: although Oracle ended its
support even for personal use at the end of 2020, OpenJDK has full support until 2022-03), but Java 7 was
the latest provided by Oracle for several platforms.
A package with a hard-to-satisfy system requirement is by definition not portable, annoyingly so if this is
not declared in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field. The most common example is the use of pandoc, which is
only available for a very limited range of platforms (and has onerous requirements to install from source)
and has capabilities86 that vary by build but are not documented. Several recent versions of pandoc for
macOS did not work on R’s target of High Sierra (and this too was undocumented): at the time of writing
‘2.14.0’ to ‘2.16.2’ did, but not ‘2.17.0.1’. (Currently pandoc is only available from the official site for
Intel macOS but that build works well enough on ‘arm64’ machines.) Another example is the Rust
compilation system (cargo and rustc).
Usage of external commands should always be conditional on a test for presence (perhaps using
Sys.which), as well as declared in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field. A package should pass its checks
without warnings nor errors without the external command being present.
An external command can be a (possibly optional) requirement for an imported or suggested package but
needed for examples, tests or vignettes in the package itself. Such usages should always be declared and
conditional.
Interpreters for scripting languages such as Perl, Python and Ruby need to be declared as system
requirements and used conditionally: for example macOS 10.16 was announced not to have them (but
released as macOS 11 with them); later it was announced that macOS 12.3 does not have Python 2 and
only a minimal install of Python 3 is included. Python 2 has passed end-of-life and been removed from
many major distributions. Support for Rust cannot be assumed, and it does not even support all the R
platforms used by CRAN.
Command cmake is not commonly installed, and where it is, it might not be on the path. In particular, the
most common location on macOS is /Applications/CMake.app/Contents/bin/cmake and that should be
looked for if cmake is not found on the path.
 Be sure to use portable encoding names: none of utf8, mac and macroman is portable. See the help for file
for more details.
Do not invoke R by plain R, Rscript or (on Windows) Rterm in your examples, tests, vignettes, makefiles
or other scripts. As pointed out in several places earlier in this manual, use something like
"$(R_HOME)/bin/Rscript"
"$(R_HOME)/bin$(R_ARCH_BIN)/Rterm"

with appropriate quotes (as, although not recommended, R_HOME can contain spaces).
Do not use R_HOME in makefiles except when passing them to the shell. Specifically, do not use R_HOME in
the argument to include, as R_HOME can contain spaces. Quoting the argument to include does not help. A
portable and the recommended way to avoid the problem of spaces in ${R_HOME} is using option -f of
make. This is easy to do with recursive invocation of make, which is also the only usual situation when
R_HOME is needed in the argument for include.

$(MAKE) -f "${R_HOME}/etc${R_ARCH}/Makeconf" -f Makefile.inner

Do be careful in what your tests (and examples) actually test. Bad practice seen in distributed packages include:
It is not reasonable to test the time taken by a command: you cannot know how fast or how heavily loaded
an R platform might be. At best you can test a ratio of times, and even that is fraught with difficulties and
not advisable: for example, the garbage collector may trigger at unpredictable times following heuristics
that may change without notice.
Do not test the exact format of R messages (from R itself or from other packages): They change, and they
can be translated.
Packages have even tested the exact format of system error messages, which are platform-dependent and
perhaps locale-dependent. For example, in late 2021 libcurl changed its warning/error messages,
including when URLs are not found.
If you use functions such as View, remember that in testing there is no one to look at the output. It is better
to use something like one of
if(interactive()) View(obj) else print(head(obj))
if(interactive()) View(obj) else str(obj)

Be careful when comparing file paths. There can be multiple paths to a single file, and some of these can
be very long character strings. If possible canonicalize paths before comparisons, but study ?
normalizePath to be aware of the pitfalls.
Only test the accuracy of results if you have done a formal error analysis. Things such as checking that
probabilities numerically sum to one are silly: numerical tests should always have a tolerance. That the
tests on your platform achieve a particular tolerance says little about other platforms. R is configured by
default to make use of long doubles where available, but they may not be available or be too slow for
routine use. Most R platforms use ‘ix86’ or ‘x86_64’ CPUs: these may use extended precision registers on
some but not all of their FPU instructions. Thus the achieved precision can depend on the compiler
version and optimization flags—our experience is that 32-bit builds tend to be less precise than 64-bit
ones. But not all platforms use those CPUs, and not all87 which use them configure them to allow the use
of extended precision. In particular, current ARM CPUs do not have extended precision nor long doubles,
and clang currently has long double the same as double on all ARM CPUs. On the other hand some CPUs
have higher-precision modes which may be used for long double, notably 64-bit PowerPC and Sparc.
If you must try to establish a tolerance empirically, configure and build R with --disable-long-double
and use appropriate compiler flags (such as -ffloat-store and -fexcess-precision=standard for gcc,
depending on the CPU type88) to mitigate the effects of extended-precision calculations.
Tests which involve random inputs or non-deterministic algorithms should normally set a seed or be tested
for many seeds.
Tests should use options(warn = 1) as reporting
There were 22 warnings (use warnings() to see them)

is pointless, especially for automated checking systems.

 If your package uses dates/times, ensure that it works in all timezones, especially those near boundaries
(problems have most often be seen in ‘Europe/London’ (zero offset in Winter) and ‘Pacific/Auckland’,
near enough the International Date line) and with offsets not in whole hours (Adelaide, Chatham Islands,
...).
PDF size
Check timing
Encoding issues
Portable C and C++ code
Binary distribution

Next: Check timing, Previous: Writing portable packages, Up: Writing portable packages [Contents][Index]

1.6.1 PDF size

There are a several tools available to reduce the size of PDF files: often the size can be reduced substantially
with no or minimal loss in quality. Not only do large files take up space: they can stress the PDF viewer and take
many minutes to print (if they can be printed at all).
qpdf (http://qpdf.sourceforge.net/) can compress losslessly. It is fairly readily available (e.g. it has binaries for
Windows and packages in Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora, and is installed as part of the CRAN macOS distribution of
R). R CMD build has an option to run qpdf over PDF files under inst/doc and replace them if at least 10Kb and
10% is saved. The full path to the qpdf command can be supplied as environment variable R_QPDF (and is on the
CRAN binary of R for macOS). It seems MiKTeX does not use PDF object compression and so qpdf can reduce
considerably the files it outputs: MiKTeX’s defaults can be overridden by code in the preamble of an Sweave or
LaTeX file — see how this is done for the R reference manual at https://svn.r-
project.org/R/trunk/doc/manual/refman.top. (Although earlier versions of qpdf are supported, versions 6.0.0 and
later in some cases achieve considerably better compression.)
Other tools can reduce the size of PDFs containing bitmap images at excessively high resolution. These are
often best re-generated (for example Sweave defaults to 300 ppi, and 100–150 is more appropriate for a package
manual). These tools include Adobe Acrobat (not Reader), Apple’s Preview89 and Ghostscript (which converts
PDF to PDF by
ps2pdf options -dAutoRotatePages=/None -dPrinted=false in.pdf out.pdf

and suitable options might be

-dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook
-dPDFSETTINGS=/screen

See https://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/VectorDevices.htm for more such and consider all the options for
image downsampling). There have been examples in CRAN packages for which current versions of Ghostscript
produced much bigger reductions than earlier ones (e.g. at the upgrade from 9.50 to 9.52 in March 2020).
We come across occasionally large PDF files containing excessively complicated figures using PDF vector
graphics: such figures are often best redesigned or failing that, output as PNG files.
Option --compact-vignettes to R CMD build defaults to value ‘qpdf’: use ‘both’ to try harder to reduce the size,
provided you have Ghostscript available (see the help for tools::compactPDF).

Next: Encoding issues, Previous: PDF size, Up: Writing portable packages [Contents][Index]

1.6.2 Check timing

There are several ways to find out where time is being spent in the check process. Start by setting the
environment variable _R_CHECK_TIMINGS_ to ‘0’. This will report the total CPU times (not Windows) and elapsed
times for installation and running examples, tests and vignettes, under each sub-architecture if appropriate. For
tests and vignettes, it reports the time for each as well as the total.
Setting _R_CHECK_TIMINGS_ to a positive value sets a threshold (in seconds elapsed time) for reporting timings.
If you need to look in more detail at the timings for examples, use option --timings to R CMD check (this is set
by --as-cran). This adds a summary to the check output for all the examples with CPU or elapsed time of more
than 5 seconds. It produces a file mypkg.Rcheck/mypkg-Ex.timings containing timings for each help file: it is a
tab-delimited file which can be read into R for further analysis.
Timings for the tests and vignette runs are given at the bottom of the corresponding log file: note that log files
for successful vignette runs are only retained if environment variable _R_CHECK_ALWAYS_LOG_VIGNETTE_OUTPUT_ is
set to a true value.

Next: Portable C and C++ code, Previous: Check timing, Up: Writing portable packages [Contents][Index]

1.6.3 Encoding issues

Care is needed if your package contains non-ASCII text, and in particular if it is intended to be used in more
than one locale. It is possible to mark the encoding used in the DESCRIPTION file and in .Rd files, as discussed
elsewhere in this manual.
First, consider carefully if you really need non-ASCII text. Many users of R will only be able to view correctly
text in their native language group (e.g. Western European, Eastern European, Simplified Chinese) and
ASCII.90. Other characters may not be rendered at all, rendered incorrectly, or cause your R code to give an
error. For .Rd documentation, marking the encoding and including ASCII transliterations is likely to do a
reasonable job. The set of characters which is commonly supported is wider than it used to be around 2000, but
non-Latin alphabets (Greek, Russian, Georgian, …) are still often problematic and those with double-width
characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, emoji) often need specialist fonts to render correctly.
Several CRAN packages have messages in their R code in French (and a few in German). A better way to tackle
this is to use the internationalization facilities discussed elsewhere in this manual.
Function showNonASCIIfile in package tools can help in finding non-ASCII bytes in files.
There is a portable way to have arbitrary text in character strings (only) in your R code, which is to supply them
in Unicode as ‘\uxxxx’ escapes. If there are any characters not in the current encoding the parser will encode the
character string as UTF-8 and mark it as such. This applies also to character strings in datasets: they can be
prepared using ‘\uxxxx’ escapes or encoded in UTF-8 in a UTF-8 locale, or even converted to UTF-8 via
iconv(). If you do this, make sure you have ‘R (>= 2.10)’ (or later) in the ‘Depends’ field of the DESCRIPTION
file.
R sessions running in non-UTF-8 locales will if possible re-encode such strings for display (and this is done by
RGui on Windows, for example). Suitable fonts will need to be selected or made available91 both for the
console/terminal and graphics devices such as ‘X11()’ and ‘windows()’. Using ‘postscript’ or ‘pdf’ will choose
a default 8-bit encoding depending on the language of the UTF-8 locale, and your users would need to be told
how to select the ‘encoding’ argument.
Note that the previous two paragraphs only apply to character strings in R code. Non-ASCII characters are
particularly prevalent in comments (in the R code of the package, in examples, tests, vignettes and even in the
NAMESPACE file) but should be avoided there. Most commonly people use the Windows extensions to Latin-1
(often directional single and double quotes, ellipsis, bullet and en and em dashes) which are not supported in
strict Latin-1 locales nor in CJK locales on Windows. A surprisingly common misuse is to use a right quote in
‘don't’ instead of the correct apostrophe.
If you want to run R CMD check on a Unix-alike over a package that sets a package encoding in its DESCRIPTION
file and do not use a UTF-8 locale you may need to specify a suitable locale via environment variable
R_ENCODING_LOCALES. The default is equivalent to the value

"latin1=en_US:latin2=pl_PL:UTF-8=en_US.UTF-8:latin9=fr_FR.iso885915@euro"

(which is appropriate for a system based on glibc: macOS requires latin9=fr_FR.ISO8859-15) except that if the
current locale is UTF-8 then the package code is translated to UTF-8 for syntax checking, so it is strongly
recommended to check in a UTF-8 locale.

Next: Binary distribution, Previous: Encoding issues, Up: Writing portable packages [Contents][Index]

1.6.4 Portable C and C++ code

Writing portable C and C++ code is mainly a matter of observing the standards (C99, C++11 or where declared
C++14/17/20) and testing that extensions (such as POSIX functions) are supported.
C++ standards: From version 3.6.0 (3.6.2 on Windows), R defaulted to C++11 where available92; R 4.1.0
defaults to C++14 (where available). However, in earlier versions the default standard was that of the compiler
used, often C++98 or C++14, and the default is likely to change in future. For maximal portability a package
should either specify a standard (see Using C++ code) or be tested under all of C++11, C++98 and C++14.
(Specifying C++14 will limit portability.)
Note that the ‘TR1’ C++ extensions are not part of any of these standards and the <tr1/name> headers are not
supplied by some of the compilers used for R, including on macOS. (Use the C++11 versions instead.)
As noted elsewhere, the C++17 standard was finalized only recently (Dec 2017) and support for it is patchy or
absent on several platforms used for R. So portable code should not require C++17 (let alone C++20).
A common error is to assume recent versions of compilers or OSes. In production environments ‘long term
support’ versions of OSes may be in use for many years,93 and their compilers may not be updated during that
time. For example, GCC 4.8 was still in use in 2021 and could be (in RHEL 7) until 2028: that supports neither
C++14 nor C++17.
The POSIX standards only require recently-defined functions to be declared if certain macros are defined with
large enough values, and on some compiler/OS combinations94 they are not declared otherwise. So you may
need to include something like one of 95
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 600

or
#ifdef __GLIBC__
# define _POSIX_C_SOURCE 200809L
#endif

before any headers. (strdup, strncasecmp and strnlen are such functions – there are several older platforms
which do not have the POSIX 2008 function strnlen.)
However, some common errors are worth pointing out here. It can be helpful to look up functions at
https://www.cplusplus.com/reference/ or https://en.cppreference.com/w/ and compare what is defined in the
various standards.
More care is needed for functions such as mallinfo which are not specified by any of these standards—
hopefully the man page on your system will tell you so. Searching online for such pages for various OSes
(preferably at least Linux, macOS and Solaris, and the FreeBSD manual pages at
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi allow you to select many OSes96) should reveal useful information but a
configure script is likely to be needed to check availability and functionality.

Both the compiler and OS (via system header files, which may differ by architecture even for nominally the
same OS) affect the compilability of C/C++ code. Compilers from the GCC, clang, Intel and Oracle Developer
Studio suites are routinely used with R, and both clang and Oracle have more than one implementation of C++
headers and library. The range of possibilities makes comprehensive empirical checking impossible, and
regrettably compilers are patchy at best on warning about non-standard code.
Mathematical functions such as sqrt are defined in C++11 for floating-point arguments: float, double,
long double and possibly more. The standard specifies what happens with an argument of integer type but
this is not always implemented, resulting in a report of ‘overloading ambiguity’: this is commonly seen on
Solaris, but for pow also seen on macOS (and other platforms using clang++).
A not-uncommonly-seen problem is to mistakenly call floor(x/y) or ceil(x/y) for int arguments x and y.
Since x/y does integer division, the result is of type int and ‘overloading ambiguity’ may be reported.
Some people have (pointlessly) called floor and ceil on arguments of integer type, which may have an
‘overloading ambiguity’.
A surprising common misuse is things like pow(10, -3): this should be the constant 1e-3. Note that there
are constants such as M_SQRT2 defined in Rmath.h97 for sqrt(2.0), frequently mis-coded as sqrt(2).
Function fabs is defined only for floating-point types, except in C++11 which has overloads for std::fabs
in <cmath> for integer types. Function abs is defined in C99’s <stdlib.h> for int and in C++’s <cstdlib>
for integer types, overloaded in <cmath> for floating-point types. C++11 has additional overloads for
std::abs in <cmath> for integer types. The effect of calling abs with a floating-point type is
implementation-specific: it may truncate to an integer. For clarity and to avoid compiler warnings, use abs
for integer types and fabs for double values, and when using C++11 include <cmath> and use the std::
prefix.
It is an error (and make little sense, although has been seen) to call macros/functions isnan, isinf and
isfinite for integer arguments: a few compilers give a compilation error. Function finite is obsolete, and
some compilers will warn about its use.
The GNU C/C++ compilers support a large number of non-portable extensions. For example, INFINITY
(which is a float value in C99 and C++11), for which R provides the portable double value R_PosInf (and
R_NegInf for -INFINITY). And NAN98 is just one NaN float value: for use with R, NA_REAL is often what is
intended, but R_NaN is also available.
Some (but not all) extensions are listed at https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-Extensions.html and
https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C_002b_002b-Extensions.html.
Other GNU extensions which have bitten package writers are the use of non-portable characters such as
‘$’ in identifiers and use of C++ headers under ext.
The GNU Fortran compiler also supports a large number of non-portable extensions, the most commonly
encountered one being ISNAN99. Some are listed at https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gfortran/Extensions-
implemented-in-GNU-Fortran.html. One that frequently catches package writers is that it allows out-of-
order declarations: in standard-conformant Fortran variables must be declared (explicitly or implicitly)
before use in other declarations such as dimensions.
GNU Fortran 10 and later give a compilation error for the previously widespread practice of passing a
Fortran array element where an array is expected, or a scalar instead of a length-one array. See
https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-10/porting_to.html.
Including C-style headers in C++ code is not portable. Including the legacy header100 math.h in C++ code
may conflict with cmath which may be included by other headers. In C++11, functions like sqrt and isnan
are defined for double arguments in math.h and for a range of types including double in cmath. Similar
issues have been seen for stdlib.h and cstdlib. Including the C++ header first used to be a sufficient
workaround but for some 2016 compilers only one could be included.
Be careful to include the headers which define the functions you use. Some compilers/OSes include other
system headers in their headers which are not required by the standards, and so code may compile on such
systems and not on others. (A prominent example is the C++ header <random> which is indirectly included
by <algorithm> by g++. Another issue is the C header <time.h> which is included by other headers on
Linux and Windows but not macOS nor Solaris.) g++ 11 often needs explicit inclusion of the C++ headers
<limits> (for numeric_limits) or <exception> (for set_terminate and similar), whereas earlier versions
included these in other headers.
Note that malloc, calloc, realloc and free are defined by C99 in the header stdlib.h and (in the std::
namespace) by C++ header cstdlib. Some earlier implementations used a header malloc.h, but that is not
portable and does not exist on macOS.
This also applies to types such as ssize_t. The POSIX standards say that is declared in headers unistd.h
and sys/types.h, and the latter is often included indirectly by other headers on some but not all systems.
Similarly for constants: for example SIZE_MAX is defined in stdint.h alongside size_t.
Some headers are not portable: we have just mentioned malloc.h and often CRAN submissions attempt to
use endian.h. The latter is a glibc extension: some OSs have machine/endian.h or sys/endian.h but some
have neither.
Use #include "my.h" not #include <my.h> for headers in your package. The second form is intended for
system headers and the search order for such headers is platform-dependent (and may not include the
current directory). For extra safety, name headers in a way that cannot be confused with a system header
so not, for example, types.h.
For C++ code, be careful to specify namespaces where needed. Many functions are defined by the
standards to be in the std namespace, but g++ puts many such also in the C++ main namespace. One way
to do so is to use declarations such as
using std::floor;
but it is usually preferable to use explicit namespace prefixes in the code.
Examples seen in CRAN packages include
abs acos atan bind calloc ceil div exp fabs floor fmod free log malloc
memcpy memset pow printf qsort round sin sprintf sqrt strcmp strcpy
strerror strlen strncmp strtol tan trunc

This problem is less common than it used to be, but in 2019 clang did not have bind in the main
namespace. Also seen has been type size_t defined only in the std namespace.
Some C++ compilers refuse to compile constructs such as
if(ptr > 0) { ....}

which compares a pointer to the integer 0. This could just use if(ptr) (pointer addresses cannot be
negative) but if needed pointers can be tested against nullptr (C++11) or NULL.
Macros defined by the compiler/OS can cause problems. Identifiers starting with an underscore followed
by an upper-case letter or another underscore are reserved for system macros and should not be used in
portable code (including not as guards in C/C++ headers). Other macros, typically upper-case, may be
defined by the compiler or system headers and can cause problems. The most common issue involves the
names of the Intel CPU registers such as CS, DS, ES, FS, GS and SS (and more with longer abbreviations101)
defined on i586/x64 Solaris in <sys/regset.h> and often included indirectly by <stdlib.h> and other core
headers. Further examples are ERR, VERSION, LITTLE_ENDIAN, zero and I (which is defined in Solaris’
<complex.h> as a compiler intrinsic for the imaginary unit). Some of these can be avoided by defining
_POSIX_C_SOURCE before including any system headers, but it is better to only use all-upper-case names
which have a unique prefix such as the package name.
typedefs in OS headers can conflict with those in the package: examples include ulong on several OSes,
index_t and single on Solaris and thread using clang++ from version 9. (Note that these may conflict
with other uses as identifiers, e.g. defining a C++ function called single.) The POSIX standard reserves
(in §2.2.2) all identifiers ending in _t.
Some compilers do not allow a space between -D and the macro to be defined. Similarly for -U.
If you use OpenMP, check carefully that you have followed the advice in the subsection on OpenMP
support. In particular, any use of OpenMP in C/C++ code will need to use
#ifdef _OPENMP
# include <omp.h>
#endif

Any use of OpenMP functions, e.g. omp_set_num_threads, also needs to be conditioned. To avoid incessant
warnings such as
warning: ignoring #pragma omp parallel [-Wunknown-pragmas]

uses of such pragmas should also be conditioned (or commented out if they are used in code in a package
not enabling OpenMP on any platform).
Do not hardcode -lgomp: not only is that specific to the GCC family of compilers, using the correct linker
flag often sets up the run-time path to the library.
Package authors commonly assume things are part of C/C++ when they are not: the most common
example is POSIX function strdup. The most common C library on Linux, glibc, will hide the
declarations of such extensions unless a ‘feature-test macro’ is defined before (almost) any system header
is included. So for strdup you need
#define _POSIX_C_SOURCE 200809L
...
#include <string.h>
...
strdup call(s)

where the appropriate value can be found by man strdup on Linux. (Use of strncasecmp is similar.)
However, modes of gcc with ‘GNU EXTENSIONS’ (which are the default, either -std=gnu99 or -
std=gnu11) declare enough macros to ensure that missing declarations are rarely seen.
This applies also to constants such as M_PI and M_LN2, which are part of the X/Open standard: to use these
define _XOPEN_SOURCE before including any headers, or include the R header Rmath.h.
Using alloca portably is tricky: it is neither an ISO C/C++ nor a POSIX function. An adequately portable
preamble is
#ifdef __GNUC__
/* Includes GCC, clang and Intel compilers */
# undef alloca
# define alloca(x) __builtin_alloca((x))
#elif defined(__sun) || defined(_AIX)
/* this is necessary (and sufficient) for Solaris 10 and AIX 6: */
# include <alloca.h>
#endif

Compiler writers feel free to implement features from later standards than the one specified, so for
example they may implement or warn on C++14/17/20 features. Portable code will not use such features –
it can be hard to know what they are but the most common warnings are
'register' storage class specifier is deprecated and incompatible with C++17

ISO C++11 does not allow conversion from string literal to ‘char *’

(where conversion should be to const char *). Keyword register was not mentioned in C++98,
deprecated in C++11 and removed in C++17.
There are quite a lot of other C++98 features deprecated in C++11 and removed in C++17, and clang 9
and later warn about them. Examples include bind1st/bind2nd (use std::bind or lambdas102)
std::auto_ptr (replaced by std::unique_ptr), std:;mem_fun_ref and std::ptr_fun.

Be careful about including C headers in C++ code. Issues include

Use of the register storage class specifier (see the previous item).
The C99 keyword restrict is not part of103 any C++ standard and is rejected by some C++
compilers.
Inclusion by such headers of C-style headers such as math.h (see above).
The most portable way to interface to other software with a C API is to use C code (which can normally
be mixed with C++ code in a package).
reinterpret_cast in C++ is not safe for pointers: for example the types may have different alignment
requirements. Use memcpy to copy the contents to a fresh variable of the destination type.
Avoid platform-specific code if at all possible, but if you need to test for a platform ensure that all
platforms are covered. For example, __unix__ is not defined on all Unix-alikes, in particular not on
macOS. A reasonably portable way to condition code for a Unix-alike is
#if defined (__unix__) || (defined (__APPLE__) && defined (__MACH__))
#endif

but
#ifdef _WIN32
// Windows-specific code
#else
// Unix-alike code
#endif

would be better. For a Unix-alike it is much better to use configure to test for the functionality needed
than make assumptions about OSes (and people all too frequently forget R is used on platforms other than
Linux, Windows and macOS — and some forget macOS).
Headers in subdirectories are often not portable. For C++, this includes bits/, tr1/ and tr2/, none of
which exist on macOS (and ext/ exists there but with different content from g++-based platforms). Header
bits/stdc++.h is both not portable and not recommended for end-user code even on platforms which
include it.
Be careful if using malloc or calloc. First, their return value must always be checked to see if the
allocation succeeded – it is almost always easier to use R’s Calloc, which does check. Second, the first
 argument is of type size_t and recent compilers are warning about passing signed arguments (which
could get promoted to ridiculously large values).
Some additional information for C++ is available at https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2011-2/RJournal_2011-
2_Plummer.pdf by Martyn Plummer.
Common symbols

Previous: Portable C and C++ code, Up: Portable C and C++ code [Contents][Index]

1.6.4.1 Common symbols

Most OSes (including all those commonly used for R) have the concept of ‘tentative definitions’ where global C
variables are defined without an initializer. Traditionally the linker resolves all tentative definitions of the same
variable in different object files to the same object, or to a non-tentative definition. However, gcc 10104 and
LLVM clang 11105 have changed their default so that tentative definitions cannot be merged and the linker will
give an error if the same variable is defined in more than one object file. To avoid this, all but one of the C
source files should declare the variable extern — which means that any such variables included in header files
need to be declared extern. A commonly used idiom (including by R itself) is to define all global variables as
extern in a header, say globals.h (and nowhere else), and then in one (and one only) source file use

#define extern
# include "globals.h"
#undef extern

A cleaner approach is not to have global variables at all, but to place in a single file common variables (declared
static) followed by all the functions which make use of them: this may result in more efficient code.

The ‘modern’ behaviour can be seen106 by using compiler flag -fno-common as part of ‘CFLAGS’ in earlier
versions of gcc and clang.
-fno-common is said to be particularly beneficial for ARM cpus.
This is not pertinent to C++ which does not permit tentative definitions.

Previous: Portable C and C++ code, Up: Writing portable packages [Contents][Index]

1.6.5 Binary distribution

If you want to distribute a binary version of a package on Windows or macOS, there are further checks you need
to do to check it is portable: it is all too easy to depend on external software on your own machine that other
users will not have.
For Windows, check what other DLLs your package’s DLL depends on (‘imports’ from in the DLL tools’
parlance). A convenient GUI-based tool to do so is ‘Dependency Walker’ (https://www.dependencywalker.com/)
for both 32-bit and 64-bit DLLs – note that this will report as missing links to R’s own DLLs such as R.dll and
Rblas.dll. The command-line tool objdump in the appropriate toolchain will also reveal what DLLs are imported
from. If you use a toolchain other than one provided by the R developers or use your own makefiles, watch out
in particular for dependencies on the toolchain’s runtime DLLs such as libgfortran, libstdc++ and libgcc_s.
For macOS, using R CMD otool -L on the package’s shared object(s) in the libs directory will show what they
depend on: watch for any dependencies in /usr/local/lib or /usr/local/gfortran/lib, notably
libgfortran.?.dylib and libquadmath.0.dylib. (For ways to fix these, see Building binary-packages in R
Installation and Administration.)
Many people (including the CRAN package repository) will not accept source packages containing binary files
as the latter are a security risk. If you want to distribute a source package which needs external software on
Windows or macOS, options include
To arrange for installation of the package to download the additional software from a URL, as e.g.
package Cairo does.
(For CRAN.) To negotiate with Uwe Ligges to host the additional components on WinBuilder, and write a
configure.win file to install them.
Be aware that license requirements you may require you to supply the sources for the additional components
(and will if your package has a GPL-like license).

Next: Internationalization, Previous: Writing portable packages, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.7 Diagnostic messages

Diagnostic messages can be made available for translation, so it is important to write them in a consistent style.
Using the tools described in the next section to extract all the messages can give a useful overview of your
consistency (or lack of it). Some guidelines follow.
Messages are sentence fragments, and not viewed in isolation. So it is conventional not to capitalize the
first word and not to end with a period (or other punctuation).
Try not to split up messages into small pieces. In C error messages use a single format string containing
all English words in the messages.
In R error messages do not construct a message with paste (such messages will not be translated) but via
multiple arguments to stop or warning, or via gettextf.
Do not use colloquialisms such as “can’t” and “don’t”.
Conventionally single quotation marks are used for quotations such as
'ord' must be a positive integer, at most the number of knots

and double quotation marks when referring to an R character string or a class, such as
'format' must be "normal" or "short" - using "normal"

Since ASCII does not contain directional quotation marks, it is best to use ‘'’ and let the translator
(including automatic translation) use directional quotations where available. The range of quotation styles
is immense: unfortunately we cannot reproduce them in a portable texinfo document. But as a taster,
some languages use ‘up’ and ‘down’ (comma) quotes rather than left or right quotes, and some use
guillemets (and some use what Adobe calls ‘guillemotleft’ to start and others use it to end).
In R messages it is also possible to use sQuote or dQuote as in
stop(gettextf("object must be of class %s or %s",
dQuote("manova"), dQuote("maov")),
domain = NA)

Occasionally messages need to be singular or plural (and in other languages there may be no such concept
or several plural forms – Slovenian has four). So avoid constructions such as was once used in library
if((length(nopkgs) > 0) && !missing(lib.loc)) {
if(length(nopkgs) > 1)
warning("libraries ",
paste(sQuote(nopkgs), collapse = ", "),
" contain no packages")
else
warning("library ", paste(sQuote(nopkgs)),
" contains no package")
}

and was replaced by

if((length(nopkgs) > 0) && !missing(lib.loc)) {
pkglist <- paste(sQuote(nopkgs), collapse = ", ")
msg <- sprintf(ngettext(length(nopkgs),
"library %s contains no packages",
"libraries %s contain no packages",
domain = "R-base"),
pkglist)
warning(msg, domain=NA)
}

Note that it is much better to have complete clauses as here, since in another language one might need to
say ‘There is no package in library %s’ or ‘There are no packages in libraries %s’.
Next: CITATION files, Previous: Diagnostic messages, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.8 Internationalization

There are mechanisms to translate the R- and C-level error and warning messages. There are only available if R
is compiled with NLS support (which is requested by configure option --enable-nls, the default).
The procedures make use of msgfmt and xgettext which are part of GNU gettext and this will need to be
installed: Windows users can find pre-compiled binaries at
https://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/Rtools/goodies/gettext-tools.zip.
C-level messages
R messages
Preparing translations

Next: R messages, Previous: Internationalization, Up: Internationalization [Contents][Index]

1.8.1 C-level messages

The process of enabling translations is

In a header file that will be included in all the C (or C++ or Objective C/C++) files containing messages
that should be translated, declare
#include <R.h> /* to include Rconfig.h */

#ifdef ENABLE_NLS
#include <libintl.h>
#define _(String) dgettext ("pkg", String)
/* replace pkg as appropriate */
#else
#define _(String) (String)
#endif

For each message that should be translated, wrap it in _(...), for example
error(_("'ord' must be a positive integer"));

If you want to use different messages for singular and plural forms, you need to add
#ifndef ENABLE_NLS
#define dngettext(pkg, String, StringP, N) (N == 1 ? String : StringP)
#endif

and mark strings by

dngettext("pkg", <singular string>, <plural string>, n)

In the package’s src directory run

xgettext --keyword=_ -o pkg.pot *.c

The file src/pkg.pot is the template file, and conventionally this is shipped as po/pkg.pot.

Next: Preparing translations, Previous: C-level messages, Up: Internationalization [Contents][Index]

1.8.2 R messages

Mechanisms are also available to support the automatic translation of R stop, warning and message messages.
They make use of message catalogs in the same way as C-level messages, but using domain R-pkg rather than
pkg. Translation of character strings inside stop, warning and message calls is automatically enabled, as well as
other messages enclosed in calls to gettext or gettextf. (To suppress this, use argument domain=NA.)
Tools to prepare the R-pkg.pot file are provided in package tools: xgettext2pot will prepare a file from all
strings occurring inside gettext/gettextf, stop, warning and message calls. Some of these are likely to be
spurious and so the file is likely to need manual editing. xgettext extracts the actual calls and so is more useful
when tidying up error messages.
The R function ngettext provides an interface to the C function of the same name: see example in the previous
section. It is safest to use domain="R-pkg" explicitly in calls to ngettext, and necessary for earlier versions of R
unless they are calls directly from a function in the package.

Previous: R messages, Up: Internationalization [Contents][Index]

1.8.3 Preparing translations

Once the template files have been created, translations can be made. Conventional translations have file
extension .po and are placed in the po subdirectory of the package with a name that is either ‘ll.po’ or ‘R-ll.po’
for translations of the C and R messages respectively to language with code ‘ll’.
See Localization of messages in R Installation and Administration, for details of language codes.
There is an R function, update_pkg_po in package tools, to automate much of the maintenance of message
translations. See its help for what it does in detail.
If this is called on a package with no existing translations, it creates the directory pkgdir/po, creates a template
file of R messages, pkgdir/po/R-pkg.pot, within it, creates the ‘en@quot’ translation and installs that. (The
‘en@quot’ pseudo-language interprets quotes in their directional forms in suitable (e.g. UTF-8) locales.)
If the package has C source files in its src directory that are marked for translation, use
touch pkgdir/po/pkg.pot

to create a dummy template file, then call update_pkg_po again (this can also be done before it is called for the
first time).
When translations to new languages are added in the pkgdir/po directory, running the same command will check
and then install the translations.
If the package sources are updated, the same command will update the template files, merge the changes into the
translation .po files and then installed the updated translations. You will often see that merging marks
translations as ‘fuzzy’ and this is reported in the coverage statistics. As fuzzy translations are not used, this is an
indication that the translation files need human attention.
The merged translations are run through tools::checkPofile to check that C-style formats are used correctly: if
not the mismatches are reported and the broken translations are not installed.
This function needs the GNU gettext-tools installed and on the path: see its help page.

Next: Package types, Previous: Internationalization, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.9 CITATION files

An installed file named CITATION will be used by the citation() function. (It should be in the inst subdirectory
of the package sources.)
The CITATION file is parsed as R code (in the package’s declared encoding, or in ASCII if none is declared). It
will contain calls to function bibentry. Here is that for nlme:
## R package reference generated from DESCRIPTION metadata
citation(auto = meta)

## NLME book
bibentry(bibtype = "Book",
title = "Mixed-Effects Models in S and S-PLUS",
author = c(person(c("José", "C."), "Pinheiro"),
person(c("Douglas", "M."), "Bates")),
year = "2000", publisher = "Springer", address = "New York",
doi = "10.1007/b98882")

Note how the first call auto-generates citation information from object meta, a parsed version of the DESCRIPTION
file – it is tempting to hardcode such information, but it normally then gets outdated. How the first entry would
look like as a bibentry call can be seen from print(citation("pkgname", auto = TRUE), style = "R") for any
installed package. Auto-generated information is returned by default if no CITATION file is present.
See ?bibentry for further details of the information which can be provided. In case a bibentry contains LaTeX
markup (e.g., for accented characters or mathematical symbols), it may be necessary to provide a text
representation to be used for printing via the textVersion argument to bibentry. E.g., earlier versions of nlme
additionally used something like
textVersion =
paste0("Jose Pinheiro, Douglas Bates, Saikat DebRoy, ",
"Deepayan Sarkar and the R Core Team (",
sub("-.*", "", meta$Date),
"). nlme: Linear and Nonlinear Mixed Effects Models. ",
sprintf("R package version %s", meta$Version), ".")

The CITATION file should itself produce no output when source-d.

It is desirable (and essential for CRAN) that the CITATION file does not contain calls to functions such as
packageDescription which assume the package is installed in a library tree on the package search path.

Next: Services, Previous: CITATION files, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.10 Package types

The DESCRIPTION file has an optional field Type which if missing is assumed to be ‘Package’, the sort of extension
discussed so far in this chapter. Currently one other type is recognized; there used also to be a ‘Translation’
type.
Frontend

Previous: Package types, Up: Package types [Contents][Index]

1.10.1 Frontend

This is a rather general mechanism, designed for adding new front-ends such as the former gnomeGUI package
(see the Archive area on CRAN). If a configure file is found in the top-level directory of the package it is
executed, and then if a Makefile is found (often generated by configure), make is called. If R CMD INSTALL --
clean is used make clean is called. No other action is taken.
R CMD build can package up this type of extension, but R CMD check will check the type and skip it.
Many packages of this type need write permission for the R installation directory.

Previous: Package types, Up: Creating R packages [Contents][Index]

1.11 Services

Several members of the R project have set up services to assist those writing R packages, particularly those
intended for public distribution.
win-builder.r-project.org offers the automated preparation of (32/64-bit) Windows binaries from well-tested
source packages.
R-Forge (R-Forge.r-project.org) and RForge (www.rforge.net) are similar services with similar names. Both
provide source-code management through SVN, daily building and checking, mailing lists and a repository that
can be accessed via install.packages (they can be selected by setRepositories and the GUI menus that use it).
Package developers have the opportunity to present their work on the basis of project websites or news
announcements. Mailing lists, forums or wikis provide useRs with convenient instruments for discussions and
for exchanging information between developers and/or interested useRs.

Next: Tidying and profiling R code, Previous: Creating R packages, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents]
[Index]

2 Writing R documentation files

 Rd format
Sectioning
Marking text
Lists and tables
Cross-references
Mathematics
Figures
Insertions
Indices
Platform-specific documentation
Conditional text
Dynamic pages
User-defined macros
Encoding
Processing documentation files
Editing Rd files

Next: Sectioning, Previous: Writing R documentation files, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents]
[Index]

2.1 Rd format

R objects are documented in files written in “R documentation” (Rd) format, a simple markup language much of
which closely resembles (La)TeX, which can be processed into a variety of formats, including LaTeX, HTML
and plain text. The translation is carried out by functions in the tools package called by the script Rdconv in
R_HOME/bin and by the installation scripts for packages.
The R distribution contains more than 1300 such files which can be found in the src/library/pkg/man
directories of the R source tree, where pkg stands for one of the standard packages which are included in the R
distribution.
As an example, let us look at a simplified version of src/library/base/man/load.Rd which documents the R
function load.

% File src/library/base/man/load.Rd
\name{load}
\alias{load}
\title{Reload Saved Datasets}
\description{
Reload the datasets written to a file with the function
\code{save}.
}
\usage{
load(file, envir = parent.frame())
}
\arguments{
\item{file}{a connection or a character string giving the
name of the file to load.}
\item{envir}{the environment where the data should be
loaded.}
}
\seealso{
\code{\link{save}}.
}
\examples{
## save all data
save(list = ls(), file= "all.RData")

## restore the saved values to the current environment

load("all.RData")

## restore the saved values to the workspace

 load("all.RData", .GlobalEnv)
}
\keyword{file}

An Rd file consists of three parts. The header gives basic information about the name of the file, the topics
documented, a title, a short textual description and R usage information for the objects documented. The body
gives further information (for example, on the function’s arguments and return value, as in the above example).
Finally, there is an optional footer with keyword information. The header is mandatory.
Information is given within a series of sections with standard names (and user-defined sections are also
allowed). Unless otherwise specified107 these should occur only once in an Rd file (in any order), and the
processing software will retain only the first occurrence of a standard section in the file, with a warning.
See “Guidelines for Rd files” for guidelines for writing documentation in Rd format which should be useful for
package writers. The R generic function prompt is used to construct a bare-bones Rd file ready for manual
editing. Methods are defined for documenting functions (which fill in the proper function and argument names)
and data frames. There are also functions promptData, promptPackage, promptClass, and promptMethods for other
types of Rd file.
The general syntax of Rd files is summarized below. For a detailed technical discussion of current Rd syntax, see
“Parsing Rd files”.
Rd files consist of four types of text input. The most common is LaTeX-like, with the backslash used as a prefix
on markup (e.g. \alias), and braces used to indicate arguments (e.g. {load}). The least common type of text is
‘verbatim’ text, where no markup other than the comment marker (%) is processed. There is also a rare variant of
‘verbatim’ text (used in \eqn, \deqn, \figure, and \newcommand) where comment markers need not be escaped.
The final type is R-like, intended for R code, but allowing some embedded macros. Quoted strings within R-like
text are handled specially: regular character escapes such as \n may be entered as-is. Only markup starting with
\l (e.g. \link) or \v (e.g. \var) will be recognized within quoted strings. The rarely used vertical tab \v must be
entered as \\v.
Each macro defines the input type for its argument. For example, the file initially uses LaTeX-like syntax, and
this is also used in the \description section, but the \usage section uses R-like syntax, and the \alias macro
uses ‘verbatim’ syntax. Comments run from a percent symbol % to the end of the line in all types of text except
the rare ‘verbatim’ variant (as on the first line of the load example).
Because backslashes, braces and percent symbols have special meaning, to enter them into text sometimes
requires escapes using a backslash. In general balanced braces do not need to be escaped, but percent symbols
always do, except in the ‘verbatim’ variant. For the complete list of macros and rules for escapes, see “Parsing
Rd files”.
Documenting functions
Documenting data sets
Documenting S4 classes and methods
Documenting packages

Next: Documenting data sets, Previous: Rd format, Up: Rd format [Contents][Index]

2.1.1 Documenting functions

The basic markup commands used for documenting R objects (in particular, functions) are given in this
subsection.

\name{name}
name typically108 is the basename of the Rd file containing the documentation. It is the “name” of the Rd
object represented by the file and has to be unique in a package. To avoid problems with indexing the
package manual, it may not contain ‘!’ ‘|’ nor ‘@’, and to avoid possible problems with the HTML help
system it should not contain ‘/’ nor a space. (LaTeX special characters are allowed, but may not be
collated correctly in the index.) There can only be one \name entry in a file, and it must not contain any
markup. Entries in the package manual will be in alphabetic109 order of the \name entries.
\alias{topic}
 The \alias sections specify all “topics” the file documents. This information is collected into index data
bases for lookup by the on-line (plain text and HTML) help systems. The topic can contain spaces, but
(for historical reasons) leading and trailing spaces will be stripped. Percent and left brace need to be
escaped by a backslash.
There may be several \alias entries. Quite often it is convenient to document several R objects in one file.
For example, file Normal.Rd documents the density, distribution function, quantile function and generation
of random variates for the normal distribution, and hence starts with
\name{Normal}
\alias{Normal}
\alias{dnorm}
\alias{pnorm}
\alias{qnorm}
\alias{rnorm}

Also, it is often convenient to have several different ways to refer to an R object, and an \alias does not
need to be the name of an object.
Note that the \name is not necessarily a topic documented, and if so desired it needs to have an explicit
\alias entry (as in this example).
\title{Title}
Title information for the Rd file. This should be capitalized and not end in a period; try to limit its length to
at most 65 characters for widest compatibility.
Markup is supported in the text, but use of characters other than English text and punctuation (e.g., ‘<’)
may limit portability.
There must be one (and only one) \title section in a help file.
\description{…}
A short description of what the function(s) do(es) (one paragraph, a few lines only). (If a description is too
long and cannot easily be shortened, the file probably tries to document too much at once.) This is
mandatory except for package-overview files.
\usage{fun(arg1, arg2, …)}
One or more lines showing the synopsis of the function(s) and variables documented in the file. These are
set in typewriter font. This is an R-like command.
The usage information specified should match the function definition exactly (such that automatic
checking for consistency between code and documentation is possible).
To indicate that a function can be used in several different ways, depending on the named arguments
specified, use section \details. E.g., abline.Rd contains
\details{
Typical usages are
\preformatted{abline(a, b, ...)
......
}

Use \method{generic}{class} to indicate the name of an S3 method for the generic function generic for
objects inheriting from class "class". In the printed versions, this will come out as generic (reflecting the
understanding that methods should not be invoked directly but via method dispatch), but codoc() and
other QC tools always have access to the full name.
For example, print.ts.Rd contains
\usage{
\method{print}{ts}(x, calendar, \dots)
}

which will print as

Usage:

## S3 method for class ‘ts’:

print(x, calendar, ...)
 Usage for replacement functions should be given in the style of dim(x) <- value rather than explicitly
indicating the name of the replacement function ("dim<-" in the above). Similarly, one can use
\method{generic}{class}(arglist) <- value to indicate the usage of an S3 replacement method for the
generic replacement function "generic<-" for objects inheriting from class "class".
Usage for S3 methods for extracting or replacing parts of an object, S3 methods for members of the Ops
group, and S3 methods for user-defined (binary) infix operators (‘%xxx%’) follows the above rules, using
the appropriate function names. E.g., Extract.factor.Rd contains
\usage{
\method{[}{factor}(x, \dots, drop = FALSE)
\method{[[}{factor}(x, \dots)
\method{[}{factor}(x, \dots) <- value
}

which will print as

Usage:

## S3 method for class ‘factor’:

x[..., drop = FALSE]
## S3 method for class ‘factor’:
x[[...]]
## S3 replacement method for class ‘factor’:
x[...] <- value

\S3method is accepted as an alternative to \method.

\arguments{…}
Description of the function’s arguments, using an entry of the form
\item{arg_i}{Description of arg_i.}

for each element of the argument list. (Note that there is no whitespace between the three parts of the
entry.) There may be optional text outside the \item entries, for example to give general information about
groups of parameters.
\details{…}
A detailed if possible precise description of the functionality provided, extending the basic information in
the \description slot.
\value{…}
Description of the function’s return value.
If a list with multiple values is returned, you can use entries of the form
\item{comp_i}{Description of comp_i.}

for each component of the list returned. Optional text may precede110 this list (see for example the help
for rle). Note that \value is implicitly a \describe environment, so that environment should not be used
for listing components, just individual \item{}{} entries.
\references{…}
A section with references to the literature. Use \url{} or \href{}{} for web pointers, and \doi{} for DOIs
(this needs R >= 3.3, see User-defined macros for more info).
\note{...}
Use this for a special note you want to have pointed out. Multiple \note sections are allowed, but might be
confusing to the end users.
For example, pie.Rd contains
\note{
Pie charts are a very bad way of displaying information.
The eye is good at judging linear measures and bad at
judging relative areas.
......
}
\author{…}
Information about the author(s) of the Rd file. Use \email{} without extra delimiters (such as ‘( )’ or ‘<
>’) to specify email addresses, or \url{} or \href{}{} for web pointers.
\seealso{…}
Pointers to related R objects, using \code{\link{...}} to refer to them (\code is the correct markup for R
object names, and \link produces hyperlinks in output formats which support this. See Marking text, and
Cross-references).
\examples{…}
Examples of how to use the function. Code in this section is set in typewriter font without reformatting
and is run by example() unless marked otherwise (see below).
Examples are not only useful for documentation purposes, but also provide test code used for diagnostic
checking of R code. By default, text inside \examples{} will be displayed in the output of the help page
and run by example() and by R CMD check. You can use \dontrun{} for text that should only be shown, but
not run, and \dontshow{} for extra commands for testing that should not be shown to users, but will be run
by example(). (Previously this was called \testonly, and that is still accepted.)
Text inside \dontrun{} is ‘verbatim’, but the other parts of the \examples section are R-like text.
For example,
x <- runif(10) # Shown and run.
\dontrun{plot(x)} # Only shown.
\dontshow{log(x)} # Only run.
Thus, example code not included in \dontrun must be executable! In addition, it should not use any
system-specific features or require special facilities (such as Internet access or write permission to specific
directories). Text included in \dontrun is indicated by comments in the processed help files: it need not be
valid R code but the escapes must still be used for %, \ and unpaired braces as in other ‘verbatim’ text.
Example code must be capable of being run by example, which uses source. This means that it should not
access stdin, e.g. to scan() data from the example file.
Data needed for making the examples executable can be obtained by random number generation (for
example, x <- rnorm(100)), or by using standard data sets listed by data() (see ?data for more info).
Finally, there is \donttest, used (at the beginning of a separate line) to mark code that should be run by
example() but not by R CMD check (by default: the option --run-donttest can be used). This should be
needed only occasionally but can be used for code which might fail in circumstances that are hard to test
for, for example in some locales. (Use e.g. capabilities() or nzchar(Sys.which("someprogram")) to test
for features needed in the examples wherever possible, and you can also use try() or tryCatch(). Use
interactive() to condition examples which need someone to interact with.) Note that code included in
\donttest must be correct R code, and any packages used should be declared in the DESCRIPTION file. It is
good practice to include a comment in the \donttest section explaining why it is needed.
Output from code between comments
## IGNORE_RDIFF_BEGIN
## IGNORE_RDIFF_END

is ignored when comparing check output to reference output (a -Ex.Rout.save file). This markup can also
be used for scripts under tests.
\keyword{key}
There can be zero or more \keyword sections per file. Each \keyword section should specify a single
keyword, preferably one of the standard keywords as listed in file KEYWORDS in the R documentation
directory (default R_HOME/doc). Use e.g. RShowDoc("KEYWORDS") to inspect the standard keywords from
within R. There can be more than one \keyword entry if the R object being documented falls into more
than one category, or none.
Do strongly consider using \concept (see Indices) instead of \keyword if you are about to use more than
very few non-standard keywords.
 The special keyword ‘internal’ marks a page of internal objects that are not part of the package’s API. If
the help page for object foo has keyword ‘internal’, then help(foo) gives this help page, but foo is
excluded from several object indices, including the alphabetical list of objects in the HTML help system.
help.search()can search by keyword, including user-defined values: however the ‘Search Engine &
Keywords’ HTML page accessed via help.start() provides single-click access only to a pre-defined list
of keywords.

Next: Documenting S4 classes and methods, Previous: Documenting functions, Up: Rd format [Contents]
[Index]

2.1.2 Documenting data sets

The structure of Rd files which document R data sets is slightly different. Sections such as \arguments and
\value are not needed but the format and source of the data should be explained.

As an example, let us look at src/library/datasets/man/rivers.Rd which documents the standard R data set
rivers.

\name{rivers}
\docType{data}
\alias{rivers}
\title{Lengths of Major North American Rivers}
\description{
This data set gives the lengths (in miles) of 141 \dQuote{major}
rivers in North America, as compiled by the US Geological
Survey.
}
\usage{rivers}
\format{A vector containing 141 observations.}
\source{World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1975, page 406.}
\references{
McNeil, D. R. (1977) \emph{Interactive Data Analysis}.
New York: Wiley.
}
\keyword{datasets}

This uses the following additional markup commands.

\docType{…}
Indicates the “type” of the documentation object. Always ‘data’ for data sets, and ‘ package’ for pkg-
package.Rd overview files. Documentation for S4 methods and classes uses ‘methods’ (from
promptMethods()) and ‘class’ (from promptClass()).
\format{…}
A description of the format of the data set (as a vector, matrix, data frame, time series, …). For matrices
and data frames this should give a description of each column, preferably as a list or table. See Lists and
tables, for more information.
\source{…}
Details of the original source (a reference or URL, see Specifying URLs). In addition, section \references
could give secondary sources and usages.

Note also that when documenting data set bar,

The \usage entry is always bar or (for packages which do not use lazy-loading of data) data(bar). (In
particular, only document a single data object per Rd file.)
The \keyword entry should always be ‘datasets’.
If bar is a data frame, documenting it as a data set can be initiated via prompt(bar). Otherwise, the promptData
function may be used.

Next: Documenting packages, Previous: Documenting data sets, Up: Rd format [Contents][Index]
2.1.3 Documenting S4 classes and methods

There are special ways to use the ‘?’ operator, namely ‘class?topic’ and ‘methods?topic’, to access
documentation for S4 classes and methods, respectively. This mechanism depends on conventions for the topic
names used in \alias entries. The topic names for S4 classes and methods respectively are of the form
class-class
generic,signature_list-method

where signature_list contains the names of the classes in the signature of the method (without quotes) separated
by ‘,’ (without whitespace), with ‘ANY’ used for arguments without an explicit specification. E.g.,
‘genericFunction-class’ is the topic name for documentation for the S4 class "genericFunction", and
‘coerce,ANY,NULL-method’ is the topic name for documentation for the S4 method for coerce for signature
c("ANY", "NULL").

Skeletons of documentation for S4 classes and methods can be generated by using the functions promptClass()
and promptMethods() from package methods. If it is necessary or desired to provide an explicit function
declaration (in a \usage section) for an S4 method (e.g., if it has “surprising arguments” to be mentioned
explicitly), one can use the special markup
\S4method{generic}{signature_list}(argument_list)

(e.g., ‘\S4method{coerce}{ANY,NULL}(from, to)’).

To make full use of the potential of the on-line documentation system, all user-visible S4 classes and methods in
a package should at least have a suitable \alias entry in one of the package’s Rd files. If a package has methods
for a function defined originally somewhere else, and does not change the underlying default method for the
function, the package is responsible for documenting the methods it creates, but not for the function itself or the
default method.
An S4 replacement method is documented in the same way as an S3 one: see the description of \method in
Documenting functions.
See help("Documentation", package = "methods") for more information on using and creating on-line
documentation for S4 classes and methods.

Previous: Documenting S4 classes and methods, Up: Rd format [Contents][Index]

2.1.4 Documenting packages

Packages may have an overview help page with an \alias pkgname-package, e.g. ‘utils-package’ for the utils
package, when package?pkgname will open that help page. If a topic named pkgname does not exist in another Rd
file, it is helpful to use this as an additional \alias.
Skeletons of documentation for a package can be generated using the function promptPackage(). If the final =
LIBS argument is used, then the Rd file will be generated in final form, containing the information that would be
produced up to library(help = pkgname). Otherwise (the default) comments will be inserted giving suggestions
for content.
Apart from the mandatory \name and \title and the pkgname-package alias, the only requirement for the package
overview page is that it include a \docType{package} statement. All other content is optional. We suggest that it
should be a short overview, to give a reader unfamiliar with the package enough information to get started. More
extensive documentation is better placed into a package vignette (see Writing package vignettes) and referenced
from this page, or into individual man pages for the functions, datasets, or classes.

Next: Marking text, Previous: Rd format, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.2 Sectioning

To begin a new paragraph or leave a blank line in an example, just insert an empty line (as in (La)TeX). To break
a line, use \cr.
In addition to the predefined sections (such as \description{}, \value{}, etc.), you can “define” arbitrary ones
by \section{section_title}{…}. For example
 \section{Warning}{
You must not call this function unless …
}

For consistency with the pre-assigned sections, the section name (the first argument to \section) should be
capitalized (but not all upper case). Whitespace between the first and second braced expressions is not allowed.
Markup (e.g. \code) within the section title may cause problems with the latex conversion (depending on the
version of macro packages such as ‘hyperref’) and so should be avoided.
The \subsection macro takes arguments in the same format as \section, but is used within a section, so it may
be used to nest subsections within sections or other subsections. There is no predefined limit on the nesting
level, but formatting is not designed for more than 3 levels (i.e. subsections within subsections within sections).
Note that additional named sections are always inserted at a fixed position in the output (before \note, \seealso
and the examples), no matter where they appear in the input (but in the same order amongst themselves as in the
input).

Next: Lists and tables, Previous: Sectioning, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.3 Marking text

The following logical markup commands are available for emphasizing or quoting text.
\emph{text}
\strong{text}
Emphasize text using italic and bold font if possible; \strong is regarded as stronger (more emphatic).
\bold{text}
Set text in bold font where possible.
\sQuote{text}
\dQuote{text}
Portably single or double quote text (without hard-wiring the characters used for quotation marks).

Each of the above commands takes LaTeX-like input, so other macros may be used within text.
The following logical markup commands are available for indicating specific kinds of text. Except as noted,
these take ‘verbatim’ text input, and so other macros may not be used within them. Some characters will need to
be escaped (see Insertions).
\code{text}
Indicate text that is a literal example of a piece of an R program, e.g., a fragment of R code or the name of
an R object. Text is entered in R-like syntax, and displayed using typewriter font where possible. Macros
\var and \link are interpreted within text.
\preformatted{text}
Indicate text that is a literal example of a piece of a program. Text is displayed using typewriter font
where possible. Formatting, e.g. line breaks, is preserved. (Note that this includes a line break after the
initial {, so typically text should start on the same line as the command.)
Due to limitations in LaTeX as of this writing, this macro may not be nested within other markup macros
other than \dQuote and \sQuote, as errors or bad formatting may result.
\kbd{keyboard-characters}
Indicate keyboard input, using slanted typewriter font if possible, so users can distinguish the characters
they are supposed to type from computer output. Text is entered ‘verbatim’.
\samp{text}
Indicate text that is a literal example of a sequence of characters, entered ‘verbatim’. No wrapping or
reformatting will occur. Displayed using typewriter font where possible.
\verb{text}
Indicate text that is a literal example of a sequence of characters, with no interpretation of e.g. \var, but
which will be included within word-wrapped text. Displayed using typewriter font if possible.
\pkg{package_name}
Indicate the name of an R package. LaTeX-like.
\file{file_name}
Indicate the name of a file. Text is LaTeX-like, so backslash needs to be escaped. Displayed using a
distinct font where possible.
\email{email_address}
Indicate an electronic mail address. LaTeX-like, will be rendered as a hyperlink in HTML and PDF
conversion. Displayed using typewriter font where possible.
\url{uniform_resource_locator}
Indicate a uniform resource locator (URL) for the World Wide Web. The argument is handled as
‘verbatim’ text (with percent and braces escaped by backslash), and rendered as a hyperlink in HTML and
PDF conversion. Linefeeds are removed, and leading and trailing whitespace111 is removed. See
Specifying URLs.
Displayed using typewriter font where possible.
\href{uniform_resource_locator}{text}
Indicate a hyperlink to the World Wide Web. The first argument is handled as ‘verbatim’ text (with
percent and braces escaped by backslash) and is used as the URL in the hyperlink, with the second
argument of LaTeX-like text displayed to the user. Linefeeds are removed from the first argument, and
leading and trailing whitespace is removed.
Note that RFC3986-encoded URLs (e.g. using ‘%28VS.85%29’ in place of ‘(VS.85)’) may not work
correctly in versions of R before 3.1.3 and are best avoided—use URLdecode() to decode them.
\var{metasyntactic_variable}
Indicate a metasyntactic variable. In some cases this will be rendered distinctly, e.g. in italic, but not in
all112. LaTeX-like.
\env{environment_variable}
Indicate an environment variable. ‘Verbatim’. Displayed using typewriter font where possible
\option{option}
Indicate a command-line option. ‘Verbatim’. Displayed using typewriter font where possible.
\command{command_name}
Indicate the name of a command. LaTeX-like, so \var is interpreted. Displayed using typewriter font
where possible.
\dfn{term}
Indicate the introductory or defining use of a term. LaTeX-like.
\cite{reference}
Indicate a reference without a direct cross-reference via \link (see Cross-references), such as the name of
a book. LaTeX-like.
\acronym{acronym}
Indicate an acronym (an abbreviation written in all capital letters), such as GNU. LaTeX-like.

Next: Cross-references, Previous: Marking text, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.4 Lists and tables

The \itemize and \enumerate commands take a single argument, within which there may be one or more \item
commands. The text following each \item is formatted as one or more paragraphs, suitably indented and with
the first paragraph marked with a bullet point (\itemize) or a number (\enumerate).
Note that unlike argument lists, \item in these formats is followed by a space and the text (not enclosed in
braces). For example
\enumerate{
\item A database consists of one or more records, each with one or
 more named fields.
\item Regular lines start with a non-whitespace character.
\item Records are separated by one or more empty lines.
}

\itemize and \enumerate commands may be nested.

The \describe command is similar to \itemize but allows initial labels to be specified. Each \item takes two
arguments, the label and the body of the item, in exactly the same way as an argument or value \item. \describe
commands are mapped to <DL> lists in HTML and \description lists in LaTeX.
Using these without any \items may cause problems with some conversions and makes little sense.
The \tabular command takes two arguments. The first gives for each of the columns the required alignment (‘l’
for left-justification, ‘r’ for right-justification or ‘c’ for centring.) The second argument consists of an arbitrary
number of lines separated by \cr, and with fields separated by \tab. For example:
\tabular{rlll}{
[,1] \tab Ozone \tab numeric \tab Ozone (ppb)\cr
[,2] \tab Solar.R \tab numeric \tab Solar R (lang)\cr
[,3] \tab Wind \tab numeric \tab Wind (mph)\cr
[,4] \tab Temp \tab numeric \tab Temperature (degrees F)\cr
[,5] \tab Month \tab numeric \tab Month (1--12)\cr
[,6] \tab Day \tab numeric \tab Day of month (1--31)
}

There must be the same number of fields on each line as there are alignments in the first argument, and they
must be non-empty (but can contain only spaces). (There is no whitespace between \tabular and the first
argument, nor between the two arguments.)

Next: Mathematics, Previous: Lists and tables, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.5 Cross-references

The markup \link{foo} (usually in the combination \code{\link{foo}}) produces a hyperlink to the help for
foo. Here foo is a topic, that is the argument of \alias markup in another Rd file (possibly in another package).
Hyperlinks are supported in some of the formats to which Rd files are converted, for example HTML and PDF,
but ignored in others, e.g. the text format.
One main usage of \link is in the \seealso section of the help page, see Rd format.
Note that whereas leading and trailing spaces are stripped when extracting a topic from a \alias, they are not
stripped when looking up the topic of a \link.
You can specify a link to a different topic than its name by \link[=dest]{name} which links to topic dest with
name name. This can be used to refer to the documentation for S3/4 classes, for example \code{"\link[=abc-
class]{abc}"} would be a way to refer to the documentation of an S4 class "abc" defined in your package, and
\code{"\link[=terms.object]{terms}"} to the S3 "terms" class (in package stats). To make these easy to read
in the source file, \code{"\linkS4class{abc}"} expands to the form given above.
There are two other forms with an optional argument, specified as \link[pkg]{foo} and \link[pkg:bar]{foo}, to
link to topics foo and bar respectively in the package pkg. They are currently only used in HTML help (and
ignored for hyperlinks in LaTeX conversions of help pages). One should be careful about topics containing
special characters (such as arithmetic operators) as they may result in unresolvable links, and preferably use a
safer alias in the same help page.
Historically (before R version 4.1.0), links of the form \link[pkg]{foo} and \link[pkg:bar]{foo} used to be
interpreted as links to files foo.html and bar.html in package pkg, respectively. For this reason, the HTML help
system looks for file foo.html in package pkg if it does not find topic foo, and then searches for the topic in
other installed packages. To test that links work both with both old and new systems, the pre-4.1.0 behaviour can
be restored by setting the environment variable _R_HELP_LINKS_TO_TOPICS_=false.
Packages referred to by these ‘other forms’ should be declared in the DESCRIPTION file, in the ‘Depends’,
‘Imports’, ‘Suggests’ or ‘Enhances’ fields.

Next: Figures, Previous: Cross-references, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.6 Mathematics

Mathematical formulae should be set beautifully for printed documentation yet we still want something useful
for text and HTML online help. To this end, the two commands \eqn{latex}{ascii} and \deqn{latex}{ascii}
are used. Whereas \eqn is used for “inline” formulae (corresponding to TeX’s $…$), \deqn gives “displayed
equations” (as in LaTeX’s displaymath environment, or TeX’s $$…$$). Both arguments are treated as ‘verbatim’
text.
Both commands can also be used as \eqn{latexascii} (only one argument) which then is used for both latex
and ascii. No whitespace is allowed between command and the first argument, nor between the first and second
arguments.
The following example is from Poisson.Rd:
\deqn{p(x) = \frac{\lambda^x e^{-\lambda}}{x!}}{%
p(x) = \lambda^x exp(-\lambda)/x!}
for \eqn{x = 0, 1, 2, \ldots}.

For text on-line help we get

p(x) = lambda^x exp(-lambda)/x!

for x = 0, 1, 2, ....

Greek letters (both cases) will be rendered in HTML if preceded by a backslash, \dots and \ldots will be
rendered as ellipses and \sqrt, \ge and \le as mathematical symbols.
Note that only basic LaTeX can be used, there being no provision to specify LaTeX style files such as the AMS
extensions.

Next: Insertions, Previous: Mathematics, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.7 Figures

To include figures in help pages, use the \figure markup. There are three forms.
The two commonly used simple forms are \figure{filename} and \figure{filename}{alternate text}. This
will include a copy of the figure in either HTML or LaTeX output. In text output, the alternate text will be
displayed instead. (When the second argument is omitted, the filename will be used.) Both the filename and the
alternate text will be parsed verbatim, and should not include special characters that are significant in HTML or
LaTeX.
The expert form is \figure{filename}{options: string}. (The word ‘options:’ must be typed exactly as shown
and followed by at least one space.) In this form, the string is copied into the HTML img tag as attributes
following the src attribute, or into the second argument of the \Figure macro in LaTeX, which by default is used
as options to an \includegraphics call. As it is unlikely that any single string would suffice for both display
modes, the expert form would normally be wrapped in conditionals. It is up to the author to make sure that legal
HTML/LaTeX is used. For example, to include a logo in both HTML (using the simple form) and LaTeX (using
the expert form), the following could be used:
\if{html}{\figure{Rlogo.svg}{options: width=100 alt="R logo"}}
\if{latex}{\figure{Rlogo.pdf}{options: width=0.5in}}

The files containing the figures should be stored in the directory man/figures. Files with extensions .jpg, .jpeg,
.pdf, .png and .svg from that directory will be copied to the help/figures directory at install time. (Figures in
PDF format will not display in most HTML browsers, but might be the best choice in reference manuals.)
Specify the filename relative to man/figures in the \figure directive.

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2.8 Insertions
Use \R for the R system itself. Use \dots for the dots in function argument lists ‘…’, and \ldots for ellipsis dots
in ordinary text.113 These can be followed by {}, and should be unless followed by whitespace.
After an unescaped ‘%’, you can put your own comments regarding the help text. The rest of the line (but not the
newline at the end) will be completely disregarded. Therefore, you can also use it to make part of the “help”
invisible.
You can produce a backslash (‘\’) by escaping it by another backslash. (Note that \cr is used for generating line
breaks.)
The “comment” character ‘%’ and unpaired braces114 almost always need to be escaped by ‘\’, and ‘\\’ can be
used for backslash and needs to be when there are two or more adjacent backslashes. In R-like code quoted
strings are handled slightly differently; see “Parsing Rd files” for details – in particular braces should not be
escaped in quoted strings.
All of ‘% { } \’ should be escaped in LaTeX-like text.
Text which might need to be represented differently in different encodings should be marked by \enc, e.g.
\enc{Jöreskog}{Joreskog} (with no whitespace between the braces) where the first argument will be used where
encodings are allowed and the second should be ASCII (and is used for e.g. the text conversion in locales that
cannot represent the encoded form). (This is intended to be used for individual words, not whole sentences or
paragraphs.)

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[Index]

2.9 Indices

The \alias command (see Documenting functions) is used to specify the “topics” documented, which should
include all R objects in a package such as functions and variables, data sets, and S4 classes and methods (see
Documenting S4 classes and methods). The on-line help system searches the index data base consisting of all
alias topics.
In addition, it is possible to provide “concept index entries” using \concept, which can be used for
help.search() lookups. E.g., file cor.test.Rd in the standard package stats contains

\concept{Kendall correlation coefficient}

\concept{Pearson correlation coefficient}
\concept{Spearman correlation coefficient}

so that e.g. ??Spearman will succeed in finding the help page for the test for association between paired samples
using Spearman’s rho.
(Note that help.search() only uses “sections” of documentation objects with no additional markup.)
Each \concept entry should give a single index term (word or phrase), and not use any Rd markup.
If you want to cross reference such items from other help files via \link, you need to use \alias and not
\concept.

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2.10 Platform-specific documentation

Sometimes the documentation needs to differ by platform. Currently two OS-specific options are available,
‘unix’ and ‘windows’, and lines in the help source file can be enclosed in
#ifdef OS
...
#endif

or
#ifndef OS
...
#endif
for OS-specific inclusion or exclusion. Such blocks should not be nested, and should be entirely within a block
(that, is between the opening and closing brace of a section or item), or at top-level contain one or more
complete sections.
If the differences between platforms are extensive or the R objects documented are only relevant to one
platform, platform-specific Rd files can be put in a unix or windows subdirectory.

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[Contents][Index]

2.11 Conditional text

Occasionally the best content for one output format is different from the best content for another. For this
situation, the \if{format}{text} or \ifelse{format}{text}{alternate} markup is used. Here format is a comma
separated list of formats in which the text should be rendered. The alternate will be rendered if the format does
not match. Both text and alternate may be any sequence of text and markup.
Currently the following formats are recognized: example, html, latex and text. These select output for the
corresponding targets. (Note that example refers to extracted example code rather than the displayed example in
some other format.) Also accepted are TRUE (matching all formats) and FALSE (matching no formats). These
could be the output of the \Sexpr macro (see Dynamic pages).
The \out{literal} macro would usually be used within the text part of \if{format}{text}. It causes the
renderer to output the literal text exactly, with no attempt to escape special characters. For example, use the
following to output the markup necessary to display the Greek letter in LaTeX or HTML, and the text string
alpha in other formats:

\ifelse{latex}{\out{$\alpha$}}{\ifelse{html}{\out{&alpha;}}{alpha}}

Next: User-defined macros, Previous: Conditional text, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.12 Dynamic pages

Two macros supporting dynamically generated man pages are \Sexpr and \RdOpts. These are modelled after
Sweave, and are intended to contain executable R expressions in the Rd file.
The main argument to \Sexpr must be valid R code that can be executed. It may also take options in square
brackets before the main argument. Depending on the options, the code may be executed at package build time,
package install time, or man page rendering time.
The options follow the same format as in Sweave, but different options are supported. Currently the allowed
options and their defaults are:
eval=TRUE Whether the R code should be evaluated.
echo=FALSE Whether the R code should be echoed. If TRUE, a display will be given in a preformatted block.
For example, \Sexpr[echo=TRUE]{ x <- 1 } will be displayed as
> x <- 1

keep.source=TRUE Whether to keep the author’s formatting when displaying the code, or throw it away and
use a deparsed version.
results=text How should the results be displayed? The possibilities are:
- results=text Apply as.character() to the result of the code, and insert it as a text element.
- results=verbatim Print the results of the code just as if it was executed at the console, and include
the printed results verbatim. (Invisible results will not print.)
- results=rd The result is assumed to be a character vector containing markup to be passed to
parse_Rd(), with the result inserted in place. This could be used to insert computed aliases, for
instance. parse_Rd() is called first with fragment = FALSE to allow a single Rd section macro to be
inserted. If that fails, it is called again with fragment = TRUE, the older behavior.
- results=hide Insert no output.
strip.white=TRUE Remove leading and trailing white space from each line of output if strip.white=TRUE.
With strip.white=all, also remove blank lines.
 stage=install Control when this macro is run. Possible values are
- stage=build The macro is run when building a source tarball.
- stage=install The macro is run when installing from source.
- stage=render The macro is run when displaying the help page.
Conditionals such as #ifdef (see Platform-specific documentation) are applied after the build macros but
before the install macros. In some situations (e.g. installing directly from a source directory without a
tarball, or building a binary package) the above description is not literally accurate, but authors can rely
on the sequence being build, #ifdef, install, render, with all stages executed.
Code is only run once in each stage, so a \Sexpr[results=rd] macro can output an \Sexpr macro designed
for a later stage, but not for the current one or any earlier stage.
width, height, fig These options are currently allowed but ignored.
The \RdOpts macro is used to set new defaults for options to apply to following uses of \Sexpr.
For more details, see the online document “Parsing Rd files”.

Next: Encoding, Previous: Dynamic pages, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.13 User-defined macros

The \newcommand and \renewcommand macros allow new macros to be defined within an Rd file. These are similar
but not identical to the same-named LaTeX macros.
They each take two arguments which are parsed verbatim. The first is the name of the new macro including the
initial backslash, and the second is the macro definition. As in LaTeX, \newcommand requires that the new macro
not have been previously defined, whereas \renewcommand allows existing macros (including all built-in ones) to
be replaced. (This test is disabled by default, but may be enabled by setting the environment variable
_R_WARN_DUPLICATE_RD_MACROS_ to a true value.)
Also as in LaTeX, the new macro may be defined to take arguments, and numeric placeholders such as #1 are
used in the macro definition. However, unlike LaTeX, the number of arguments is determined automatically
from the highest placeholder number seen in the macro definition. For example, a macro definition containing #1
and #3 (but no other placeholders) will define a three argument macro (whose second argument will be ignored).
As in LaTeX, at most 9 arguments may be defined. If the # character is followed by a non-digit it will have no
special significance. All arguments to user-defined macros will be parsed as verbatim text, and simple text-
substitution will be used to replace the place-holders, after which the replacement text will be parsed.
A number of macros are defined in the file share/Rd/macros/system.Rd of the R source or home directory, and
these will normally be available in all .Rd files. For example, that file contains the definition
\newcommand{\PR}{\Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_PR(#1)}}

which defines \PR to be a single argument macro; then code (typically used in the NEWS.Rd file) like
\PR{1234}

will expand to
\Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_PR(1234)}

when parsed.
Some macros that might be of general use are:
\CRANpkg{pkg}
A package on CRAN
\sspace
A single space (used after a period that does not end a sentence).
\doi{numbers}
A digital object identifier (DOI).
See the system.Rd file in share/Rd/macros for more details and macro definitions, including macros
\packageTitle, \packageDescription, \packageAuthor, \packageMaintainer, \packageDESCRIPTION and
\packageIndices.

Packages may also define their own common macros; these would be stored in an .Rd file in man/macros in the
package source and will be installed into help/macros when the package is installed. A package may also use the
macros from a different package by listing the other package in the ‘RdMacros’ field in the DESCRIPTION file.

Next: Processing documentation files, Previous: User-defined macros, Up: Writing R documentation files
[Contents][Index]

2.14 Encoding

Rd files are text files and so it is impossible to deduce the encoding they are written in unless ASCII: files with
8-bit characters could be UTF-8, Latin-1, Latin-9, KOI8-R, EUC-JP, etc. So an \encoding{} section must be
used to specify the encoding if it is not ASCII. (The \encoding{} section must be on a line by itself, and in
particular one containing no non-ASCII characters. The encoding declared in the DESCRIPTION file will be used if
none is declared in the file.) The Rd files are converted to UTF-8 before parsing and so the preferred encoding
for the files themselves is now UTF-8.
Wherever possible, avoid non-ASCII chars in Rd files, and even symbols such as ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘$’, ‘^’, ‘&’, ‘|’, ‘@’, ‘~’,
and ‘*’ outside ‘verbatim’ environments (since they may disappear in fonts designed to render text). (Function
showNonASCIIfile in package tools can help in finding non-ASCII bytes in the files.)
For convenience, encoding names ‘latin1’ and ‘latin2’ are always recognized: these and ‘UTF-8’ are likely to
work fairly widely. However, this does not mean that all characters in UTF-8 will be recognized, and the
coverage of non-Latin characters115 is fairly low. Using LaTeX inputenx (see ?Rd2pdf in R) will give greater
coverage of UTF-8.
The \enc command (see Insertions) can be used to provide transliterations which will be used in conversions
that do not support the declared encoding.
The LaTeX conversion converts the file to UTF-8 from the declared encoding, and includes a
\inputencoding{utf8}

command, and this needs to be matched by a suitable invocation of the \usepackage{inputenc} command. The R
utility R CMD Rd2pdf looks at the converted code and includes the encodings used: it might for example use
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

(Use of utf8 as an encoding requires LaTeX dated 2003/12/01 or later. Also, the use of Cyrillic characters in
‘UTF-8’ appears to also need ‘\usepackage[T2A]{fontenc}’, and R CMD Rd2pdf includes this conditionally on the
file t2aenc.def being present and environment variable _R_CYRILLIC_TEX_ being set.)
Note that this mechanism works best with Latin letters: the coverage of UTF-8 in LaTeX is quite low.

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2.15 Processing documentation files

There are several commands to process Rd files from the system command line.
Using R CMD Rdconv one can convert R documentation format to other formats, or extract the executable
examples for run-time testing. The currently supported conversions are to plain text, HTML and LaTeX as well
as extraction of the examples.
R CMD Rd2pdf generates PDF output from documentation in Rd files, which can be specified either explicitly or
by the path to a directory with the sources of a package. In the latter case, a reference manual for all documented
objects in the package is created, including the information in the DESCRIPTION files.
R CMD Sweave and R CMD Stangle process vignette-like documentation files (e.g. Sweave vignettes with
extension ‘.Snw’ or ‘.Rnw’, or other non-Sweave vignettes). R CMD Stangle is used to extract the R code
fragments.
The exact usage and a detailed list of available options for all of these commands can be obtained by running R
CMD command --help, e.g., R CMD Rdconv --help. All available commands can be listed using R --help (or Rcmd -
-help under Windows).

All of these work under Windows. You may need to have installed the the tools to build packages from source as
described in the “R Installation and Administration” manual, although typically all that is needed is a LaTeX
installation.

Previous: Processing documentation files, Up: Writing R documentation files [Contents][Index]

2.16 Editing Rd files

It can be very helpful to prepare .Rd files using a editor which knows about their syntax and will highlight
commands, indent to show the structure and detect mis-matched braces, and so on.
The system most commonly used for this is some version of Emacs (including XEmacs) with the ESS package
(https://ESS.R-project.org/: it is often is installed with Emacs but may need to be loaded, or even installed,
separately).
Another is the Eclipse IDE with the Stat-ET plugin (https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/science.statet), and (on
Windows only) Tinn-R (https://sourceforge.net/projects/tinn-r/).
People have also used LaTeX mode in a editor, as .Rd files are rather similar to LaTeX files.
Some R front-ends provide editing support for .Rd files, for example RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/).

Next: Debugging, Previous: Writing R documentation files, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents][Index]

3 Tidying and profiling R code

R code which is worth preserving in a package and perhaps making available for others to use is worth
documenting, tidying up and perhaps optimizing. The last two of these activities are the subject of this chapter.
Tidying R code
Profiling R code for speed
Profiling R code for memory use
Profiling compiled code

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[Contents][Index]

3.1 Tidying R code

R treats function code loaded from packages and code entered by users differently. By default code entered by
users has the source code stored internally, and when the function is listed, the original source is reproduced.
Loading code from a package (by default) discards the source code, and the function listing is re-created from
the parse tree of the function.
Normally keeping the source code is a good idea, and in particular it avoids comments being removed from the
source. However, we can make use of the ability to re-create a function listing from its parse tree to produce a
tidy version of the function, for example with consistent indentation and spaces around operators. If the original
source does not follow the standard format this tidied version can be much easier to read.
We can subvert the keeping of source in two ways.

1. The option keep.source can be set to FALSE before the code is loaded into R.
2. The stored source code can be removed by calling the removeSource() function, for example by
myfun <- removeSource(myfun)

In each case if we then list the function we will get the standard layout.
Suppose we have a file of functions myfuns.R that we want to tidy up. Create a file tidy.R containing
 source("myfuns.R", keep.source = FALSE)
dump(ls(all.names = TRUE), file = "new.myfuns.R")

and run R with this as the source file, for example by R --vanilla < tidy.R or by pasting into an R session.
Then the file new.myfuns.R will contain the functions in alphabetical order in the standard layout. Warning:
comments in your functions will be lost.
The standard format provides a good starting point for further tidying. Although the deparsing cannot do so, we
recommend the consistent use of the preferred assignment operator ‘<-’ (rather than ‘=’) for assignment. Many
package authors use a version of Emacs (on a Unix-alike or Windows) to edit R code, using the ESS[S] mode of
the ESS Emacs package. See R coding standards in R Internals for style options within the ESS[S] mode
recommended for the source code of R itself.

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[Contents][Index]

3.2 Profiling R code for speed

It is possible to profile R code on Windows and most116 Unix-alike versions of R.

The command Rprof is used to control profiling, and its help page can be consulted for full details. Profiling
works by recording at fixed intervals117 (by default every 20 msecs) which line in which R function is being
used, and recording the results in a file (default Rprof.out in the working directory). Then the function
summaryRprof or the command-line utility R CMD Rprof Rprof.out can be used to summarize the activity.
As an example, consider the following code (from Venables & Ripley, 2002, pp. 225–6).
library(MASS); library(boot)
storm.fm <- nls(Time ~ b*Viscosity/(Wt - c), stormer,
start = c(b=30.401, c=2.2183))
st <- cbind(stormer, fit=fitted(storm.fm))
storm.bf <- function(rs, i) {
st$Time <- st$fit + rs[i]
tmp <- nls(Time ~ (b * Viscosity)/(Wt - c), st,
start = coef(storm.fm))
tmp$m$getAllPars()
}
rs <- scale(resid(storm.fm), scale = FALSE) # remove the mean
Rprof("boot.out")
storm.boot <- boot(rs, storm.bf, R = 4999) # slow enough to profile
Rprof(NULL)

Having run this we can summarize the results by

R CMD Rprof boot.out

Each sample represents 0.02 seconds.

Total run time: 22.52 seconds.

Total seconds: time spent in function and callees.

Self seconds: time spent in function alone.

% total % self
total seconds self seconds name
100.0 25.22 0.2 0.04 "boot"
99.8 25.18 0.6 0.16 "statistic"
96.3 24.30 4.0 1.02 "nls"
33.9 8.56 2.2 0.56 "<Anonymous>"
32.4 8.18 1.4 0.36 "eval"
31.8 8.02 1.4 0.34 ".Call"
28.6 7.22 0.0 0.00 "eval.parent"
28.5 7.18 0.3 0.08 "model.frame"
28.1 7.10 3.5 0.88 "model.frame.default"
17.4 4.38 0.7 0.18 "sapply"
15.0 3.78 3.2 0.80 "nlsModel"
12.5 3.16 1.8 0.46 "lapply"
 12.3 3.10 2.7 0.68 "assign"
...

% self % total
self seconds total seconds name
5.7 1.44 7.5 1.88 "inherits"
4.0 1.02 96.3 24.30 "nls"
3.6 0.92 3.6 0.92 "$"
3.5 0.88 28.1 7.10 "model.frame.default"
3.2 0.80 15.0 3.78 "nlsModel"
2.8 0.70 9.8 2.46 "qr.coef"
2.7 0.68 12.3 3.10 "assign"
2.5 0.64 2.5 0.64 ".Fortran"
2.5 0.62 7.1 1.80 "qr.default"
2.2 0.56 33.9 8.56 "<Anonymous>"
2.1 0.54 5.9 1.48 "unlist"
2.1 0.52 7.9 2.00 "FUN"
...

This often produces surprising results and can be used to identify bottlenecks or pieces of R code that could
benefit from being replaced by compiled code.
Two warnings: profiling does impose a small performance penalty, and the output files can be very large if long
runs are profiled at the default sampling interval.
Profiling short runs can sometimes give misleading results. R from time to time performs garbage collection to
reclaim unused memory, and this takes an appreciable amount of time which profiling will charge to whichever
function happens to provoke it. It may be useful to compare profiling code immediately after a call to gc() with
a profiling run without a preceding call to gc.
More detailed analysis of the output can be achieved by the tools in the CRAN packages proftools and profr: in
particular these allow call graphs to be studied.

Next: Profiling compiled code, Previous: Profiling R code for speed, Up: Tidying and profiling R code
[Contents][Index]

3.3 Profiling R code for memory use

Measuring memory use in R code is useful either when the code takes more memory than is conveniently
available or when memory allocation and copying of objects is responsible for slow code. There are three ways
to profile memory use over time in R code. The second and third require R to have been compiled with --
enable-memory-profiling, which is not the default, but is currently used for the macOS and Windows binary
distributions. All can be misleading, for different reasons.
In understanding the memory profiles it is useful to know a little more about R’s memory allocation. Looking at
the results of gc() shows a division of memory into Vcells used to store the contents of vectors and Ncells used
to store everything else, including all the administrative overhead for vectors such as type and length
information. In fact the vector contents are divided into two pools. Memory for small vectors (by default 128
bytes or less) is obtained in large chunks and then parcelled out by R; memory for larger vectors is obtained
directly from the operating system.
Some memory allocation is obvious in interpreted code, for example,
y <- x + 1

allocates memory for a new vector y. Other memory allocation is less obvious and occurs because R is forced to
make good on its promise of ‘call-by-value’ argument passing. When an argument is passed to a function it is
not immediately copied. Copying occurs (if necessary) only when the argument is modified. This can lead to
surprising memory use. For example, in the ‘survey’ package we have
print.svycoxph <- function (x, ...)
{
print(x$survey.design, varnames = FALSE, design.summaries = FALSE, ...)
x$call <- x$printcall
 NextMethod()
}

It may not be obvious that the assignment to x$call will cause the entire object x to be copied. This copying to
preserve the call-by-value illusion is usually done by the internal C function duplicate.
The main reason that memory-use profiling is difficult is garbage collection. Memory is allocated at well-
defined times in an R program, but is freed whenever the garbage collector happens to run.
Memory statistics from Rprof
Tracking memory allocations
Tracing copies of an object

Next: Tracking memory allocations, Previous: Profiling R code for memory use, Up: Profiling R code for
memory use [Contents][Index]

3.3.1 Memory statistics from Rprof

The sampling profiler Rprof described in the previous section can be given the option memory.profiling=TRUE. It
then writes out the total R memory allocation in small vectors, large vectors, and cons cells or nodes at each
sampling interval. It also writes out the number of calls to the internal function duplicate, which is called to
copy R objects. summaryRprof provides summaries of this information. The main reason that this can be
misleading is that the memory use is attributed to the function running at the end of the sampling interval. A
second reason is that garbage collection can make the amount of memory in use decrease, so a function appears
to use little memory. Running under gctorture helps with both problems: it slows down the code to effectively
increase the sampling frequency and it makes each garbage collection release a smaller amount of memory.

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[Contents][Index]

3.3.2 Tracking memory allocations

The second method of memory profiling uses a memory-allocation profiler, Rprofmem(), which writes out a stack
trace to an output file every time a large vector is allocated (with a user-specified threshold for ‘large’) or a new
page of memory is allocated for the R heap. Summary functions for this output are still being designed.
Running the example from the previous section with
> Rprofmem("boot.memprof",threshold=1000)
> storm.boot <- boot(rs, storm.bf, R = 4999)
> Rprofmem(NULL)

shows that apart from some initial and final work in boot there are no vector allocations over 1000 bytes.

Previous: Tracking memory allocations, Up: Profiling R code for memory use [Contents][Index]

3.3.3 Tracing copies of an object

The third method of memory profiling involves tracing copies made of a specific (presumably large) R object.
Calling tracemem on an object marks it so that a message is printed to standard output when the object is copied
via duplicate or coercion to another type, or when a new object of the same size is created in arithmetic
operations. The main reason that this can be misleading is that copying of subsets or components of an object is
not tracked. It may be helpful to use tracemem on these components.
In the example above we can run tracemem on the data frame st
> tracemem(st)
[1] "<0x9abd5e0>"
> storm.boot <- boot(rs, storm.bf, R = 4)
memtrace[0x9abd5e0->0x92a6d08]: statistic boot
memtrace[0x92a6d08->0x92a6d80]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x92a6d80->0x92a6df8]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x9abd5e0->0x9271318]: statistic boot
memtrace[0x9271318->0x9271390]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x9271390->0x9271408]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
 memtrace[0x9abd5e0->0x914f558]: statistic boot
memtrace[0x914f558->0x914f5f8]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x914f5f8->0x914f670]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x9abd5e0->0x972cbf0]: statistic boot
memtrace[0x972cbf0->0x972cc68]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x972cc68->0x972cd08]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x9abd5e0->0x98ead98]: statistic boot
memtrace[0x98ead98->0x98eae10]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot
memtrace[0x98eae10->0x98eae88]: $<-.data.frame $<- statistic boot

The object is duplicated fifteen times, three times for each of the R+1 calls to storm.bf. This is surprising, since
none of the duplications happen inside nls. Stepping through storm.bf in the debugger shows that all three
happen in the line
st$Time <- st$fit + rs[i]

Data frames are slower than matrices and this is an example of why. Using tracemem(st$Viscosity) does not
reveal any additional copying.

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3.4 Profiling compiled code

Profiling compiled code is highly system-specific, but this section contains some hints gleaned from various R
users. Some methods need to be different for a compiled executable and for dynamic/shared libraries/objects as
used by R packages. We know of no good way to profile DLLs on Windows.
This chapter is based on reports from users and the information may not be current.
Linux
macOS

Next: macOS, Previous: Profiling compiled code, Up: Profiling compiled code [Contents][Index]

3.4.1 Linux

Options include using sprof for a shared object, and oprofile (see https://oprofile.sourceforge.io/news/) and
perf (see https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Tutorial) for any executable or shared object.

sprof
oprofile and operf

3.4.1.1 sprof

You can select shared objects to be profiled with sprof by setting the environment variable LD_PROFILE. For
example
% setenv LD_PROFILE /path/to/R_HOME/library/stats/libs/stats.so
R
... run the boot example
% sprof /path/to/R_HOME/library/stats/libs/stats.so \
/var/tmp/path/to/R_HOME/library/stats/libs/stats.so.profile

Flat profile:

Each sample counts as 0.01 seconds.

% cumulative self self total
time seconds seconds calls us/call us/call name
76.19 0.32 0.32 0 0.00 numeric_deriv
16.67 0.39 0.07 0 0.00 nls_iter
7.14 0.42 0.03 0 0.00 getListElement

rm /var/tmp/path/to/R_HOME/library/stats/libs/stats.so.profile
... to clean up ...

It is possible that root access is needed to create the directories used for the profile data.
3.4.1.2 oprofile and operf

The oprofile project has two modes of operation. In what is now called ‘legacy’ mode, it is uses a daemon to
collect information on a process (see below). Since version 0.9.8 (August 2012), the preferred mode is to use
operf, so we discuss that first. The modes differ in how the profiling data is collected: it is analysed by tools
such as opreport and oppannote in both.
Here is an example on x86_64 Linux using R 3.0.2. File pvec.R contains the part of the examples from pvec in
package parallel:
library(parallel)
N <- 1e6
dates <- sprintf('%04d-%02d-%02d', as.integer(2000+rnorm(N)),
as.integer(runif(N, 1, 12)), as.integer(runif(N, 1, 28)))
system.time(a <- as.POSIXct(dates, format = "%Y-%m-%d"))

with timings from the final step

user system elapsed
0.371 0.237 0.612

R-level profiling by Rprof shows

self.time self.pct total.time total.pct
"strptime" 1.70 41.06 1.70 41.06
"as.POSIXct.POSIXlt" 1.40 33.82 1.42 34.30
"sprintf" 0.74 17.87 0.98 23.67
...

so the conversion from character to POSIXlt takes most of the time.

This can be run under operf and analysed by
operf R -f pvec.R
opreport
opreport -l /path/to/R_HOME/bin/exec/R
opannotate --source /path/to/R_HOME/bin/exec/R
## And for the system time
opreport -l /lib64/libc.so.6

The first report shows where (which library etc) the time was spent:
CPU_CLK_UNHALT...|
samples| %|
------------------
166761 99.9161 Rdev
CPU_CLK_UNHALT...|
samples| %|
------------------
70586 42.3276 no-vmlinux
56963 34.1585 libc-2.16.so
36922 22.1407 R
1584 0.9499 stats.so
624 0.3742 libm-2.16.so
...

The rest of the output is voluminous, and only extracts are shown below.
Most of the time within R is spent in
samples % image name symbol name
10397 28.5123 R R_gc_internal
5683 15.5848 R do_sprintf
3036 8.3258 R do_asPOSIXct
2427 6.6557 R do_strptime
2421 6.6392 R Rf_mkCharLenCE
1480 4.0587 R w_strptime_internal
1202 3.2963 R Rf_qnorm5
1165 3.1948 R unif_rand
675 1.8511 R mktime0
 617 1.6920 R makelt
617 1.6920 R validate_tm
584 1.6015 R day_of_the_week
...

opannotate shows that 31% of the time in R is spent in memory.c, 21% in datetime.c and 7% in Rstrptime.h.
The analysis for libc showed that calls to wcsftime dominated, so those calls were cached for R 3.0.3: the time
spent in no-vmlinux (the kernel) was reduced dramatically.
On platforms which support it, call graphs can be produced by opcontrol --callgraph if collected via operf --
callgraph.
The profiling data is by default stored in sub-directory oprofile_data of the current directory, which can be
removed at the end of the session.
Another example, from sm version 2.2-5.4. The example for sm.variogram took a long time:
system.time(example(sm.variogram))
...
user system elapsed
5.543 3.202 8.785

including a lot of system time. Profiling just the slow part, the second plot, showed
samples| %|
------------------
381845 99.9885 R
CPU_CLK_UNHALT...|
samples| %|
------------------
187484 49.0995 sm.so
169627 44.4230 no-vmlinux
12636 3.3092 libgfortran.so.3.0.0
6455 1.6905 R

so the system time was almost all in the Linux kernel. It is possible to dig deeper if you have a matching
uncompressed kernel with debug symbols to specify via --vmlinux: we did not.
In ‘legacy’ mode oprofile works by running a daemon which collects information. The daemon must be started
as root, e.g.
% su
% opcontrol --no-vmlinux
% (optional, some platforms) opcontrol --callgraph=5
% opcontrol --start
% exit

Then as a user
% R
... run the boot example
% opcontrol --dump
% opreport -l /path/to/R_HOME/library/stats/libs/stats.so
...
samples % symbol name
1623 75.5939 anonymous symbol from section .plt
349 16.2552 numeric_deriv
113 5.2632 nls_iter
62 2.8878 getListElement
% opreport -l /path/to/R_HOME/bin/exec/R
...
samples % symbol name
76052 11.9912 Rf_eval
54670 8.6198 Rf_findVarInFrame3
37814 5.9622 Rf_allocVector
31489 4.9649 Rf_duplicate
28221 4.4496 Rf_protect
26485 4.1759 Rf_cons
23650 3.7289 Rf_matchArgs
21088 3.3250 Rf_findFun
 19995 3.1526 findVarLocInFrame
14871 2.3447 Rf_evalList
13794 2.1749 R_Newhashpjw
13522 2.1320 R_gc_internal
...

Shutting down the profiler and clearing the records needs to be done as root.

Previous: Linux, Up: Profiling compiled code [Contents][Index]

3.4.2 macOS

Developers have recommended sample (or Sampler.app, which is a GUI version), Shark (in version of Xcode up
to those for Snow Leopard), and Instruments (part of Xcode, see
https://help.apple.com/instruments/mac/current/).

Next: System and foreign language interfaces, Previous: Tidying and profiling R code, Up: Writing R
Extensions [Contents][Index]

4 Debugging
This chapter covers the debugging of R extensions, starting with the ways to get useful error information and
moving on to how to deal with errors that crash R.
Browsing
Debugging R code
Checking memory access
Debugging compiled code
Using Link-time Optimization

Next: Debugging R code, Previous: Debugging, Up: Debugging [Contents][Index]

4.1 Browsing

Most of the R-level debugging facilities are based around the built-in browser. This can be used directly by
inserting a call to browser() into the code of a function (for example, using fix(my_function) ). When code
execution reaches that point in the function, control returns to the R console with a special prompt. For example
> fix(summary.data.frame) ## insert browser() call after for() loop
> summary(women)
Called from: summary.data.frame(women)
Browse[1]> ls()
[1] "digits" "i" "lbs" "lw" "maxsum" "nm" "nr" "nv"
[9] "object" "sms" "z"
Browse[1]> maxsum
[1] 7
Browse[1]>
height weight
Min. :58.0 Min. :115.0
1st Qu.:61.5 1st Qu.:124.5
Median :65.0 Median :135.0
Mean :65.0 Mean :136.7
3rd Qu.:68.5 3rd Qu.:148.0
Max. :72.0 Max. :164.0
> rm(summary.data.frame)

At the browser prompt one can enter any R expression, so for example ls() lists the objects in the current frame,
and entering the name of an object will118 print it. The following commands are also accepted
n
Enter ‘step-through’ mode. In this mode, hitting return executes the next line of code (more precisely one
line and any continuation lines). Typing c will continue to the end of the current context, e.g. to the end of
the current loop or function.
 c
In normal mode, this quits the browser and continues execution, and just return works in the same way.
cont is a synonym.

where
This prints the call stack. For example
> summary(women)
Called from: summary.data.frame(women)
Browse[1]> where
where 1: summary.data.frame(women)
where 2: summary(women)

Browse[1]>

Q
Quit both the browser and the current expression, and return to the top-level prompt.
Errors in code executed at the browser prompt will normally return control to the browser prompt. Objects can
be altered by assignment, and will keep their changed values when the browser is exited. If really necessary,
objects can be assigned to the workspace from the browser prompt (by using <<- if the name is not already in
scope).

Next: Checking memory access, Previous: Browsing, Up: Debugging [Contents][Index]

4.2 Debugging R code

Suppose your R program gives an error message. The first thing to find out is what R was doing at the time of
the error, and the most useful tool is traceback(). We suggest that this is run whenever the cause of the error is
not immediately obvious. Errors are often reported to the R mailing lists as being in some package when
traceback() would show that the error was being reported by some other package or base R. Here is an example
from the regression suite.
> success <- c(13,12,11,14,14,11,13,11,12)
> failure <- c(0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,2)
> resp <- cbind(success, failure)
> predictor <- c(0, 5^(0:7))
> glm(resp ~ 0+predictor, family = binomial(link="log"))
Error: no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply starting values
> traceback()
3: stop("no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply
starting values", call. = FALSE)
2: glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start, etastart = etastart,
mustart = mustart, offset = offset, family = family, control = control,
intercept = attr(mt, "intercept") > 0)
1: glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link ="log"))

The calls to the active frames are given in reverse order (starting with the innermost). So we see the error
message comes from an explicit check in glm.fit. (traceback() shows you all the lines of the function calls,
which can be limited by setting option "deparse.max.lines".)
Sometimes the traceback will indicate that the error was detected inside compiled code, for example (from ?nls)
Error in nls(y ~ a + b * x, start = list(a = 0.12345, b = 0.54321), trace = TRUE) :
step factor 0.000488281 reduced below ‘minFactor’ of 0.000976563
> traceback()
2: .Call(R_nls_iter, m, ctrl, trace)
1: nls(y ~ a + b * x, start = list(a = 0.12345, b = 0.54321), trace = TRUE)

This will be the case if the innermost call is to .C, .Fortran, .Call, .External or .Internal, but as it is also
possible for such code to evaluate R expressions, this need not be the innermost call, as in
> traceback()
9: gm(a, b, x)
8: .Call(R_numeric_deriv, expr, theta, rho, dir)
7: numericDeriv(form[[3]], names(ind), env)
 6: getRHS()
5: assign("rhs", getRHS(), envir = thisEnv)
4: assign("resid", .swts * (lhs - assign("rhs", getRHS(), envir = thisEnv)),
envir = thisEnv)
3: function (newPars)
{
setPars(newPars)
assign("resid", .swts * (lhs - assign("rhs", getRHS(), envir = thisEnv)),
envir = thisEnv)
assign("dev", sum(resid^2), envir = thisEnv)
assign("QR", qr(.swts * attr(rhs, "gradient")), envir = thisEnv)
return(QR$rank < min(dim(QR$qr)))
}(c(-0.00760232418963883, 1.00119632515036))
2: .Call(R_nls_iter, m, ctrl, trace)
1: nls(yeps ~ gm(a, b, x), start = list(a = 0.12345, b = 0.54321))

Occasionally traceback() does not help, and this can be the case if S4 method dispatch is involved. Consider the
following example
> xyd <- new("xyloc", x=runif(20), y=runif(20))
Error in as.environment(pkg) : no item called "package:S4nswv"
on the search list
Error in initialize(value, ...) : S language method selection got
an error when called from internal dispatch for function ‘initialize’
> traceback()
2: initialize(value, ...)
1: new("xyloc", x = runif(20), y = runif(20))

which does not help much, as there is no call to as.environment in initialize (and the note “called from
internal dispatch” tells us so). In this case we searched the R sources for the quoted call, which occurred in only
one place, methods:::.asEnvironmentPackage. So now we knew where the error was occurring. (This was an
unusually opaque example.)
The error message
evaluation nested too deeply: infinite recursion / options(expressions=)?

can be hard to handle with the default value (5000). Unless you know that there actually is deep recursion going
on, it can help to set something like
options(expressions=500)

and re-run the example showing the error.

Sometimes there is warning that clearly is the precursor to some later error, but it is not obvious where it is
coming from. Setting options(warn = 2) (which turns warnings into errors) can help here.
Once we have located the error, we have some choices. One way to proceed is to find out more about what was
happening at the time of the crash by looking a post-mortem dump. To do so, set options(error=dump.frames)
and run the code again. Then invoke debugger() and explore the dump. Continuing our example:
> options(error = dump.frames)
> glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link ="log"))
Error: no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply starting values

which is the same as before, but an object called last.dump has appeared in the workspace. (Such objects can be
large, so remove it when it is no longer needed.) We can examine this at a later time by calling the function
debugger.

> debugger()
Message: Error: no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply starting values
Available environments had calls:
1: glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link = "log"))
2: glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start, etastart = etastart, mus
3: stop("no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply starting values
Enter an environment number, or 0 to exit Selection:

which gives the same sequence of calls as traceback, but in outer-first order and with only the first line of the
call, truncated to the current width. However, we can now examine in more detail what was happening at the
time of the error. Selecting an environment opens the browser in that frame. So we select the function call which
spawned the error message, and explore some of the variables (and execute two function calls).
Enter an environment number, or 0 to exit Selection: 2
Browsing in the environment with call:
glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start, etas
Called from: debugger.look(ind)
Browse[1]> ls()
[1] "aic" "boundary" "coefold" "control" "conv"
[6] "dev" "dev.resids" "devold" "EMPTY" "eta"
[11] "etastart" "family" "fit" "good" "intercept"
[16] "iter" "linkinv" "mu" "mu.eta" "mu.eta.val"
[21] "mustart" "n" "ngoodobs" "nobs" "nvars"
[26] "offset" "start" "valideta" "validmu" "variance"
[31] "varmu" "w" "weights" "x" "xnames"
[36] "y" "ynames" "z"
Browse[1]> eta
1 2 3 4 5
0.000000e+00 -2.235357e-06 -1.117679e-05 -5.588393e-05 -2.794197e-04
6 7 8 9
-1.397098e-03 -6.985492e-03 -3.492746e-02 -1.746373e-01
Browse[1]> valideta(eta)
[1] TRUE
Browse[1]> mu
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1.0000000 0.9999978 0.9999888 0.9999441 0.9997206 0.9986039 0.9930389 0.9656755
9
0.8397616
Browse[1]> validmu(mu)
[1] FALSE
Browse[1]> c
Available environments had calls:
1: glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link = "log"))
2: glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start, etastart = etastart
3: stop("no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply starting v

Enter an environment number, or 0 to exit Selection: 0

> rm(last.dump)

Because last.dump can be looked at later or even in another R session, post-mortem debugging is possible even
for batch usage of R. We do need to arrange for the dump to be saved: this can be done either using the
command-line flag --save to save the workspace at the end of the run, or via a setting such as
> options(error = quote({dump.frames(to.file=TRUE); q()}))

See the help on dump.frames for further options and a worked example.
An alternative error action is to use the function recover():
> options(error = recover)
> glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link = "log"))
Error: no valid set of coefficients has been found: please supply starting values

Enter a frame number, or 0 to exit

1: glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link = "log"))

2: glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start, etastart = etastart

Selection:

which is very similar to dump.frames. However, we can examine the state of the program directly, without
dumping and re-loading the dump. As its help page says, recover can be routinely used as the error action in
place of dump.calls and dump.frames, since it behaves like dump.frames in non-interactive use.
Post-mortem debugging is good for finding out exactly what went wrong, but not necessarily why. An
alternative approach is to take a closer look at what was happening just before the error, and a good way to do
that is to use debug. This inserts a call to the browser at the beginning of the function, starting in step-through
mode. So in our example we could use
 > debug(glm.fit)
> glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link ="log"))
debugging in: glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start, etastart = etastart,
mustart = mustart, offset = offset, family = family, control = control,
intercept = attr(mt, "intercept") > 0)
debug: {
## lists the whole function
Browse[1]>
debug: x <- as.matrix(x)
...
Browse[1]> start
[1] -2.235357e-06
debug: eta <- drop(x %*% start)
Browse[1]> eta
1 2 3 4 5
0.000000e+00 -2.235357e-06 -1.117679e-05 -5.588393e-05 -2.794197e-04
6 7 8 9
-1.397098e-03 -6.985492e-03 -3.492746e-02 -1.746373e-01
Browse[1]>
debug: mu <- linkinv(eta <- eta + offset)
Browse[1]> mu
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1.0000000 0.9999978 0.9999888 0.9999441 0.9997206 0.9986039 0.9930389 0.9656755
9
0.8397616

(The prompt Browse[1]> indicates that this is the first level of browsing: it is possible to step into another
function that is itself being debugged or contains a call to browser().)
debug can be used for hidden functions and S3 methods by e.g. debug(stats:::predict.Arima). (It cannot be
used for S4 methods, but an alternative is given on the help page for debug.) Sometimes you want to debug a
function defined inside another function, e.g. the function arimafn defined inside arima. To do so, set debug on
the outer function (here arima) and step through it until the inner function has been defined. Then call debug on
the inner function (and use c to get out of step-through mode in the outer function).
To remove debugging of a function, call undebug with the argument previously given to debug; debugging
otherwise lasts for the rest of the R session (or until the function is edited or otherwise replaced).
trace can be used to temporarily insert debugging code into a function, for example to insert a call to browser()
just before the point of the error. To return to our running example
## first get a numbered listing of the expressions of the function
> page(as.list(body(glm.fit)), method="print")
> trace(glm.fit, browser, at=22)
Tracing function "glm.fit" in package "stats"
[1] "glm.fit"
> glm(resp ~ 0 + predictor, family = binomial(link ="log"))
Tracing glm.fit(x = X, y = Y, weights = weights, start = start,
etastart = etastart, .... step 22
Called from: eval(expr, envir, enclos)
Browse[1]> n
## and single-step from here.
> untrace(glm.fit)

For your own functions, it may be as easy to use fix to insert temporary code, but trace can help with functions
in a namespace (as can fixInNamespace). Alternatively, use trace(,edit=TRUE) to insert code visually.

Next: Debugging compiled code, Previous: Debugging R code, Up: Debugging [Contents][Index]

4.3 Checking memory access

Errors in memory allocation and reading/writing outside arrays are very common causes of crashes (e.g.,
segfaults) on some machines. Often the crash appears long after the invalid memory access: in particular
damage to the structures which R itself has allocated may only become apparent at the next garbage collection
(or even at later garbage collections after objects have been deleted).
Note that memory access errors may be seen with LAPACK, BLAS, OpenMP and Java-using packages: some at
least of these seem to be intentional, and some are related to passing characters to Fortran.
Some of these tools can detect mismatched allocation and deallocation. C++ programmers should note that
memory allocated by new [] must be freed by delete [], other uses of new by delete, and memory allocated by
malloc, calloc and realloc by free. Some platforms will tolerate mismatches (perhaps with memory leaks) but
others will segfault.
Using gctorture
Using valgrind
Using the Address Sanitizer
Using the Undefined Behaviour Sanitizer
Other analyses with ‘clang’
Other analyses with ‘gcc’
Using ‘Dr. Memory’
Fortran array bounds checking

Next: Using valgrind, Previous: Checking memory access, Up: Checking memory access [Contents][Index]

4.3.1 Using gctorture

We can help to detect memory problems in R objects earlier by running garbage collection as often as possible.
This is achieved by gctorture(TRUE), which as described on its help page

Provokes garbage collection on (nearly) every memory allocation. Intended to ferret out memory
protection bugs. Also makes R run very slowly, unfortunately.

The reference to ‘memory protection’ is to missing C-level calls to PROTECT/UNPROTECT (see Handling the effects
of garbage collection) which if missing allow R objects to be garbage-collected when they are still in use. But it
can also help with other memory-related errors.
Normally running under gctorture(TRUE) will just produce a crash earlier in the R program, hopefully close to
the actual cause. See the next section for how to decipher such crashes.
It is possible to run all the examples, tests and vignettes covered by R CMD check under gctorture(TRUE) by
using the option --use-gct.
The function gctorture2 provides more refined control over the GC torture process. Its arguments step, wait
and inhibit_release are documented on its help page. Environment variables can also be used at the start of the
R session to turn on GC torture: R_GCTORTURE corresponds to the step argument to gctorture2, R_GCTORTURE_WAIT
to wait, and R_GCTORTURE_INHIBIT_RELEASE to inhibit_release.
If R is configured with --enable-strict-barrier then a variety of tests for the integrity of the write barrier are
enabled. In addition tests to help detect protect issues are enabled:
All GCs are full GCs.
New nodes in small node pages are marked as NEWSXP on creation.
After a GC all free nodes that are not of type NEWSXP are marked as type FREESXP and their previous type is
recorded.
Most calls to accessor functions check their SEXP inputs and SEXP outputs and signal an error if a FREESXP is
found. The address of the node and the old type are included in the error message.
R CMD check --use-gct can be set to use gctorture2(n) rather than gctorture(TRUE) by setting environment
variable _R_CHECK_GCT_N_ to a positive integer value to be used as n.
Used with a debugger and with gctorture or gctorture2 this mechanism can be helpful in isolating memory
protect problems.

Next: Using the Address Sanitizer, Previous: Using gctorture, Up: Checking memory access [Contents][Index]

4.3.2 Using valgrind

If you have access to Linux on a common CPU type or supported versions of FreeBSD or Solaris119 you can use
valgrind (https://www.valgrind.org/, pronounced to rhyme with ‘tinned’) to check for possible problems. To run
some examples under valgrind use something like
 R -d valgrind --vanilla < mypkg-Ex.R
R -d "valgrind --tool=memcheck --leak-check=full" --vanilla < mypkg-Ex.R

where mypkg-Ex.R is a set of examples, e.g. the file created in mypkg.Rcheck by R CMD check. Occasionally this
reports memory reads of ‘uninitialised values’ that are the result of compiler optimization, so can be worth
checking under an unoptimized compile: for maximal information use a build with debugging symbols. We
know there will be some small memory leaks from readline and R itself — these are memory areas that are in
use right up to the end of the R session. Expect this to run around 20x slower than without valgrind, and in
some cases much slower than that. Several versions of valgrind were not happy with some optimized BLASes
that use CPU-specific instructions so you may need to build a version of R specifically to use with valgrind.
On platforms where valgrind is installed you can build a version of R with extra instrumentation to help
valgrind detect errors in the use of memory allocated from the R heap. The configure option is --with-
valgrind-instrumentation=level, where level is 0, 1 or 2. Level 0 is the default and does not add anything.
Level 1 will detect some uses120 of uninitialised memory and has little impact on speed (compared to level 0).
Level 2 will detect many other memory-use bugs121 but make R much slower when running under valgrind.
Using this in conjunction with gctorture can be even more effective (and even slower).
An example of valgrind output is
==12539== Invalid read of size 4
==12539== at 0x1CDF6CBE: csc_compTr (Mutils.c:273)
==12539== by 0x1CE07E1E: tsc_transpose (dtCMatrix.c:25)
==12539== by 0x80A67A7: do_dotcall (dotcode.c:858)
==12539== by 0x80CACE2: Rf_eval (eval.c:400)
==12539== by 0x80CB5AF: R_execClosure (eval.c:658)
==12539== by 0x80CB98E: R_execMethod (eval.c:760)
==12539== by 0x1B93DEFA: R_standardGeneric (methods_list_dispatch.c:624)
==12539== by 0x810262E: do_standardGeneric (objects.c:1012)
==12539== by 0x80CAD23: Rf_eval (eval.c:403)
==12539== by 0x80CB2F0: Rf_applyClosure (eval.c:573)
==12539== by 0x80CADCC: Rf_eval (eval.c:414)
==12539== by 0x80CAA03: Rf_eval (eval.c:362)
==12539== Address 0x1C0D2EA8 is 280 bytes inside a block of size 1996 alloc'd
==12539== at 0x1B9008D1: malloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:149)
==12539== by 0x80F1B34: GetNewPage (memory.c:610)
==12539== by 0x80F7515: Rf_allocVector (memory.c:1915)
...

This example is from an instrumented version of R, while tracking down a bug in the Matrix package in 2006.
The first line indicates that R has tried to read 4 bytes from a memory address that it does not have access to.
This is followed by a C stack trace showing where the error occurred. Next is a description of the memory that
was accessed. It is inside a block allocated by malloc, called from GetNewPage, that is, in the internal R heap.
Since this memory all belongs to R, valgrind would not (and did not) detect the problem in an uninstrumented
build of R. In this example the stack trace was enough to isolate and fix the bug, which was in tsc_transpose,
and in this example running under gctorture() did not provide any additional information.
valgrind is good at spotting the use of uninitialized values: use option --track-origins=yes to show where these
originated from. What it cannot detect is the misuse of arrays allocated on the stack: this includes C automatic
variables and some122 Fortran arrays.
It is possible to run all the examples, tests and vignettes covered by R CMD check under valgrind by using the
option --use-valgrind. If you do this you will need to select the valgrind options some other way, for example
by having a ~/.valgrindrc file containing
--leak-check=full
--track-origins=yes

or setting the environment variable VALGRIND_OPTS. As from R 4.2.0, --use-valgrind also uses valgrind when
re-building the vignettes.
On macOS you may need to ensure that debugging symbols are made available (so valgrind reports line
numbers in files). This can usually be done with the valgrind option --dsymutil=yes to ask for the symbols to be
dumped when the .so file is loaded. This will not work where packages are installed into a system area (such as
the R.framework) and can be slow. Installing packages with R CMD INSTALL --dsym installs the dumped symbols.
(This can also be done by setting environment variable PKG_MAKE_DSYM to a non-empty value before the INSTALL.)
This section has described the use of memtest, the default (and most useful) of valgrind’s tools. There are others
described in its documentation: helgrind can be useful for threaded programs.

Next: Using the Undefined Behaviour Sanitizer, Previous: Using valgrind, Up: Checking memory access
[Contents][Index]

4.3.3 Using the Address Sanitizer

AddressSanitizer (‘ASan’) is a tool with similar aims to the memory checker in valgrind. It is available with
suitable builds123 of gcc and clang on common Linux and macOS platforms. See
https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UsersManual.html#controlling-code-generation,
https://clang.llvm.org/docs/AddressSanitizer.html and https://github.com/google/sanitizers.
More thorough checks of C++ code are done if the C++ library has been ‘annotated’: at the time of writing this
applied to std::vector in libc++ for use with clang and gives rise to ‘container-overflow’124 reports.
It requires code to have been compiled and linked with -fsanitize=address and compiling with -fno-omit-
frame-pointer will give more legible reports. It has a runtime penalty of 2–3x, extended compilation times and
uses substantially more memory, often 1–2GB, at run time. On 64-bit platforms it reserves (but does not
allocate) 16–20TB of virtual memory: restrictive shell settings can cause problems.
By comparison with valgrind, ASan can detect misuse of stack and global variables but not the use of
uninitialized memory.
Recent versions return symbolic addresses for the location of the error provided llvm-symbolizer125 is on the
path: if it is available but not on the path or has been renamed126, one can use an environment variable, e.g.
ASAN_SYMBOLIZER_PATH=/path/to/llvm-symbolizer

An alternative is to pipe the output through asan_symbolize.py127 and perhaps then (for compiled C++ code)
c++filt. (On macOS, you may need to run dsymutil to get line-number reports.)

The simplest way to make use of this is to build a version of R with something like
CC="gcc -std=gnu99 -fsanitize=address"
CFLAGS="-fno-omit-frame-pointer -g -O2 -Wall -pedantic -mtune=native"

which will ensure that the libasan run-time library is compiled into the R executable. However this check can
be enabled on a per-package basis by using a ~/.R/Makevars file like
CC = gcc -std=gnu99 -fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer
CXX = g++ -fsanitize=address -fno-omit-frame-pointer
FC = gfortran -fsanitize=address

(Note that -fsanitize=address has to be part of the compiler specification to ensure it is used for linking. These
settings will not be honoured by packages which ignore ~/.R/Makevars.) It will be necessary to build R with
MAIN_LDFLAGS = -fsanitize=address

to link the runtime libraries into the R executable if it was not specified as part of ‘CC’ when R was built. (For
some builds without OpenMP, -pthread is also required.)
For options available via the environment variable ASAN_OPTIONS see
https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerFlags. With gcc additional control is available via the
--param flag: see its man page.
For more detailed information on an error, R can be run under a debugger with a breakpoint set before the
address sanitizer report is produced: for gdb or lldb you could use
break __asan_report_error

(See https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerAndDebugger.)
More recent versions128 added the flag -fsanitize-address-use-after-scope: see
https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerUseAfterScope.
One of the checks done by ASan is that malloc/free and in C++ new/delete and new[]/delete[] are used
consistently (rather than say free being used to dealloc memory allocated by new[]). This matters on some
systems but not all: unfortunately on some of those where it does not matter, system libraries129 are not
consistent. The check can be suppressed by including ‘alloc_dealloc_mismatch=0’ in ASAN_OPTIONS.
ASan also checks system calls and sometimes reports can refer to problems in the system software and not the
package nor R. A couple of reports have been of ‘heap-use-after-free’ errors in the X11 libraries called from
Tcl/Tk.
Using the Leak Sanitizer

Previous: Using the Address Sanitizer, Up: Using the Address Sanitizer [Contents][Index]

4.3.3.1 Using the Leak Sanitizer

For x86_64 Linux there is a leak sanitizer, ‘LSan’: see

https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerLeakSanitizer. This is available on recent versions of
gcc and clang, and where available is compiled in as part of ASan.
One way to invoke this from an ASan-enabled build is by the environment variable
ASAN_OPTIONS='detect_leaks=1'

However, this was made the default as from clang 3.5 and gcc 5.1.0.
When LSan is enabled, leaks give the process a failure error status (by default 23). For an R package this means
the R process, and as the parser retains some memory to the end of the process, if R itself was built against ASan
all runs will have a failure error status (which may include running R as part of building R itself).
To disable this, allocation-mismatch checking and some strict C++ checking use
setenv ASAN_OPTIONS ‘alloc_dealloc_mismatch=0:detect_leaks=0:detect_odr_violation=0’

LSan also has a ‘stand-alone’ mode where it is compiled in using -fsanitize=leak and avoids the run-time
overhead of ASan.

Next: Other analyses with ‘clang’, Previous: Using the Address Sanitizer, Up: Checking memory access
[Contents][Index]

4.3.4 Using the Undefined Behaviour Sanitizer

‘Undefined behaviour’ is where the language standard does not require particular behaviour from the compiler.
Examples include division by zero (where for doubles R requires the ISO/IEC 60559 behaviour but C/C++ do
not), use of zero-length arrays, shifts too far for signed types (e.g. int x, y; y = x << 31;), out-of-range
coercion, invalid C++ casts and mis-alignment. Not uncommon examples of out-of-range coercion in R
packages are attempts to coerce a NaN or infinity to type int or NA_INTEGER to an unsigned type such as size_t.
Also common is y[x - 1] forgetting that x might be NA_INTEGER.
‘UBSanitizer’ is a tool for C/C++ source code selected by -fsanitize=undefined in suitable builds130 of clang
and GCC. Its (main) runtime library is linked into each package’s DLL, so it is less often needed to be included
in MAIN_LDFLAGS. Platforms supported by clang are listed at
https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer.html#supported-platforms: CRAN uses it for C/C++
with both GCC and clang on ‘x86_64’ Linux: the two toolchains often highlight different things with more
reports from clang than GCC.
This sanitizer can be combined with the Address Sanitizer by -fsanitize=undefined,address (where both are
supported).
Finer control of what is checked can be achieved by other options.
For clang see https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer.html#ubsan-checks. The current set is (on
a single line):
-fsanitize=alignment,bool,bounds,builtin,enum,float-cast-overflow,
float-divide-by-zero,function,implicit-unsigned-integer-truncation,
implicit-signed-integer-truncation,implicit-integer-sign-change,
 integer-divide-by-zero,nonnull-attribute,null,object-size,
pointer-overflow,return,returns-nonnull-attribute,shift,
signed-integer-overflow,unreachable,unsigned-integer-overflow,
unsigned-shift-base,vla-bound,vptr

(plus the more specific versions shift-base and shift-exponent) a subset of which could be combined with
address, or use something like

-fsanitize=undefined -fno-sanitize=float-divide-by-zero

Options function, return and vptr apply only to C++: to use vptr its run-time library needs to be linked into the
main R executable by building the latter with something like
MAIN_LD="clang++ -fsanitize=undefined"

Option float-divide-by-zero is undesirable for use with R which allow such divisions as part of IEC 60559
arithmetic, and in versions of clang since June 2019 it is no longer part of -fsanitize=undefined.
For GCC see https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Instrumentation-Options.html (or the manual for your version
of GCC, installed or via https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/: look for ‘Program Instrumentation Options’) for the
options supported by GCC: 10 supported
-fsanitize=alignment,bool,bounds,builtin,enum,integer-divide-by-zero,
nonnull-attribute,null,object-size,pointer-overflow,return,
returns-nonnull-attribute,shift,signed-integer-overflow,
unreachable,vla-bound,vptr

plus the more specific versions shift-base and shift-exponent and non-default options
bound-strict,float-cast-overflow,float-divide-by-zero

where float-divide-by-zero is not desirable for R uses and bounds-strict is an extension of bounds.
Other useful flags include
-no-fsanitize-recover

which causes the first report to be fatal (it always is for the unreachable and return suboptions). For more
detailed information on where the runtime error occurs, using
setenv UBSAN_OPTIONS ‘print_stacktrace=1’

will include a traceback in the report. Beyond that, R can be run under a debugger with a breakpoint set before
the sanitizer report is produced: for gdb or lldb you could use
break __ubsan_handle_float_cast_overflow
break __ubsan_handle_float_cast_overflow_abort

or similar (there are handlers for each type of undefined behaviour).

There are also the compiler flags -fcatch-undefined-behavior and -ftrapv, said to be more reliable in clang
than gcc.
For more details on the topic see https://blog.regehr.org/archives/213 and https://blog.llvm.org/2011/05/what-
every-c-programmer-should-know.html (which has 3 parts).
It may or may not be possible to build R itself with -fsanitize=undefined: problems have been seen with
OpenMP-using code with gcc but there has been success with clang.

Next: Other analyses with ‘gcc’, Previous: Using the Undefined Behaviour Sanitizer, Up: Checking memory
access [Contents][Index]

4.3.5 Other analyses with ‘clang’

Recent versions of clang on ‘x86_64’ Linux have ‘ThreadSanitizer’

(https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki#threadsanitizer), a ‘data race detector for C/C++ programs’, and
‘MemorySanitizer’ (https://clang.llvm.org/docs/MemorySanitizer.html, https://github.com/google/sanitizers) for
the detection of uninitialized memory. Both are based on and provide similar functionality to tools in valgrind.
clang has a ‘Static Analyzer’ which can be run on the source files during compilation: see https://clang-
analyzer.llvm.org/.

Next: Using ‘Dr. Memory’, Previous: Other analyses with ‘clang’, Up: Checking memory access [Contents]
[Index]

4.3.6 Other analyses with ‘gcc’

GCC 10 introduced a new flag -fanalyzer which does static analysis during compilation, currently for C code. It
is regarded as experimental and it may slow down computation considerably when problems are found (and use
many GB of resident memory). There is some overlap with problems detected by the Undefined Behaviour
sanitizer, but some issues are only reported by this tool and as it is a static analysis, it does not rely on code
paths being exercised.
See https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-10.1.0/gcc/Static-Analyzer-Options.html (or the documentation for your
version of gcc if later) and https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2020/03/26/static-analysis-in-gcc-10

Next: Fortran array bounds checking, Previous: Other analyses with ‘gcc’, Up: Checking memory access
[Contents][Index]

4.3.7 Using ‘Dr. Memory’

‘Dr. Memory’ from https://drmemory.org/ is a memory checker for (currently) 32-bit Windows, Linux and
macOS with similar aims to valgrind. It works with unmodified executables131 and detects memory access
errors, uninitialized reads and memory leaks.

Previous: Using ‘Dr. Memory’, Up: Checking memory access [Contents][Index]

4.3.8 Fortran array bounds checking

Most of the Fortran compilers used with R allow code to be compiled with checking of array bounds: for
example gfortran has option -fbounds-check and Oracle Developer Studio has -C. This will give an error when
the upper or lower bound is exceeded, e.g.
At line 97 of file .../src/appl/dqrdc2.f
Fortran runtime error: Index ‘1’ of dimension 1 of array ‘x’ above upper bound of 0

One does need to be aware that lazy programmers often specify Fortran dimensions as 1 rather than * or a real
bound and these will be reported (as may * dimensions)
It is easy to arrange to use this check on just the code in your package: add to ~/.R/Makevars something like (for
gfortran)

FFLAGS = -g -O2 -mtune=native -fbounds-check

when you run R CMD check.

This may report errors with the way that Fortran character variables are passed, particularly when Fortran
subroutines are called from C code and character lengths are not passed (see Fortran character strings).

Next: Using Link-time Optimization, Previous: Checking memory access, Up: Debugging [Contents][Index]

4.4 Debugging compiled code

Sooner or later programmers will be faced with the need to debug compiled code loaded into R. This section is
geared to platforms using gdb with code compiled by gcc, but similar things are possible with other debuggers
such as lldb (https://lldb.llvm.org/, used on macOS) and Sun’s dbx: some debuggers have graphical front-ends
available.
Consider first ‘crashes’, that is when R terminated unexpectedly with an illegal memory access (a ‘segfault’ or
‘bus error’), illegal instruction or similar. Unix-alike versions of R use a signal handler which aims to give some
basic information. For example
 *** caught segfault ***
address 0x20000028, cause ‘memory not mapped’

Traceback:
1: .identC(class1[[1]], class2)
2: possibleExtends(class(sloti), classi, ClassDef2 = getClassDef(classi,
where = where))
3: validObject(t(cu))
4: stopifnot(validObject(cu <- as(tu, "dtCMatrix")), validObject(t(cu)),
validObject(t(tu)))

Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace
Selection: 3

Since the R process may be damaged, the only really safe options are the first or third. (Note that a core dump is
only produced where enabled: a common default in a shell is to limit its size to 0, thereby disabling it.)
A fairly common cause of such crashes is a package which uses .C or .Fortran and writes beyond (at either end)
one of the arguments it is passed. There is a good way to detect this: using options(CBoundsCheck = TRUE)
(which can be selected via the environment variable R_C_BOUNDS_CHECK=yes) changes the way .C and .Fortran
work to check if the compiled code writes in the 64 bytes at either end of an argument.
Another cause of a ‘crash’ is to overrun the C stack. R tries to track that in its own code, but it may happen in
third-party compiled code. For modern POSIX-compliant OSes R can safely catch that and return to the top-
level prompt, so one gets something like
> .C("aaa")
Error: segfault from C stack overflow
>

However, C stack overflows are fatal under Windows and normally defeat attempts at debugging on that
platform. Further, the size of the stack is set when R is compiled on Windows, whereas on POSIX OSes it can
be set in the shell from which R is launched.
If you have a crash which gives a core dump you can use something like
gdb /path/to/R/bin/exec/R core.12345

to examine the core dump. If core dumps are disabled or to catch errors that do not generate a dump one can run
R directly under a debugger by for example
$ R -d gdb --vanilla
...
gdb> run

at which point R will run normally, and hopefully the debugger will catch the error and return to its prompt. This
can also be used to catch infinite loops or interrupt very long-running code. For a simple example
> for(i in 1:1e7) x <- rnorm(100)
[hit Ctrl-C]
Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
0x00397682 in _int_free () from /lib/tls/libc.so.6
(gdb) where
#0 0x00397682 in _int_free () from /lib/tls/libc.so.6
#1 0x00397eba in free () from /lib/tls/libc.so.6
#2 0xb7cf2551 in R_gc_internal (size_needed=313)
at /users/ripley/R/svn/R-devel/src/main/memory.c:743
#3 0xb7cf3617 in Rf_allocVector (type=13, length=626)
at /users/ripley/R/svn/R-devel/src/main/memory.c:1906
#4 0xb7c3f6d3 in PutRNGstate ()
at /users/ripley/R/svn/R-devel/src/main/RNG.c:351
#5 0xb7d6c0a5 in do_random2 (call=0x94bf7d4, op=0x92580e8, args=0x9698f98,
rho=0x9698f28) at /users/ripley/R/svn/R-devel/src/main/random.c:183
...
In many cases it is possible to attach a debugger to a running process: this is helpful if an alternative front-end is
in use or to investigate a task that seems to be taking far too long. This is done by something like
gdb -p pid

where pid is the id of the R executable or front-end process and can be found from within a running R process
by calling Sys.getpid() or from a process monitor. This stops the process so its state can be examined: use
continue to resume execution.

Some “tricks” worth knowing follow:

Finding entry points in dynamically loaded code
Inspecting R objects when debugging
Debugging on macOS

Next: Inspecting R objects when debugging, Previous: Debugging compiled code, Up: Debugging compiled
code [Contents][Index]

4.4.1 Finding entry points in dynamically loaded code

Under most compilation environments, compiled code dynamically loaded into R cannot have breakpoints set
within it until it is loaded. To use a symbolic debugger on such dynamically loaded code under Unix-alikes use
Call the debugger on the R executable, for example by R -d gdb.
Start R.
At the R prompt, use dyn.load or library to load your shared object.
Send an interrupt signal. This will put you back to the debugger prompt.
Set the breakpoints in your code.
Continue execution of R by typing signal 0RET.
Under Windows signals may not be able to be used, and if so the procedure is more complicated. See the rw-
FAQ.

Next: Debugging on macOS, Previous: Finding entry points in dynamically loaded code, Up: Debugging
compiled code [Contents][Index]

4.4.2 Inspecting R objects when debugging

The key to inspecting R objects from compiled code is the function PrintValue(SEXP s) which uses the normal
R printing mechanisms to print the R object pointed to by s, or the safer version R_PV(SEXP s) which will only
print ‘objects’.
One way to make use of PrintValue is to insert suitable calls into the code to be debugged.
Another way is to call R_PV from the symbolic debugger. (PrintValue is hidden as Rf_PrintValue.) For example,
from gdb we can use
(gdb) p R_PV(ab)

using the object ab from the convolution example, if we have placed a suitable breakpoint in the convolution C
code.
To examine an arbitrary R object we need to work a little harder. For example, let
R> DF <- data.frame(a = 1:3, b = 4:6)

By setting a breakpoint at do_get and typing get("DF") at the R prompt, one can find out the address in memory
of DF, for example
Value returned is $1 = (SEXPREC *) 0x40583e1c
(gdb) p *$1
$2 = {
sxpinfo = {type = 19, obj = 1, named = 1, gp = 0,
mark = 0, debug = 0, trace = 0, = 0},
attrib = 0x40583e80,
u = {
 vecsxp = {
length = 2,
type = {c = 0x40634700 "0>X@D>X@0>X@", i = 0x40634700,
f = 0x40634700, z = 0x40634700, s = 0x40634700},
truelength = 1075851272,
},
primsxp = {offset = 2},
symsxp = {pname = 0x2, value = 0x40634700, internal = 0x40203008},
listsxp = {carval = 0x2, cdrval = 0x40634700, tagval = 0x40203008},
envsxp = {frame = 0x2, enclos = 0x40634700},
closxp = {formals = 0x2, body = 0x40634700, env = 0x40203008},
promsxp = {value = 0x2, expr = 0x40634700, env = 0x40203008}
}
}

(Debugger output reformatted for better legibility).

Using R_PV() one can “inspect” the values of the various elements of the SEXP, for example,
(gdb) p R_PV($1->attrib)
$names
[1] "a" "b"

$row.names
[1] "1" "2" "3"

$class
[1] "data.frame"

$3 = void

To find out where exactly the corresponding information is stored, one needs to go “deeper”:
(gdb) set $a = $1->attrib
(gdb) p $a->u.listsxp.tagval->u.symsxp.pname->u.vecsxp.type.c
$4 = 0x405d40e8 "names"
(gdb) p $a->u.listsxp.carval->u.vecsxp.type.s[1]->u.vecsxp.type.c
$5 = 0x40634378 "b"
(gdb) p $1->u.vecsxp.type.s[0]->u.vecsxp.type.i[0]
$6 = 1
(gdb) p $1->u.vecsxp.type.s[1]->u.vecsxp.type.i[1]
$7 = 5

Another alternative is the R_inspect function which shows the low-level structure of the objects recursively
(addresses differ from the above as this example is created on another machine):
(gdb) p R_inspect($1)
@100954d18 19 VECSXP g0c2 [OBJ,NAM(2),ATT] (len=2, tl=0)
@100954d50 13 INTSXP g0c2 [NAM(2)] (len=3, tl=0) 1,2,3
@100954d88 13 INTSXP g0c2 [NAM(2)] (len=3, tl=0) 4,5,6
ATTRIB:
@102a70140 02 LISTSXP g0c0 []
TAG: @10083c478 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [MARK,NAM(2),gp=0x4000] "names"
@100954dc0 16 STRSXP g0c2 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0)
@10099df28 09 CHARSXP g0c1 [MARK,gp=0x21] "a"
@10095e518 09 CHARSXP g0c1 [MARK,gp=0x21] "b"
TAG: @100859e60 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [MARK,NAM(2),gp=0x4000] "row.names"
@102a6f868 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=1) -2147483648,-3
TAG: @10083c948 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [MARK,gp=0x4000] "class"
@102a6f838 16 STRSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=1, tl=1)
@1008c6d48 09 CHARSXP g0c2 [MARK,gp=0x21,ATT] "data.frame"

In general the representation of each object follows the format:

@<address> <type-nr> <type-name> <gc-info> [<flags>] ...

For a more fine-grained control over the depth of the recursion and the output of vectors R_inspect3 takes
additional two character() parameters: maximum depth and the maximal number of elements that will be printed
for scalar vectors. The defaults in R_inspect are currently -1 (no limit) and 5 respectively.
Previous: Inspecting R objects when debugging, Up: Debugging compiled code [Contents][Index]

4.4.3 Debugging on macOS

To debug code in a package it is easiest to unpack it in a directory and install it with

R CMD INSTALL --dsym pkgname

as macOS does not store debugging symbols in the .so file. (It is not necessary to have R built with debugging
symbols, although compiling the package should be done including -g in CFLAGS / CXXFLAGS / FCFLAGS as
appropriate.)
Security measures may prevent running a CRAN binary distribution of R under lldb or attaching this as a
debugger (https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/RMacOSX-FAQ.html#I-cannot-attach-debugger-to-R), although
both were possible on High Sierra. This can also affect locally compiled builds, where attaching to an interactive
R session under Big Sur or Monterey worked in 2021 after giving administrator permission via a popup-up. (To
debug in what Apple deems a non-interactive session, e.g. logged in remotely, see man DevToolsSecurity.)
Debugging a local build of R on macOS can raise additional hurdles as environment variables such as
DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH are not usually passed through132 the lldb process, resulting in messages like

R -d lldb
...
(lldb) run
Process 16828 launched: ‘/path/to/bin/exec/R’ (x86_64)
dyld: Library not loaded: libR.dylib
Referenced from: /path/to/bin/exec/R

A quick workaround is to symlink the dylibs under R_HOME/lib to somewhere where they will be found such as
the current working directory. It would be possible to do as the distribution does133 and use install_name_tool,
but that would have to be done for all the dylibs including those in packages.
It may be simplest to attach the debugger to a running process (see above). Specifically, run R and when it is at
the prompt just before a command that is to be debugged, at a terminal
ps -ef | grep exec/R
# identify the pid pid for the next command
lldb -p pid
(lldb) continue

and then return to the R console.

For non-interactive use, one may need lldb --batch.

Previous: Debugging compiled code, Up: Debugging [Contents][Index]

4.5 Using Link-time Optimization

Where supported, link time optimization provides a comprehensive way to check the consistency of calls
between Fortran files or between C and Fortran. Use this via R CMD INSTALL --use-LTO.
To set up support on a Unix-alike, See Link-Time Optimization in R Installation and Administration. On Linux
using GCC without building R with LTO support, it should suffice to set
LTO_OPT = -flto
LTO_FC_OPT = -flto
AR = gcc-ar
NM = gcc-nm

in a personal (or site) Makevars file: See Customizing package compilation in R Installation and Administration,
For Windows, first edit file etc/${R_ARCH}/Makeconf to give LTO_OPT the value -flto or do so in a personal/site
Makevars file; see also file src/gnuwin32/README.compilation in the sources.
For example:
 boot.f:61: warning: type of ‘ddot’ does not match original declaration [-Wlto-type-mismatch]
y(j,i)=ddot(p,x(j,1),n,b(1,j,i),1)
crq.f:1023: note: return value type mismatch

where the package author forgot to declare

double precision ddot
external ddot

in boot.f. That package had its own copy of ddot: to detect misuse of the one in R’s BLAS library would have
needed R configured with --enable-lto=check.
Further examples:
rkpk2.f:77:5: warning: type of ‘dstup’ does not match original declaration [-Wlto-type-mismatch]
*info, wk)
rkpk1.f:2565:5: note: type mismatch in parameter 14
subroutine dstup (s, lds, nobs, nnull, qraux, jpvt, y, q, ldqr,
rkpk1.f:2565:5: note: ‘dstup’ was previously declared here

where the fourteenth argument dum was missing in the call.

reg.f:78:33: warning: type of ‘dqrdc’ does not match original declaration [-Wlto-type-mismatch]
call dqrdc (sr, nobs, nobs, nnull, wk, dum, dum, 0)
dstup.f:20: note: ‘dqrdc’ was previously declared here
call dqrdc (s, lds, nobs, nnull, qraux, jpvt, work, 1)

dqrdcis a LINPACK routine from R, jpvt is an integer array and work is a double precision one so dum cannot
match both. (If --enable-lto=check had been used the comparison would have been with the definition in R.)
For Fortran files all in the package, most inconsistencies can be detected by concatenating the Fortran files and
compiling the result, sometimes with clearer diagnostics than provided by LTO. For our last two examples this
gives
all.f:2966:72:

*info, work1)
1
Warning: Missing actual argument for argument ‘dum’ at (1)

and
all.f:1663:72:

*ipvtwk), wk(ikwk), wk(iwork1), wk(iwork2), info)

1
Warning: Type mismatch in argument ‘jpvt’ at (1); passed REAL(8) to INTEGER(4)

Next: The R API: entry points for C code, Previous: Debugging, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents][Index]

5 System and foreign language interfaces

Operating system access
Interface functions .C and .Fortran
dyn.load and dyn.unload
Registering native routines
Creating shared objects
Interfacing C++ code
Fortran I/O
Linking to other packages
Handling R objects in C
Interface functions .Call and .External
Evaluating R expressions from C
Parsing R code from C
External pointers and weak references
 Vector accessor functions
Character encoding issues

Next: Interface functions .C and .Fortran, Previous: System and foreign language interfaces, Up: System and
foreign language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.1 Operating system access

Access to operating system functions is via the R functions system and system2. The details will differ by
platform (see the on-line help), and about all that can safely be assumed is that the first argument will be a string
command that will be passed for execution (not necessarily by a shell) and the second argument to system will be
internal which if true will collect the output of the command into an R character vector.
On POSIX-compliant OSes these commands pass a command-line to a shell: Windows is not POSIX-compliant
and there is a separate function shell to do so.
The function system.time is available for timing. Timing on child processes is only available on Unix-alikes,
and may not be reliable there.

Next: dyn.load and dyn.unload, Previous: Operating system access, Up: System and foreign language interfaces
[Contents][Index]

5.2 Interface functions .C and .Fortran

These two functions provide an interface to compiled code that has been linked into R, either at build time or via
dyn.load (see dyn.load and dyn.unload). They are primarily intended for compiled C and Fortran code
respectively, but the .C function can be used with other languages which can generate C interfaces, for example
C++ (see Interfacing C++ code).
The first argument to each function is a character string specifying the symbol name as known134 to C or
Fortran, that is the function or subroutine name. (That the symbol is loaded can be tested by, for example,
is.loaded("cg"). Use the name you pass to .C or .Fortran rather than the translated symbol name.)

There can be up to 65 further arguments giving R objects to be passed to compiled code. Normally these are
copied before being passed in, and copied again to an R list object when the compiled code returns. If the
arguments are given names, these are used as names for the components in the returned list object (but not
passed to the compiled code).
The following table gives the mapping between the modes of R atomic vectors and the types of arguments to a C
function or Fortran subroutine.

R storage mode C type Fortran type

logical int * INTEGER
integer int * INTEGER
double double * DOUBLE PRECISION
complex Rcomplex * DOUBLE COMPLEX
character char ** CHARACTER(255)
raw unsigned char * none

On all R platforms int and INTEGER are 32-bit. Code ported from S-PLUS (which uses long * for logical and
integer) will not work on all 64-bit platforms (although it may appear to work on some, including Windows).
Note also that if your compiled code is a mixture of C functions and Fortran subprograms the argument types
must match as given in the table above.
C type Rcomplex is a structure with double members r and i defined in the header file R_ext/Complex.h included
by R.h. (On most platforms this is stored in a way compatible with the C99 double complex type: however, it
may not be possible to pass Rcomplex to a C99 function expecting a double complex argument. Nor need it be
compatible with a C++ complex type. Moreover, the compatibility can depend on the optimization level set for
the compiler.)
Only a single character string of fixed length can be passed to or from Fortran (the length is not passed), and the
success of this is compiler-dependent: its use was formally deprecated in 2019. Other R objects can be passed to
.C, but it is much better to use one of the other interfaces.
It is possible to pass numeric vectors of storage mode double to C as float * or to Fortran as REAL by setting the
attribute Csingle, most conveniently by using the R functions as.single, single or mode. This is intended only to
be used to aid interfacing existing C or Fortran code.
Logical values are sent as 0 (FALSE), 1 (TRUE) or INT_MIN = -2147483648 (NA, but only if NAOK is true), and the
compiled code should return one of these three values. (Non-zero values other than INT_MIN are mapped to TRUE.)
Note that the use of int * for Fortran logical is not guaranteed to be portable (although people have gotten away
with it for many years): it is better to pass integers and convert to/from Fortran logical in a Fortran wrapper.
Unless formal argument NAOK is true, all the other arguments are checked for missing values NA and for the IEEE
special values NaN, Inf and -Inf, and the presence of any of these generates an error. If it is true, these values are
passed unchecked.
Argument PACKAGE confines the search for the symbol name to a specific shared object (or use "base" for code
compiled into R). Its use is highly desirable, as there is no way to avoid two package writers using the same
symbol name, and such name clashes are normally sufficient to cause R to crash. (If it is not present and the call
is from the body of a function defined in a package namespace, the shared object loaded by the first (if any)
useDynLib directive will be used.)

Note that the compiled code should not return anything except through its arguments: C functions should be of
type void and Fortran subprograms should be subroutines.
To fix ideas, let us consider a very simple example which convolves two finite sequences. (This is hard to do
fast in interpreted R code, but easy in C code.) We could do this using .C by
void convolve(double *a, int *na, double *b, int *nb, double *ab)
{
int nab = *na + *nb - 1;

for(int i = 0; i < nab; i++)

ab[i] = 0.0;
for(int i = 0; i < *na; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < *nb; j++)
ab[i + j] += a[i] * b[j];
}

called from R by
conv <- function(a, b)
.C("convolve",
as.double(a),
as.integer(length(a)),
as.double(b),
as.integer(length(b)),
ab = double(length(a) + length(b) - 1))$ab

Note that we take care to coerce all the arguments to the correct R storage mode before calling .C; mistakes in
matching the types can lead to wrong results or hard-to-catch errors.
Special care is needed in handling character vector arguments in C (or C++). On entry the contents of the
elements are duplicated and assigned to the elements of a char ** array, and on exit the elements of the C array
are copied to create new elements of a character vector. This means that the contents of the character strings of
the char ** array can be changed, including to \0 to shorten the string, but the strings cannot be lengthened. It is
possible135 to allocate a new string via R_alloc and replace an entry in the char ** array by the new string.
However, when character vectors are used other than in a read-only way, the .Call interface is much to be
preferred.
Passing character strings to Fortran code needs even more care, is deprecated and should be avoided where
possible. Only the first element of the character vector is passed in, as a fixed-length (255) character array. Up to
255 characters are passed back to a length-one character vector. How well this works (or even if it works at all)
depends on the C and Fortran compilers on each platform (including on their options). Often what is being
passed to Fortran is one of a small set of possible values (a factor in R terms) which could alternatively be
passed as an integer code: similarly Fortran code that wants to generate diagnostic messages could pass an
integer code to a C or R wrapper which would convert it to a character string.
It is possible to pass some R objects other than atomic vectors via .C, but this is only supported for historical
compatibility: use the .Call or .External interfaces for such objects. Any C/C++ code that includes
Rinternals.h should be called via .Call or .External.

Next: Registering native routines, Previous: Interface functions .C and .Fortran, Up: System and foreign
language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.3 dyn.load and dyn.unload

Compiled code to be used with R is loaded as a shared object (Unix-alikes including macOS, see Creating
shared objects for more information) or DLL (Windows).
The shared object/DLL is loaded by dyn.load and unloaded by dyn.unload. Unloading is not normally necessary
and is not safe in general, but it is needed to allow the DLL to be re-built on some platforms, including
Windows. Unloading a DLL and then re-loading a DLL of the same name may not work: Solaris uses the first
version loaded. A DLL that registers C finalizers, but fails to unregister them when unloaded, may cause R to
crash after unloading.
The first argument to both functions is a character string giving the path to the object. Programmers should not
assume a specific file extension for the object/DLL (such as .so) but use a construction like
file.path(path1, path2, paste0("mylib", .Platform$dynlib.ext))

for platform independence. On Unix-alike systems the path supplied to dyn.load can be an absolute path, one
relative to the current directory or, if it starts with ‘~’, relative to the user’s home directory.
Loading is most often done automatically based on the useDynLib() declaration in the NAMESPACE file, but may be
done explicitly via a call to library.dynam. This has the form
library.dynam("libname", package, lib.loc)

where libname is the object/DLL name with the extension omitted. Note that the first argument, chname, should
not be package since this will not work if the package is installed under another name.
Under some Unix-alike systems there is a choice of how the symbols are resolved when the object is loaded,
governed by the arguments local and now. Only use these if really necessary: in particular using now=FALSE and
then calling an unresolved symbol will terminate R unceremoniously.
R provides a way of executing some code automatically when a object/DLL is either loaded or unloaded. This
can be used, for example, to register native routines with R’s dynamic symbol mechanism, initialize some data
in the native code, or initialize a third party library. On loading a DLL, R will look for a routine within that DLL
named R_init_lib where lib is the name of the DLL file with the extension removed. For example, in the
command
library.dynam("mylib", package, lib.loc)

R looks for the symbol named R_init_mylib. Similarly, when unloading the object, R looks for a routine named
R_unload_lib, e.g., R_unload_mylib. In either case, if the routine is present, R will invoke it and pass it a single
argument describing the DLL. This is a value of type DllInfo which is defined in the Rdynload.h file in the
R_ext directory.

Note that there are some implicit restrictions on this mechanism as the basename of the DLL needs to be both a
valid file name and valid as part of a C entry point (e.g. it cannot contain ‘.’): for portable code it is best to
confine DLL names to be ASCII alphanumeric plus underscore. If entry point R_init_lib is not found it is also
looked for with ‘.’ replaced by ‘_’.
The following example shows templates for the initialization and unload routines for the mylib DLL.

#include <R_ext/Rdynload.h>

void
R_init_mylib(DllInfo *info)
{
/* Register routines,
allocate resources. */
 }

void
R_unload_mylib(DllInfo *info)
{
/* Release resources. */
}

If a shared object/DLL is loaded more than once the most recent version is used.136 More generally, if the same
symbol name appears in several shared objects, the most recently loaded occurrence is used. The PACKAGE
argument and registration (see the next section) provide good ways to avoid any ambiguity in which occurrence
is meant.
On Unix-alikes the paths used to resolve dynamically linked dependent libraries are fixed (for security reasons)
when the process is launched, so dyn.load will only look for such libraries in the locations set by the R shell
script (via etc/ldpaths) and in the OS-specific defaults.
Windows allows more control (and less security) over where dependent DLLs are looked for. On all versions
this includes the PATH environment variable, but with lowest priority: note that it does not include the directory
from which the DLL was loaded. It is possible to add a single path with quite high priority via the DLLpath
argument to dyn.load. This is (by default) used by library.dynam to include the package’s libs/i386 or
libs/x64 directory in the DLL search path.

Next: Creating shared objects, Previous: dyn.load and dyn.unload, Up: System and foreign language interfaces
[Contents][Index]

5.4 Registering native routines

By ‘native’ routine, we mean an entry point in compiled code.

In calls to .C, .Call, .Fortran and .External, R must locate the specified native routine by looking in the
appropriate shared object/DLL. By default, R uses the operating-system-specific dynamic loader to lookup the
symbol in all137 loaded DLLs and the R executable or libraries it is linked to. Alternatively, the author of the
DLL can explicitly register routines with R and use a single, platform-independent mechanism for finding the
routines in the DLL. One can use this registration mechanism to provide additional information about a routine,
including the number and type of the arguments, and also make it available to R programmers under a different
name.
Registering routines has two main advantages: it provides a faster138 way to find the address of the entry point
via tables stored in the DLL at compilation time, and it provides a run-time check that the entry point is called
with the right number of arguments and, optionally, the right argument types.
To register routines with R, one calls the C routine R_registerRoutines. This is typically done when the DLL is
first loaded within the initialization routine R_init_dll name described in dyn.load and dyn.unload.
R_registerRoutines takes 5 arguments. The first is the DllInfo object passed by R to the initialization routine.
This is where R stores the information about the methods. The remaining 4 arguments are arrays describing the
routines for each of the 4 different interfaces: .C, .Call, .Fortran and .External. Each argument is a NULL-
terminated array of the element types given in the following table:

.C R_CMethodDef
.Call R_CallMethodDef
.Fortran R_FortranMethodDef
.External R_ExternalMethodDef

Currently, the R_ExternalMethodDef type is the same as R_CallMethodDef type and contains fields for the name of
the routine by which it can be accessed in R, a pointer to the actual native symbol (i.e., the routine itself), and
the number of arguments the routine expects to be passed from R. For example, if we had a routine named
myCall defined as

SEXP myCall(SEXP a, SEXP b, SEXP c);

we would describe this as

 static const R_CallMethodDef callMethods[] = {
{"myCall", (DL_FUNC) &myCall, 3},
{NULL, NULL, 0}
};

along with any other routines for the .Call interface. For routines with a variable number of arguments invoked
via the .External interface, one specifies -1 for the number of arguments which tells R not to check the actual
number passed.
Routines for use with the .C and .Fortran interfaces are described with similar data structures, which have one
optional additional field for describing the type of each argument. If specified, this field should be an array with
the SEXP types describing the expected type of each argument of the routine. (Technically, the elements of the
types array are of type R_NativePrimitiveArgType which is just an unsigned integer.) The R types and
corresponding type identifiers are provided in the following table:

numeric REALSXP
integer INTSXP
logical LGLSXP
single SINGLESXP
character STRSXP
list VECSXP

Consider a C routine, myC, declared as

void myC(double *x, int *n, char **names, int *status);

We would register it as
static R_NativePrimitiveArgType myC_type[] = {
REALSXP, INTSXP, STRSXP, LGLSXP
};

static const R_CMethodDef cMethods[] = {

{"myC", (DL_FUNC) &myC, 4, myC_type},
{NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

If registering types, check carefully that the number of types matches the number of arguments: as the type array
(here myC_type) is passed as a pointer in C, the registration mechanism cannot check this for you.
Note that .Fortran entry points are mapped to lowercase, so registration should use lowercase only.
Having created the arrays describing each routine, the last step is to actually register them with R. We do this by
calling R_registerRoutines. For example, if we have the descriptions above for the routines accessed by the .C
and .Call we would use the following code:
void
R_init_myLib(DllInfo *info)
{
R_registerRoutines(info, cMethods, callMethods, NULL, NULL);
}

This routine will be invoked when R loads the shared object/DLL named myLib. The last two arguments in the
call to R_registerRoutines are for the routines accessed by .Fortran and .External interfaces. In our example,
these are given as NULL since we have no routines of these types.
When R unloads a shared object/DLL, its registrations are removed. There is no other facility for unregistering a
symbol.
Examples of registering routines can be found in the different packages in the R source tree (e.g., stats and
graphics). Also, there is a brief, high-level introduction in R News (volume 1/3, September 2001, pages 20–23,
https://www.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/Rnews_2001-3.pdf).
Once routines are registered, they can be referred to as R objects if this is arranged in the useDynLib call in the
package’s NAMESPACE file (see useDynLib). So for example the stats package has
 # Refer to all C/Fortran routines by their name prefixed by C_
useDynLib(stats, .registration = TRUE, .fixes = "C_")

in its NAMESPACE file, and then ansari.test’s default methods can contain
pansari <- function(q, m, n)
.C(C_pansari, as.integer(length(q)), p = as.double(q),
as.integer(m), as.integer(n))$p

This avoids the overhead of looking up an entry point each time it is used, and ensures that the entry point in the
package is the one used (without a PACKAGE = "pkg" argument).
R_init_ routines are often of the form
void attribute_visible R_init_mypkg(DllInfo *dll)
{
R_registerRoutines(dll, CEntries, CallEntries, FortEntries,
ExternalEntries);
R_useDynamicSymbols(dll, FALSE);
R_forceSymbols(dll, TRUE);
...
}

The R_useDynamicSymbols call says the DLL is not to be searched for entry points specified by character strings
so .C etc calls will only find registered symbols: the R_forceSymbols call only allows .C etc calls which specify
entry points by R objects such as C_pansari (and not by character strings). Each provides some protection
against accidentally finding your entry points when people supply a character string without a package, and
avoids slowing down such searches. (For the visibility attribute see Controlling visibility.)
In more detail, if a package mypkg contains entry points reg and unreg and the first is registered as a 0-argument
.Call routine, we could use (from code in the package)

.Call("reg")
.Call("unreg")

Without or with registration, these will both work. If R_init_mypkg calls R_useDynamicSymbols(dll, FALSE), only
the first will work. If in addition to registration the NAMESPACE file contains
useDynLib(mypkg, .registration = TRUE, .fixes = "C_")

then we can call .Call(C_reg). Finally, if R_init_mypkg also calls R_forceSymbols(dll, TRUE), only
.Call(C_reg) will work (and not .Call("reg")). This is usually what we want: it ensures that all of our own
.Call calls go directly to the intended code in our package and that no one else accidentally finds our entry
points. (Should someone need to call our code from outside the package, for example for debugging, they can
use .Call(mypkg:::C_reg).)
Speed considerations
Example: converting a package to use registration
Linking to native routines in other packages

Next: Example: converting a package to use registration, Previous: Registering native routines, Up: Registering
native routines [Contents][Index]

5.4.1 Speed considerations

Sometimes registering native routines or using a PACKAGE argument can make a large difference. The results can
depend quite markedly on the OS (and even if it is 32- or 64-bit), on the version of R and what else is loaded
into R at the time.
To fix ideas, first consider x86_64 OS 10.7 and R 2.15.2. A simple .Call function might be
foo <- function(x) .Call("foo", x)

with C code
#include <Rinternals.h>
 SEXP foo(SEXP x)
{
return x;
}

If we compile with by R CMD SHLIB foo.c, load the code by dyn.load("foo.so") and run foo(pi) it took around
22 microseconds (us). Specifying the DLL by
foo2 <- function(x) .Call("foo", x, PACKAGE = "foo")

reduced the time to 1.7 us.

Now consider making these functions part of a package whose NAMESPACE file uses useDynlib(foo). This
immediately reduces the running time as "foo" will be preferentially looked for foo.dll. Without specifying
PACKAGE it took about 5 us (it needs to fathom out the appropriate DLL each time it is invoked but it does not
need to search all DLLs), and with the PACKAGE argument it is again about 1.7 us.
Next suppose the package has registered the native routine foo. Then foo() still has to find the appropriate DLL
but can get to the entry point in the DLL faster, in about 4.2 us. And foo2() now takes about 1 us. If we register
the symbols in the NAMESPACE file and use
foo3 <- function(x) .Call(C_foo, x)

then the address for the native routine is looked up just once when the package is loaded, and foo3(pi) takes
about 0.8 us.
Versions using .C() rather than .Call() took about 0.2 us longer.
These are all quite small differences, but C routines are not uncommonly invoked millions of times for run times
of a few microseconds each, and those doing such things may wish to be aware of the differences.
On Linux and Solaris there is a smaller overhead in looking up symbols.
Symbol lookup on Windows used to be far slower, so R maintains a small cache. If the cache is currently empty
enough that the symbol can be stored in the cache then the performance is similar to Linux and Solaris: if not it
may be slower. R’s own code always uses registered symbols and so these never contribute to the cache:
however many other packages do rely on symbol lookup.
In more recent versions of R all the standard packages register native symbols and do not allow symbol search,
so in a new session foo() can only look in foo.so and may be as fast as foo2(). This will no longer apply when
many contributed packages are loaded, and generally those last loaded are searched first. For example, consider
R 3.3.2 on x86_64 Linux. In an empty R session, both foo() and foo2() took about 0.75 us; however after
packages igraph and spatstat had been loaded (which loaded another 12 DLLs), foo() took 3.6 us but foo2()
still took about 0.80 us. Using registration in a package reduced this to 0.55 us and foo3() took 0.40 us, times
which were unchanged when further packages were loaded.

Next: Linking to native routines in other packages, Previous: Speed considerations, Up: Registering native
routines [Contents][Index]

5.4.2 Example: converting a package to use registration

The splines package was converted to use symbol registration in 2001, but we can use it as an example139 of
what needs to be done for a small package.
Find the relevant entry points. This is somewhat OS-specific, but something like the following should be
possible at the OS command-line
nm -g /path/to/splines.so | grep " T "
0000000000002670 T _spline_basis
0000000000001ec0 T _spline_value

This indicates that there are two relevant entry points. (They may or may not have a leading underscore,
as here. Fortran entry points will have a trailing underscore.) Check in the R code that they are called by
the package and how: in this case they are used by .Call.
Alternatively, examine the package’s R code for all .C, .Fortran, .Call and .External calls.
 Construct the registration table. First write skeleton registration code, conventionally in file src/init.c
(or at the end of the only C source file in the package: if included in a C++ file the ‘R_init’ function
would need to be declared extern "C"):
#include <stdlib.h> // for NULL
#include <R_ext/Rdynload.h>

#define CALLDEF(name, n) {#name, (DL_FUNC) &name, n}

static const R_CallMethodDef R_CallDef[] = {

CALLDEF(spline_basis, ?),
CALLDEF(spline_value, ?),
{NULL, NULL, 0}
};

void R_init_splines(DllInfo *dll)

{
R_registerRoutines(dll, NULL, R_CallDef, NULL, NULL);
}

and then replace the ? in the skeleton with the actual numbers of arguments. You will need to add
declarations (also known as ‘prototypes’) of the functions unless appending to the only C source file.
Some packages will already have these in a header file, or you could create one and include it in init.c,
for example splines.h containing
#include <Rinternals.h> // for SEXP
extern SEXP spline_basis(SEXP knots, SEXP order, SEXP xvals, SEXP derivs);
extern SEXP spline_value(SEXP knots, SEXP coeff, SEXP order, SEXP x, SEXP deriv);

Tools are available to extract declarations, at least for C and C++ code: see the help file for
package_native_routine_registration_skeleton in package tools. Here we could have used

cproto -I/path/to/R/include -e splines.c

For examples of registering other types of calls, see packages graphics and stats. In particular, when
registering entry points for .Fortran one needs declarations as if called from C, such as
#include <R_ext/RS.h>
void F77_NAME(supsmu)(int *n, double *x, double *y,
double *w, int *iper, double *span, double *alpha,
double *smo, double *sc, double *edf);

gfortran 8.4, 9.2 and later can help generate such prototypes with its flag -fc-prototypes-external
(although one will need to replace the hard-coded trailing underscore with the F77_NAME macro).
One can get away with inaccurate argument lists in the declarations: it is easy to specify the arguments for
.Call (all SEXP) and .External (one SEXP) and as the arguments for .C and .Fortran are all pointers,
specifying them as void * suffices. (For most platforms one can omit all the arguments, although link-
time optimization will warn.)
Using -fc-prototypes-external will give a prototype using int_least32_t *lgl for Fortran LOGICAL LGL,
but this is not portable and traditionally it has been assumed that the C/C++ equivalent was int *lgl. If
adding a declaration just to register a .Fortran call, the most portable version is void *lgl.
(Optional but highly recommended.) Restrict .Call etc to use the symbols you chose to register by editing
src/init.c to contain

void R_init_splines(DllInfo *dll)

{
R_registerRoutines(dll, NULL, R_CallDef, NULL, NULL);
R_useDynamicSymbols(dll, FALSE);
}

A skeleton for the steps so far can be made using package_native_routine_registration_skeleton in package
tools. This will optionally create declarations based on the usage in the R code.
The remaining steps are optional but recommended.
Edit the NAMESPACE file to create R objects for the registered symbols:
 useDynLib(splines, .registration = TRUE, .fixes = "C_")

Find all the relevant calls in the R code and edit them to use the R objects. This entailed changing the lines
temp <- .Call("spline_basis", knots, ord, x, derivs, PACKAGE = "splines")
y[accept] <- .Call("spline_value", knots, coeff, ord, x[accept], deriv, PACKAGE = "splines")
y = .Call("spline_value", knots, coef(object), ord, x, deriv, PACKAGE = "splines")

to
temp <- .Call(C_spline_basis, knots, ord, x, derivs)
y[accept] <- .Call(C_spline_value, knots, coeff, ord, x[accept], deriv)
y = .Call(C_spline_value, knots, coef(object), ord, x, deriv)

Check that there is no exportPattern directive which unintentionally exports the newly created R objects.
Restrict .Call to use the R symbols by editing src/init.c to contain
void R_init_splines(DllInfo *dll)
{
R_registerRoutines(dll, NULL, R_CallDef, NULL, NULL);
R_useDynamicSymbols(dll, FALSE);
R_forceSymbols(dll, TRUE);
}

Consider visibility. On some OSes we can hide entry points from the loader, which precludes any possible
name clashes and calling them accidentally (usually with incorrect arguments and crashing the R process).
If we repeat the first step we now see
nm -g /path/to/splines.so | grep " T "
0000000000002e00 T _R_init_splines
00000000000025e0 T _spline_basis
0000000000001e20 T _spline_value

If there were any entry points not intended to be used by the package we should try to avoid exporting
them, for example by making them static. Now that the two relevant entry points are only accessed via
the registration table, we can hide them. There are two ways to do so on some Unix-alikes. We can hide
individual entry points via
#include <R_ext/Visibility.h>

SEXP attribute_hidden
spline_basis(SEXP knots, SEXP order, SEXP xvals, SEXP derivs)
…

SEXP attribute_hidden
spline_value(SEXP knots, SEXP coeff, SEXP order, SEXP x, SEXP deriv)
…

Alternatively, we can change the default visibility for all C symbols by including
PKG_CFLAGS = $(C_VISIBILITY)

in src/Makevars, and then we need to allow registration by declaring R_init_splines to be visible:

#include <R_ext/Visibility.h>

void attribute_visible
R_init_splines(DllInfo *dll)
…

See Controlling visibility for more details, including using Fortran code and ways to restrict visibility on
Windows.
We end up with a file src/init.c containing

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <R_ext/Rdynload.h>
#include <R_ext/Visibility.h> // optional
 #include "splines.h"

#define CALLDEF(name, n) {#name, (DL_FUNC) &name, n}

static const R_CallMethodDef R_CallDef[] = {

CALLDEF(spline_basis, 4),
CALLDEF(spline_value, 5),
{NULL, NULL, 0}
};

void
attribute_visible // optional
R_init_splines(DllInfo *dll)
{
R_registerRoutines(dll, NULL, R_CallDef, NULL, NULL);
R_useDynamicSymbols(dll, FALSE);
R_forceSymbols(dll, TRUE);
}

Previous: Example: converting a package to use registration, Up: Registering native routines [Contents][Index]

5.4.3 Linking to native routines in other packages

In addition to registering C routines to be called by R, it can at times be useful for one package to make some of
its C routines available to be called by C code in another package. The interface consists of two routines
declared in header R_ext/Rdynload.h as
void R_RegisterCCallable(const char *package, const char *name,
DL_FUNC fptr);
DL_FUNC R_GetCCallable(const char *package, const char *name);

A package packA that wants to make a C routine myCfun available to C code in other packages would include
the call
R_RegisterCCallable("packA", "myCfun", myCfun);

in its initialization function R_init_packA. A package packB that wants to use this routine would retrieve the
function pointer with a call of the form
p_myCfun = R_GetCCallable("packA", "myCfun");

The author of packB is responsible for ensuring that p_myCfun has an appropriate declaration. In the future R
may provide some automated tools to simplify exporting larger numbers of routines.
A package that wishes to make use of header files in other packages needs to declare them as a comma-
separated list in the field ‘LinkingTo’ in the DESCRIPTION file. This then arranges for the include directories in the
installed linked-to packages to be added to the include paths for C and C++ code.
It must specify140 ‘Imports’ or ‘Depends’ of those packages, for they have to be loaded141 prior to this one (so
the path to their compiled code has been registered).
CRAN examples of the use of this mechanism include coxme linking to bdsmatrix and xts linking to zoo.

Next: Interfacing C++ code, Previous: Registering native routines, Up: System and foreign language interfaces
[Contents][Index]

5.5 Creating shared objects

Shared objects for loading into R can be created using R CMD SHLIB. This accepts as arguments a list of files
which must be object files (with extension .o) or sources for C, C++, Fortran, Objective C or Objective C++
(with extensions .c, .cc or .cpp, .f (fixed-form Fortran), .f90 or .f95 (free-form), .m, and .mm or .M,
respectively), or commands to be passed to the linker. See R CMD SHLIB --help (or the R help for SHLIB) for
usage information. Note that files intended for the Fortran pre-processor with extension .F are not accepted.
If compiling the source files does not work “out of the box”, you can specify additional flags by setting some of
the variables PKG_CPPFLAGS (for the C/C++ preprocessor, mainly ‘-I’, ‘-D’ and ‘-U’ flags), PKG_CFLAGS,
PKG_CXXFLAGS, PKG_FFLAGS, PKG_OBJCFLAGS, and PKG_OBJCXXFLAGS (for the C, C++, Fortran, Objective C, and
Objective C++ compilers, respectively) in the file Makevars in the compilation directory (or, of course, create the
object files directly from the command line). Similarly, variable PKG_LIBS in Makevars can be used for additional
‘-l’ and ‘-L’ flags to be passed to the linker when building the shared object. (Supplying linker commands as
arguments to R CMD SHLIB will take precedence over PKG_LIBS in Makevars.)
It is possible to arrange to include compiled code from other languages by setting the macro ‘OBJECTS’ in file
Makevars, together with suitable rules to make the objects.

Flags that are already set (for example in file etcR_ARCH/Makeconf) can be overridden by the environment
variable MAKEFLAGS (at least for systems using a POSIX-compliant make), as in (Bourne shell syntax)
MAKEFLAGS="CFLAGS=-O3" R CMD SHLIB *.c

It is also possible to set such variables in personal Makevars files, which are read after the local Makevars and the
system makefiles or in a site-wide Makevars.site file. See Customizing package compilation in R Installation
and Administration,
Note that as R CMD SHLIB uses Make, it will not remake a shared object just because the flags have changed, and
if test.c and test.f both exist in the current directory
R CMD SHLIB test.f

will compile test.c!

If the src subdirectory of an add-on package contains source code with one of the extensions listed above or a
file Makevars but not a file Makefile, R CMD INSTALL creates a shared object (for loading into R through
useDynlib in the NAMESPACE, or in the .onLoad function of the package) using the R CMD SHLIB mechanism. If file
Makevars exists it is read first, then the system makefile and then any personal Makevars files.

If the src subdirectory of package contains a file Makefile, this is used by R CMD INSTALL in place of the R CMD
SHLIB mechanism. make is called with makefiles R_HOME/etcR_ARCH/Makeconf, src/Makefile and any personal
Makevars files (in that order). The first target found in src/Makefile is used.
It is better to make use of a Makevars file rather than a Makefile: the latter should be needed only exceptionally.
Under Windows the same commands work, but Makevars.win will be used in preference to Makevars, and only
src/Makefile.win will be used by R CMD INSTALL with src/Makefile being ignored. Since R 4.2.0, Makevars.ucrt
will be used in preference to Makevars.win and src/Makefile.ucrt will be used in preference to
src/Makefile.win. For past experiences of building DLLs with a variety of compilers, see file
‘README.packages’. Under Windows you can supply an exports definitions file called dllname-win.def:
otherwise all entry points in objects (but not libraries) supplied to R CMD SHLIB will be exported from the DLL.
An example is stats-win.def for the stats package: a CRAN example in package fastICA.
If you feel tempted to read the source code and subvert these mechanisms, please resist. Far too much developer
time has been wasted in chasing down errors caused by failures to follow this documentation, and even more by
package authors demanding explanations as to why their packages no longer work. In particular, undocumented
environment or make variables are not for use by package writers and are subject to change without notice.

Next: Fortran I/O, Previous: Creating shared objects, Up: System and foreign language interfaces [Contents]
[Index]

5.6 Interfacing C++ code

Suppose we have the following hypothetical C++ library, consisting of the two files X.h and X.cpp, and
implementing the two classes X and Y which we want to use in R.

// X.h

class X {
public: X (); ~X ();
};
 class Y {
public: Y (); ~Y ();
};

// X.cpp

#include <R.h>
#include "X.h"

static Y y;

X::X() { REprintf("constructor X\n"); }

X::~X() { REprintf("destructor X\n"); }
Y::Y() { REprintf("constructor Y\n"); }
Y::~Y() { REprintf("destructor Y\n"); }

To use with R, the only thing we have to do is writing a wrapper function and ensuring that the function is
enclosed in
extern "C" {

For example,

// X_main.cpp:

#include "X.h"

extern "C" {

void X_main () {
X x;
}

} // extern "C"

Compiling and linking should be done with the C++ compiler-linker (rather than the C compiler-linker or the
linker itself); otherwise, the C++ initialization code (and hence the constructor of the static variable Y) are not
called. On a properly configured system, one can simply use
R CMD SHLIB X.cpp X_main.cpp

to create the shared object, typically X.so (the file name extension may be different on your platform). Now
starting R yields
R version 2.14.1 Patched (2012-01-16 r58124)
Copyright (C) 2012 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
...
Type "q()" to quit R.

R> dyn.load(paste("X", .Platform$dynlib.ext, sep = ""))

constructor Y
R> .C("X_main")
constructor X
destructor X
list()
R> q()
Save workspace image? [y/n/c]: y
destructor Y
The R for Windows FAQ (rw-FAQ) contains details of how to compile this example under Windows.
Earlier versions of this example used C++ iostreams: this is best avoided. There is no guarantee that the output
will appear in the R console, and indeed it will not on the R for Windows console. Use R code or the C entry
points (see Printing) for all I/O if at all possible. Examples have been seen where merely loading a DLL that
contained calls to C++ I/O upset R’s own C I/O (for example by resetting buffers on open files).
Most R header files can be included within C++ programs but they should not be included within an extern "C"
block (as they include system headers142).
External C++ code

5.6.1 External C++ code

Quite a lot of external C++ software is header-only (e.g. most of the Boost ‘libraries’ including all those
supplied by package BH, and most of Armadillo as supplied by package RcppArmadillo) and so is compiled
when an R package which uses it is installed. This causes few problems.
A small number of external libraries used in R packages have a C++ interface to a library of compiled code, e.g.
packages rgdal and rjags. This raises many more problems! The C++ interface uses name-mangling and the
ABI143 may depend on the compiler, version and even C++ defines144, so requires the package C++ code to be
compiled in exactly the same way as the library (and what that was is often undocumented). Examples include
use of g++ vs clang++ or Solaris’ CC, and the two ABIs available for C++11 in g++ with different defaults for
GCC 4.9 and 5.x in some Linux distributions.
Even fewer external libraries use C++ internally but present a C interface, such as rgeos. These require the C++
runtime library to be linked into the package’s shared object/DLL, and this is best done by including a dummy
C++ file in the package sources.
There is a recent trend to link to the C++ interfaces offered by C software such as hdf5, pcre and
ImageMagick. Their C interfaces are much preferred for portability (and can be used from C++ code). Also, the
C++ interfaces are often optional in the software build or packaged separately and so users installing from
package sources are far less likely to already have them installed.

Next: Linking to other packages, Previous: Interfacing C++ code, Up: System and foreign language interfaces
[Contents][Index]

5.7 Fortran I/O

We have already warned against the use of C++ iostreams not least because output is not guaranteed to appear
on the R console, and this warning applies equally to Fortran output to units * and 6. See Printing from Fortran,
which describes workarounds.
In the past most Fortran compilers implemented I/O on top of the C I/O system and so the two interworked
successfully. This was true of g77, but it is less true of gfortran as used in gcc 4 and later. In particular, any
package that makes use of Fortran I/O will when compiled on Windows interfere with C I/O: when the Fortran
I/O support code is initialized (typically when the package is loaded) the C stdout and stderr are switched to
LF line endings. (Function init in file src/modules/lapack/init_win.c shows how to mitigate this. In a package
this would look something like
#ifdef _WIN32
# include <fcntl.h>
#endif

void R_init_mypkgname(DllInfo *dll)

{
// Native symbol registration calls

#ifdef _WIN32
// gfortran I/O initialization sets these to _O_BINARY
setmode(1, _O_TEXT); /* stdout */
setmode(2, _O_TEXT); /* stderr */
#endif
}
in the file used for native symbol registration.)

Next: Handling R objects in C, Previous: Fortran I/O, Up: System and foreign language interfaces [Contents]
[Index]

5.8 Linking to other packages

It is not in general possible to link a DLL in package packA to a DLL provided by package packB (for the
security reasons mentioned in dyn.load and dyn.unload, and also because some platforms distinguish between
shared objects and dynamic libraries), but it is on Windows.
Note that there can be tricky versioning issues here, as package packB could be re-installed after package
packA — it is desirable that the API provided by package packB remains backwards-compatible.
Shipping a static library in package packB for other packages to link to avoids most of the difficulties.
Unix-alikes
Windows

Next: Windows, Previous: Linking to other packages, Up: Linking to other packages [Contents][Index]

5.8.1 Unix-alikes

It is possible to link a shared object in package packA to a library provided by package packB under limited
circumstances on a Unix-alike OS. There are severe portability issues, so this is not recommended for a
distributed package.
This is easiest if packB provides a static library packB/lib/libpackB.a. (Note using directory lib rather than
libs is conventional, and architecture-specific sub-directories may be needed and are assumed in the sample
code below. The code in the static library will need to be compiled with PIC flags on platforms where it matters.)
Then as the code from package packB is incorporated when package packA is installed, we only need to find
the static library at install time for package packA. The only issue is to find package packB, and for that we can
ask R by something like (long lines broken for display here)
PKGB_PATH=‘echo ’library(packB);
cat(system.file("lib", package="packB", mustWork=TRUE))' \
| "${R_HOME}/bin/R" --vanilla --no-echo`
PKG_LIBS="$(PKGB_PATH)$(R_ARCH)/libpackB.a"

For a dynamic library packB/lib/libpackB.so (packB/lib/libpackB.dylib on macOS: note that you cannot link
to a shared object, .so, on that platform) we could use
PKGB_PATH=‘echo ’library(packB);
cat(system.file("lib", package="packB", mustWork=TRUE))' \
| "${R_HOME}/bin/R" --vanilla --no-echo`
PKG_LIBS=-L"$(PKGB_PATH)$(R_ARCH)" -lpackB

This will work for installation, but very likely not when package packB is loaded, as the path to package packB’s
lib directory is not in the ld.so145 search path. You can arrange to put it there before R is launched by setting
(on some platforms) LD_RUN_PATH or LD_LIBRARY_PATH or adding to the ld.so cache (see man ldconfig). On
platforms that support it, the path to the directory containing the dynamic library can be hardcoded at install
time (which assumes that the location of package packB will not be changed nor the package updated to a
changed API). On systems with the gcc or clang and the GNU linker (e.g. Linux) and some others this can be
done by e.g.
PKGB_PATH=‘echo ’library(packB);
cat(system.file("lib", package="packB", mustWork=TRUE)))' \
| "${R_HOME}/bin/R" --vanilla --no-echo`
PKG_LIBS=-L"$(PKGB_PATH)$(R_ARCH)" -Wl,-rpath,"$(PKGB_PATH)$(R_ARCH)" -lpackB

Some other systems (e.g. Solaris with its native linker) use -Rdir rather than -rpath,dir (and this is accepted by
the compiler as well as the linker).
It may be possible to figure out what is required semi-automatically from the result of R CMD libtool --config
(look for ‘hardcode’).
Making headers provided by package packB available to the code to be compiled in package packA can be
done by the LinkingTo mechanism (see Registering native routines).

Previous: Unix-alikes, Up: Linking to other packages [Contents][Index]

5.8.2 Windows

Suppose package packA wants to make use of compiled code provided by packB in DLL packB/libs/exB.dll,
possibly the package’s DLL packB/libs/packB.dll. (This can be extended to linking to more than one package
in a similar way.) There are three issues to be addressed:
Making headers provided by package packB available to the code to be compiled in package packA.
This is done by the LinkingTo mechanism (see Registering native routines).
preparing packA.dll to link to packB/libs/exB.dll.
This needs an entry in Makevars.win or Makevars.ucrt of the form
PKG_LIBS= -L<something> -lexB

and one possibility is that <something> is the path to the installed pkgB/libs directory. To find that we need
to ask R where it is by something like
PKGB_PATH=‘echo ’library(packB);
cat(system.file("libs", package="packB", mustWork=TRUE))' \
| rterm --vanilla --no-echo`
PKG_LIBS= -L"$(PKGB_PATH)$(R_ARCH)" -lexB

Another possibility is to use an import library, shipping with package packA an exports file exB.def. Then
Makevars.win (or Makevars.ucrt) could contain

PKG_LIBS= -L. -lexB

all: $(SHLIB) before

before: libexB.dll.a
libexB.dll.a: exB.def

and then installing package packA will make and use the import library for exB.dll. (One way to prepare
the exports file is to use pexports.exe.)
loading packA.dll which depends on exB.dll.
If exB.dll was used by package packB (because it is in fact packB.dll or packB.dll depends on it) and
packB has been loaded before packA, then nothing more needs to be done as exB.dll will already be
loaded into the R executable. (This is the most common scenario.)
More generally, we can use the DLLpath argument to library.dynam to ensure that exB.dll is found, for
example by setting
library.dynam("packA", pkg, lib,
DLLpath = system.file("libs", package="packB"))

Note that DLLpath can only set one path, and so for linking to two or more packages you would need to
resort to setting environment variable PATH.

Next: Interface functions .Call and .External, Previous: Linking to other packages, Up: System and foreign
language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.9 Handling R objects in C

Using C code to speed up the execution of an R function is often very fruitful. Traditionally this has been done
via the .C function in R. However, if a user wants to write C code using internal R data structures, then that can
be done using the .Call and .External functions. The syntax for the calling function in R in each case is similar
to that of .C, but the two functions have different C interfaces. Generally the .Call interface is simpler to use,
but .External is a little more general.
A call to .Call is very similar to .C, for example
.Call("convolve2", a, b)

The first argument should be a character string giving a C symbol name of code that has already been loaded
into R. Up to 65 R objects can passed as arguments. The C side of the interface is
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP convolve2(SEXP a, SEXP b)

...

A call to .External is almost identical

.External("convolveE", a, b)

but the C side of the interface is different, having only one argument
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP convolveE(SEXP args)

...

Here args is a LISTSXP, a Lisp-style pairlist from which the arguments can be extracted.
In each case the R objects are available for manipulation via a set of functions and macros defined in the header
file Rinternals.h or some S-compatibility macros146 See Interface functions .Call and .External for details on
.Call and .External.
Before you decide to use .Call or .External, you should look at other alternatives. First, consider working in
interpreted R code; if this is fast enough, this is normally the best option. You should also see if using .C is
enough. If the task to be performed in C is simple enough involving only atomic vectors and requiring no call to
R, .C suffices. A great deal of useful code was written using just .C before .Call and .External were available.
These interfaces allow much more control, but they also impose much greater responsibilities so need to be used
with care. Neither .Call nor .External copy their arguments: you should treat arguments you receive through
these interfaces as read-only.
To handle R objects from within C code we use the macros and functions that have been used to implement the
core parts of R. A public 147 subset of these is defined in the header file Rinternals.h in the directory
R_INCLUDE_DIR (default R_HOME/include) that should be available on any R installation.
A substantial amount of R, including the standard packages, is implemented using the functions and macros
described here, so the R source code provides a rich source of examples and “how to do it”: do make use of the
source code for inspirational examples.
It is necessary to know something about how R objects are handled in C code. All the R objects you will deal
with will be handled with the type SEXP148, which is a pointer to a structure with typedef SEXPREC. Think of this
structure as a variant type that can handle all the usual types of R objects, that is vectors of various modes,
functions, environments, language objects and so on. The details are given later in this section and in R Internal
Structures in R Internals, but for most purposes the programmer does not need to know them. Think rather of a
model such as that used by Visual Basic, in which R objects are handed around in C code (as they are in
interpreted R code) as the variant type, and the appropriate part is extracted for, for example, numerical
calculations, only when it is needed. As in interpreted R code, much use is made of coercion to force the variant
object to the right type.
Handling the effects of garbage collection
Allocating storage
Details of R types
Attributes
Classes
Handling lists
Handling character data
Finding and setting variables
 Some convenience functions
Named objects and copying

Next: Allocating storage, Previous: Handling R objects in C, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.1 Handling the effects of garbage collection

We need to know a little about the way R handles memory allocation. The memory allocated for R objects is not
freed by the user; instead, the memory is from time to time garbage collected. That is, some or all of the
allocated memory not being used is freed or marked as re-usable.
The R object types are represented by a C structure defined by a typedef SEXPREC in Rinternals.h. It contains
several things among which are pointers to data blocks and to other SEXPRECs. A SEXP is simply a pointer to a
SEXPREC.

If you create an R object in your C code, you must tell R that you are using the object by using the PROTECT
macro on a pointer to the object. This tells R that the object is in use so it is not destroyed during garbage
collection. Notice that it is the object which is protected, not the pointer variable. It is a common mistake to
believe that if you invoked PROTECT(p) at some point then p is protected from then on, but that is not true once a
new object is assigned to p.
Protecting an R object automatically protects all the R objects pointed to in the corresponding SEXPREC, for
example all elements of a protected list are automatically protected.
The programmer is solely responsible for housekeeping the calls to PROTECT. There is a corresponding macro
UNPROTECT that takes as argument an int giving the number of objects to unprotect when they are no longer
needed. The protection mechanism is stack-based, so UNPROTECT(n) unprotects the last n objects which were
protected. The calls to PROTECT and UNPROTECT must balance when the user’s code returns and should balance in
all functions. R will warn about "stack imbalance in .Call" (or .External) if the housekeeping is wrong.
Here is a small example of creating an R numeric vector in C code:
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP ab;
....
ab = PROTECT(allocVector(REALSXP, 2));
REAL(ab)[0] = 123.45;
REAL(ab)[1] = 67.89;
UNPROTECT(1);

Now, the reader may ask how the R object could possibly get removed during those manipulations, as it is just
our C code that is running. As it happens, we can do without the protection in this example, but in general we do
not know (nor want to know) what is hiding behind the R macros and functions we use, and any of them might
cause memory to be allocated, hence garbage collection and hence our object ab to be removed. It is usually
wise to err on the side of caution and assume that any of the R macros and functions might remove the object.
In some cases it is necessary to keep better track of whether protection is really needed. Be particularly aware of
situations where a large number of objects are generated. The pointer protection stack has a fixed size (default
10,000) and can become full. It is not a good idea then to just PROTECT everything in sight and UNPROTECT several
thousand objects at the end. It will almost invariably be possible to either assign the objects as part of another
object (which automatically protects them) or unprotect them immediately after use.
There is a less-used macro UNPROTECT_PTR(s) that unprotects the object pointed to by the SEXP s, even if it is not
the top item on the pointer protection stack. This macro was introduced for use in the parser, where the code
interfacing with the R heap is generated and the generator cannot be configured to insert proper calls to PROTECT
and UNPROTECT. However, UNPROTECT_PTR is dangerous to use in combination with UNPROTECT when the same
object has been protected multiple times. It has been superseded by multi-set based functions R_PreserveInMSet
and R_ReleaseFromMSet, which protect objects in a multi-set created by R_NewPreciousMSet and typically itself
protected using PROTECT. These functions should not be needed outside parsers.
Sometimes an object is changed (for example duplicated, coerced or grown) yet the current value needs to be
protected. For these cases PROTECT_WITH_INDEX saves an index of the protection location that can be used to
replace the protected value using REPROTECT. For example (from the internal code for optim)
 PROTECT_INDEX ipx;

....
PROTECT_WITH_INDEX(s = eval(OS->R_fcall, OS->R_env), &ipx);
REPROTECT(s = coerceVector(s, REALSXP), ipx);

Note that it is dangerous to mix UNPROTECT_PTR also with PROTECT_WITH_INDEX, as the former changes the
protection locations of objects that were protected after the one being unprotected.
There is another way to avoid the effects of garbage collection: a call to R_PreserveObject adds an object to an
internal list of objects not to be collects, and a subsequent call to R_ReleaseObject removes it from that list. This
provides a way for objects which are not returned as part of R objects to be protected across calls to compiled
code: on the other hand it becomes the user’s responsibility to release them when they are no longer needed (and
this often requires the use of a finalizer). It is less efficient than the normal protection mechanism, and should be
used sparingly.
For functions from packages as well as R to safely co-operate in protecting objects, certain rules have to be
followed:
Pointer-protection balance. Calls to PROTECT and UNPROTECT should balance in each function. A function
may only call UNPROTECT or REPROTECT on objects it has itself protected. Note that the pointer protection
stack balance is restored automatically on non-local transfer of control (See Condition handling and
cleanup code.), as if a call to UNPROTECT was invoked with the right argument.
Caller protection. It is the responsibility of the caller that all arguments passed to a function are protected
and will stay protected for the whole execution of the callee. Typically this is achieved by PROTECT and
UNPROTECT calls.
Protecting return values. Any R objects returned from a function are unprotected (the callee must maintain
pointer-protection balance), and hence should be protected immediately by the caller. To be safe against
future code changes, assume that any R object returned from any function may need protection. Note that
even when conceptually returning an existing protected object, that object may be duplicated.
All functions/macros allocate. To be safe against future code changes, assume that any function or macro
may allocate and hence garbage collector may run and destroy unprotected objects.
It is always safe and recommended to follow those rules. In fact, several R functions and macros protect their
own arguments and some functions do not allocate or do not allocate when used in a certain way, but that is
subject to change, so relying on that may be fragile. PROTECT and PROTECT_WITH_INDEX can be safely called with
unprotected arguments and UNPROTECT does not allocate.

Next: Details of R types, Previous: Handling the effects of garbage collection, Up: Handling R objects in C
[Contents][Index]

5.9.2 Allocating storage

For many purposes it is sufficient to allocate R objects and manipulate those. There are quite a few allocXxx
functions defined in Rinternals.h—you may want to explore them.
One that is commonly used is allocVector, the C-level equivalent of R-level vector() and its wrappers such as
integer() and character(). One distinction is that whereas the R functions always initialize the elements of the
vector, allocVector only does so for lists, expressions and character vectors (the cases where the elements are
themselves R objects).
If storage is required for C objects during the calculations this is best allocating by calling R_alloc; see Memory
allocation. All of these memory allocation routines do their own error-checking, so the programmer may assume
that they will raise an error and not return if the memory cannot be allocated.

Next: Attributes, Previous: Allocating storage, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.3 Details of R types

Users of the Rinternals.h macros will need to know how the R types are known internally. The different R data
types are represented in C by SEXPTYPE. Some of these are familiar from R and some are internal data types.
The usual R object modes are given in the table.
 SEXPTYPE R equivalent
REALSXP numeric with storage mode double
INTSXP integer
CPLXSXP complex
LGLSXP logical
STRSXP character
VECSXP list (generic vector)
LISTSXP pairlist
DOTSXP a ‘…’ object
NILSXP NULL
SYMSXP name/symbol
CLOSXP function or function closure
ENVSXP environment

Among the important internal SEXPTYPEs are LANGSXP, CHARSXP, PROMSXP, etc. (N.B.: although it is possible to
return objects of internal types, it is unsafe to do so as assumptions are made about how they are handled which
may be violated at user-level evaluation.) More details are given in R Internal Structures in R Internals.
Unless you are very sure about the type of the arguments, the code should check the data types. Sometimes it
may also be necessary to check data types of objects created by evaluating an R expression in the C code. You
can use functions like isReal, isInteger and isString to do type checking. Other such functions declared in the
header file Rinternals.h include isNull, isSymbol, isLogical, isComplex, isExpression, and isEnvironment. All
of these take a SEXP as argument and return 1 or 0 to indicate TRUE or FALSE.
What happens if the SEXP is not of the correct type? Sometimes you have no other option except to generate an
error. You can use the function error for this. It is usually better to coerce the object to the correct type. For
example, if you find that an SEXP is of the type INTEGER, but you need a REAL object, you can change the type by
using
newSexp = PROTECT(coerceVector(oldSexp, REALSXP));

Protection is needed as a new object is created; the object formerly pointed to by the SEXP is still protected but
now unused.149
All the coercion functions do their own error-checking, and generate NAs with a warning or stop with an error as
appropriate.
Note that these coercion functions are not the same as calling as.numeric (and so on) in R code, as they do not
dispatch on the class of the object. Thus it is normally preferable to do the coercion in the calling R code.
So far we have only seen how to create and coerce R objects from C code, and how to extract the numeric data
from numeric R vectors. These can suffice to take us a long way in interfacing R objects to numerical
algorithms, but we may need to know a little more to create useful return objects.

Next: Classes, Previous: Details of R types, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.4 Attributes

Many R objects have attributes: some of the most useful are classes and the dim and dimnames that mark objects
as matrices or arrays. It can also be helpful to work with the names attribute of vectors.
To illustrate this, let us write code to take the outer product of two vectors (which outer and %o% already do). As
usual the R code is simple
out <- function(x, y)
{
storage.mode(x) <- storage.mode(y) <- "double"
.Call("out", x, y)
}
where we expect x and y to be numeric vectors (possibly integer), possibly with names. This time we do the
coercion in the calling R code.
C code to do the computations is
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP out(SEXP x, SEXP y)

{
int nx = length(x), ny = length(y);
SEXP ans = PROTECT(allocMatrix(REALSXP, nx, ny));
double *rx = REAL(x), *ry = REAL(y), *rans = REAL(ans);
for(int i = 0; i < nx; i++) {
double tmp = rx[i];
for(int j = 0; j < ny; j++)
rans[i + nx*j] = tmp * ry[j];
}
UNPROTECT(1);
return ans;
}

Note the way REAL is used: as it is a function call it can be considerably faster to store the result and index that.
However, we would like to set the dimnames of the result. We can use
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP out(SEXP x, SEXP y)

{
int nx = length(x), ny = length(y);
SEXP ans = PROTECT(allocMatrix(REALSXP, nx, ny));
double *rx = REAL(x), *ry = REAL(y), *rans = REAL(ans);

for(int i = 0; i < nx; i++) {

double tmp = rx[i];
for(int j = 0; j < ny; j++)
rans[i + nx*j] = tmp * ry[j];
}

SEXP dimnames = PROTECT(allocVector(VECSXP, 2));

SET_VECTOR_ELT(dimnames, 0, getAttrib(x, R_NamesSymbol));
SET_VECTOR_ELT(dimnames, 1, getAttrib(y, R_NamesSymbol));
setAttrib(ans, R_DimNamesSymbol, dimnames);

UNPROTECT(2);
return ans;
}

This example introduces several new features. The getAttrib and setAttrib functions get and set individual
attributes. Their second argument is a SEXP defining the name in the symbol table of the attribute we want; these
and many such symbols are defined in the header file Rinternals.h.
There are shortcuts here too: the functions namesgets, dimgets and dimnamesgets are the internal versions of the
default methods of names<-, dim<- and dimnames<- (for vectors and arrays), and there are functions such as
GetColNames, GetRowNames, GetMatrixDimnames and GetArrayDimnames.
What happens if we want to add an attribute that is not pre-defined? We need to add a symbol for it via a call to
install. Suppose for illustration we wanted to add an attribute "version" with value 3.0. We could use

SEXP version;
version = PROTECT(allocVector(REALSXP, 1));
REAL(version)[0] = 3.0;
setAttrib(ans, install("version"), version);
UNPROTECT(1);
Using install when it is not needed is harmless and provides a simple way to retrieve the symbol from the
symbol table if it is already installed. However, the lookup takes a non-trivial amount of time, so consider code
such as
static SEXP VerSymbol = NULL;
...
if (VerSymbol == NULL) VerSymbol = install("version");

if it is to be done frequently.
This example can be simplified by another convenience function:
SEXP version = PROTECT(ScalarReal(3.0));
setAttrib(ans, install("version"), version);
UNPROTECT(1);

Next: Handling lists, Previous: Attributes, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.5 Classes

In R the class is just the attribute named "class" so it can be handled as such, but there is a shortcut classgets.
Suppose we want to give the return value in our example the class "mat". We can use
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>
....
SEXP ans, dim, dimnames, class;
....
class = PROTECT(allocVector(STRSXP, 1));
SET_STRING_ELT(class, 0, mkChar("mat"));
classgets(ans, class);
UNPROTECT(4);
return ans;
}

As the value is a character vector, we have to know how to create that from a C character array, which we do
using the function mkChar.

Next: Handling character data, Previous: Classes, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.6 Handling lists

Some care is needed with lists, as R moved early on from using LISP-like lists (now called “pairlists”) to S-like
generic vectors. As a result, the appropriate test for an object of mode list is isNewList, and we need
allocVector(VECSXP, n) and not allocList(n).

List elements can be retrieved or set by direct access to the elements of the generic vector. Suppose we have a
list object
a <- list(f = 1, g = 2, h = 3)

Then we can access a$g as a[[2]] by

double g;
....
g = REAL(VECTOR_ELT(a, 1))[0];

This can rapidly become tedious, and the following function (based on one in package stats) is very useful:
/* get the list element named str, or return NULL */

SEXP getListElement(SEXP list, const char *str)

{
SEXP elmt = R_NilValue, names = getAttrib(list, R_NamesSymbol);
 for (int i = 0; i < length(list); i++)
if(strcmp(CHAR(STRING_ELT(names, i)), str) == 0) {
elmt = VECTOR_ELT(list, i);
break;
}
return elmt;
}

and enables us to say

double g;
g = REAL(getListElement(a, "g"))[0];

Next: Finding and setting variables, Previous: Handling lists, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.7 Handling character data

R character vectors are stored as STRSXPs, a vector type like VECSXP where every element is of type CHARSXP. The
CHARSXP elements of STRSXPs are accessed using STRING_ELT and SET_STRING_ELT.
CHARSXPs are read-only objects and must never be modified. In particular, the C-style string contained in a
CHARSXP should be treated as read-only and for this reason the CHAR function used to access the character data of a
CHARSXP returns (const char *) (this also allows compilers to issue warnings about improper use). Since
CHARSXPs are immutable, the same CHARSXP can be shared by any STRSXP needing an element representing the
same string. R maintains a global cache of CHARSXPs so that there is only ever one CHARSXP representing a given
string in memory.
You can obtain a CHARSXP by calling mkChar and providing a nul-terminated C-style string. This function will
return a pre-existing CHARSXP if one with a matching string already exists, otherwise it will create a new one and
add it to the cache before returning it to you. The variant mkCharLen can be used to create a CHARSXP from part of
a buffer and will ensure null-termination.
Note that R character strings are restricted to 2^31 - 1 bytes, and hence so should the input to mkChar be (C
allows longer strings on 64-bit platforms).

Next: Some convenience functions, Previous: Handling character data, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents]
[Index]

5.9.8 Finding and setting variables

It will be usual that all the R objects needed in our C computations are passed as arguments to .Call or
.External, but it is possible to find the values of R objects from within the C given their names. The following
code is the equivalent of get(name, envir = rho).
SEXP getvar(SEXP name, SEXP rho)
{
SEXP ans;

if(!isString(name) || length(name) != 1)
error("name is not a single string");
if(!isEnvironment(rho))
error("rho should be an environment");
ans = findVar(installChar(STRING_ELT(name, 0)), rho);
Rprintf("first value is %f\n", REAL(ans)[0]);
return R_NilValue;
}

The main work is done by findVar, but to use it we need to install name as a name in the symbol table. As we
wanted the value for internal use, we return NULL.
Similar functions with syntax
void defineVar(SEXP symbol, SEXP value, SEXP rho)
void setVar(SEXP symbol, SEXP value, SEXP rho)
can be used to assign values to R variables. defineVar creates a new binding or changes the value of an existing
binding in the specified environment frame; it is the analogue of assign(symbol, value, envir = rho,
inherits = FALSE), but unlike assign, defineVar does not make a copy of the object value.150 setVar searches
for an existing binding for symbol in rho or its enclosing environments. If a binding is found, its value is changed
to value. Otherwise, a new binding with the specified value is created in the global environment. This
corresponds to assign(symbol, value, envir = rho, inherits = TRUE).
At times it may also be useful to create a new environment frame in C code. R_NewEnv is a C version of the R
function new.env:
SEXP R_NewEnv(SEXP enclos, int hash, ins size)

Next: Named objects and copying, Previous: Finding and setting variables, Up: Handling R objects in C
[Contents][Index]

5.9.9 Some convenience functions

Some operations are done so frequently that there are convenience functions to handle them. (All these are
provided via the header file Rinternals.h.)
Suppose we wanted to pass a single logical argument ignore_quotes: we could use
int ign = asLogical(ignore_quotes);
if(ign == NA_LOGICAL) error("'ignore_quotes' must be TRUE or FALSE");

which will do any coercion needed (at least from a vector argument), and return NA_LOGICAL if the value passed
was NA or coercion failed. There are also asInteger, asReal and asComplex. The function asChar returns a
CHARSXP. All of these functions ignore any elements of an input vector after the first.
To return a length-one real vector we can use
double x;

...
return ScalarReal(x);

and there are versions of this for all the atomic vector types (those for a length-one character vector being
ScalarString with argument a CHARSXP and mkString with argument const char *).

SEXP ScalarReal(double);
SEXP ScalarInteger(int);
SEXP ScalarLogical(int)
SEXP ScalarRaw(Rbyte);
SEXP ScalarComplex(Rcomplex);
SEXP ScalarString(SEXP);
SEXP mkString(const char *);

Some of the isXXXX functions differ from their apparent R-level counterparts: for example isVector is true for
any atomic vector type (isVectorAtomic) and for lists and expressions (isVectorList) (with no check on
attributes). isMatrix is a test of a length-2 "dim" attribute.
Rboolean isVector(SEXP);
Rboolean isVectorAtomic(SEXP);
Rboolean isVectorList(SEXP);
Rboolean isMatrix(SEXP);
Rboolean isPairList(SEXP);
Rboolean isPrimitive(SEXP);
Rboolean isTs(SEXP);
Rboolean isNumeric(SEXP);
Rboolean isArray(SEXP);
Rboolean isFactor(SEXP);
Rboolean isObject(SEXP);
Rboolean isFunction(SEXP);
Rboolean isLanguage(SEXP);
Rboolean isNewList(SEXP);
Rboolean isList(SEXP);
 Rboolean isOrdered(SEXP);
Rboolean isUnordered(SEXP);

There are a series of small macros/functions to help construct pairlists and language objects (whose internal
structures just differ by SEXPTYPE). Function CONS(u, v) is the basic building block: it constructs a pairlist from u
followed by v (which is a pairlist or R_NilValue). LCONS is a variant that constructs a language object. Functions
list1 to list6 construct a pairlist from one to six items, and lang1 to lang6 do the same for a language object (a
function to call plus zero to five arguments). Functions elt and lastElt find the ith element and the last element
of a pairlist, and nthcdr returns a pointer to the nth position in the pairlist (whose CAR is the nth item).
Functions str2type and type2str map R length-one character strings to and from SEXPTYPE numbers, and
type2char maps numbers to C character strings.
Semi-internal convenience functions

Previous: Some convenience functions, Up: Some convenience functions [Contents][Index]

5.9.9.1 Semi-internal convenience functions

There is quite a collection of functions that may be used in your C code if you are willing to adapt to rare “API”
changes. These typically contain “workhorses” of their R counterparts.
Functions any_duplicated and any_duplicated3 are fast versions of R’s any(duplicated(.)).
Function R_compute_identical corresponds to R’s identical function.

Previous: Some convenience functions, Up: Handling R objects in C [Contents][Index]

5.9.10 Named objects and copying

[The NAMED mechanism has been replaced by reference counting.]

When assignments are done in R such as
x <- 1:10
y <- x

the named object is not necessarily copied, so after those two assignments y and x are bound to the same SEXPREC
(the structure a SEXP points to). This means that any code which alters one of them has to make a copy before
modifying the copy if the usual R semantics are to apply. Note that whereas .C and .Fortran do copy their
arguments (unless the dangerous dup = FALSE is used), .Call and .External do not. So duplicate is commonly
called on arguments to .Call before modifying them.
However, at least some of this copying is unneeded. In the first assignment shown, x <- 1:10, R first creates an
object with value 1:10 and then assigns it to x but if x is modified no copy is necessary as the temporary object
with value 1:10 cannot be referred to again. R distinguishes between named and unnamed objects via a field in a
SEXPREC that can be accessed via the macros NAMED and SET_NAMED. This can take values

0
The object is not bound to any symbol
1
The object has been bound to exactly one symbol
>= 2
The object has potentially been bound to two or more symbols, and one should act as if another variable is
currently bound to this value. The maximal value is NAMEDMAX.

Note the past tenses: R does not do currently do full reference counting and there may currently be fewer
bindings.
It is safe to modify the value of any SEXP for which NAMED(foo) is zero, and if NAMED(foo) is two or more, the
value should be duplicated (via a call to duplicate) before any modification. Note that it is the responsibility of
the author of the code making the modification to do the duplication, even if it is x whose value is being
modified after y <- x.
The case NAMED(foo) == 1 allows some optimization, but it can be ignored (and duplication done whenever
NAMED(foo) > 0). (This optimization is not currently usable in user code.) It is intended for use within
replacement functions. Suppose we used
x <- 1:10
foo(x) <- 3

which is computed as
x <- 1:10
x <- "foo<-"(x, 3)

Then inside "foo<-" the object pointing to the current value of x will have NAMED(foo) as one, and it would be
safe to modify it as the only symbol bound to it is x and that will be rebound immediately. (Provided the
remaining code in "foo<-" make no reference to x, and no one is going to attempt a direct call such as y <-
"foo<-"(x).)

This mechanism was replaced in R 4.0.0. To support future changes, package code should use the macros
MAYBE_REFERENCED, MAYBE_SHARED, and MARK_NOT_MUTABLE. These currently correspond to

MAYBE_REFERENCED(x)
NAMED(x) > 0
MAYBE_SHARED(x)
NAMED(x) > 1
MARK_NOT_MUTABLE(x)
SET_NAMED(x, NAMEDMAX)

Next: Evaluating R expressions from C, Previous: Handling R objects in C, Up: System and foreign language
interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.10 Interface functions .Call and .External

In this section we consider the details of the R/C interfaces.

These two interfaces have almost the same functionality. .Call is based on the interface of the same name in S
version 4, and .External is based on R’s .Internal. .External is more complex but allows a variable number of
arguments.
Calling .Call
Calling .External
Missing and special values

Next: Calling .External, Previous: Interface functions .Call and .External, Up: Interface functions .Call and
.External [Contents][Index]

5.10.1 Calling .Call

Let us convert our finite convolution example to use .Call. The calling function in R is
conv <- function(a, b) .Call("convolve2", a, b)

which could hardly be simpler, but as we shall see all the type coercion is transferred to the C code, which is
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP convolve2(SEXP a, SEXP b)

{
int na, nb, nab;
double *xa, *xb, *xab;
SEXP ab;

a = PROTECT(coerceVector(a, REALSXP));
b = PROTECT(coerceVector(b, REALSXP));
 na = length(a); nb = length(b); nab = na + nb - 1;
ab = PROTECT(allocVector(REALSXP, nab));
xa = REAL(a); xb = REAL(b); xab = REAL(ab);
for(int i = 0; i < nab; i++) xab[i] = 0.0;
for(int i = 0; i < na; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < nb; j++) xab[i + j] += xa[i] * xb[j];
UNPROTECT(3);
return ab;
}

Next: Missing and special values, Previous: Calling .Call, Up: Interface functions .Call and .External
[Contents][Index]

5.10.2 Calling .External

We can use the same example to illustrate .External. The R code changes only by replacing .Call by .External
conv <- function(a, b) .External("convolveE", a, b)

but the main change is how the arguments are passed to the C code, this time as a single SEXP. The only change
to the C code is how we handle the arguments.
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP convolveE(SEXP args)

{
int i, j, na, nb, nab;
double *xa, *xb, *xab;
SEXP a, b, ab;

a = PROTECT(coerceVector(CADR(args), REALSXP));
b = PROTECT(coerceVector(CADDR(args), REALSXP));
...
}

Once again we do not need to protect the arguments, as in the R side of the interface they are objects that are
already in use. The macros
first = CADR(args);
second = CADDR(args);
third = CADDDR(args);
fourth = CAD4R(args);

provide convenient ways to access the first four arguments. More generally we can use the CDR and CAR macros
as in
args = CDR(args); a = CAR(args);
args = CDR(args); b = CAR(args);

which clearly allows us to extract an unlimited number of arguments (whereas .Call has a limit, albeit at 65 not
a small one).
More usefully, the .External interface provides an easy way to handle calls with a variable number of
arguments, as length(args) will give the number of arguments supplied (of which the first is ignored). We may
need to know the names (‘tags’) given to the actual arguments, which we can by using the TAG macro and using
something like the following example, that prints the names and the first value of its arguments if they are vector
types.
SEXP showArgs(SEXP args)
{
args = CDR(args); /* skip ‘name’ */
for(int i = 0; args != R_NilValue; i++, args = CDR(args)) {
const char *name =
isNull(TAG(args)) ? "" : CHAR(PRINTNAME(TAG(args)));
SEXP el = CAR(args);
if (length(el) == 0) {
Rprintf("[%d] ‘%s’ R type, length 0\n", i+1, name);
 continue;
}

switch(TYPEOF(el)) {
case REALSXP:
Rprintf("[%d] ‘%s’ %f\n", i+1, name, REAL(el)[0]);
break;

case LGLSXP:
case INTSXP:
Rprintf("[%d] ‘%s’ %d\n", i+1, name, INTEGER(el)[0]);
break;

case CPLXSXP:
{
Rcomplex cpl = COMPLEX(el)[0];
Rprintf("[%d] ‘%s’ %f + %fi\n", i+1, name, cpl.r, cpl.i);
}
break;

case STRSXP:
Rprintf("[%d] ‘%s’ %s\n", i+1, name,
CHAR(STRING_ELT(el, 0)));
break;

default:
Rprintf("[%d] ‘%s’ R type\n", i+1, name);
}
}
return R_NilValue;
}

This can be called by the wrapper function

showArgs <- function(...) invisible(.External("showArgs", ...))

Note that this style of programming is convenient but not necessary, as an alternative style is
showArgs1 <- function(...) invisible(.Call("showArgs1", list(...)))

The (very similar) C code is in the scripts.

Additional functions for accessing pairlist components are CAAR, CDAR, CDDR, and CDDDR. These components can be
modified with SETCAR, SETCDR, SETCADR, SETCADDR, SETCADDDR, and SETCAD4R.

Previous: Calling .External, Up: Interface functions .Call and .External [Contents][Index]

5.10.3 Missing and special values

One piece of error-checking the .C call does (unless NAOK is true) is to check for missing (NA) and IEEE special
values (Inf, -Inf and NaN) and give an error if any are found. With the .Call interface these will be passed to our
code. In this example the special values are no problem, as IEC60559 arithmetic will handle them correctly. In
the current implementation this is also true of NA as it is a type of NaN, but it is unwise to rely on such details.
Thus we will re-write the code to handle NAs using macros defined in R_ext/Arith.h included by R.h.
The code changes are the same in any of the versions of convolve2 or convolveE:
...
for(int i = 0; i < na; i++)
for(int j = 0; j < nb; j++)
if(ISNA(xa[i]) || ISNA(xb[j]) || ISNA(xab[i + j]))
xab[i + j] = NA_REAL;
else
xab[i + j] += xa[i] * xb[j];
...

Note that the ISNA macro, and the similar macros ISNAN (which checks for NaN or NA) and R_FINITE (which is
false for NA and all the special values), only apply to numeric values of type double. Missingness of integers,
logicals and character strings can be tested by equality to the constants NA_INTEGER, NA_LOGICAL and NA_STRING.
These and NA_REAL can be used to set elements of R vectors to NA.
The constants R_NaN, R_PosInf and R_NegInf can be used to set doubles to the special values.

Next: Parsing R code from C, Previous: Interface functions .Call and .External, Up: System and foreign
language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.11 Evaluating R expressions from C

The main function we will use is

SEXP eval(SEXP expr, SEXP rho);

the equivalent of the interpreted R code eval(expr, envir = rho) (so rho must be an environment), although we
can also make use of findVar, defineVar and findFun (which restricts the search to functions).
To see how this might be applied, here is a simplified internal version of lapply for expressions, used as
a <- list(a = 1:5, b = rnorm(10), test = runif(100))
.Call("lapply", a, quote(sum(x)), new.env())

with C code
SEXP lapply(SEXP list, SEXP expr, SEXP rho)
{
int n = length(list);
SEXP ans;

if(!isNewList(list)) error("'list' must be a list");

if(!isEnvironment(rho)) error("'rho' should be an environment");
ans = PROTECT(allocVector(VECSXP, n));
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
defineVar(install("x"), VECTOR_ELT(list, i), rho);
SET_VECTOR_ELT(ans, i, eval(expr, rho));
}
setAttrib(ans, R_NamesSymbol, getAttrib(list, R_NamesSymbol));
UNPROTECT(1);
return ans;
}

It would be closer to lapply if we could pass in a function rather than an expression. One way to do this is via
interpreted R code as in the next example, but it is possible (if somewhat obscure) to do this in C code. The
following is based on the code in src/main/optimize.c.
SEXP lapply2(SEXP list, SEXP fn, SEXP rho)
{
int n = length(list);
SEXP R_fcall, ans;

if(!isNewList(list)) error("'list' must be a list");

if(!isFunction(fn)) error("'fn' must be a function");
if(!isEnvironment(rho)) error("'rho' should be an environment");
R_fcall = PROTECT(lang2(fn, R_NilValue));
ans = PROTECT(allocVector(VECSXP, n));
for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
SETCADR(R_fcall, VECTOR_ELT(list, i));
SET_VECTOR_ELT(ans, i, eval(R_fcall, rho));
}
setAttrib(ans, R_NamesSymbol, getAttrib(list, R_NamesSymbol));
UNPROTECT(2);
return ans;
}

used by
.Call("lapply2", a, sum, new.env())
Function lang2 creates an executable pairlist of two elements, but this will only be clear to those with a
knowledge of a LISP-like language.
As a more comprehensive example of constructing an R call in C code and evaluating, consider the following
fragment of printAttributes in src/main/print.c.
/* Need to construct a call to
print(CAR(a), digits=digits)
based on the R_print structure, then eval(call, env).
See do_docall for the template for this sort of thing.
*/
SEXP s, t;
t = s = PROTECT(allocList(3));
SET_TYPEOF(s, LANGSXP);
SETCAR(t, install("print")); t = CDR(t);
SETCAR(t, CAR(a)); t = CDR(t);
SETCAR(t, ScalarInteger(digits));
SET_TAG(t, install("digits"));
eval(s, env);
UNPROTECT(1);

At this point CAR(a) is the R object to be printed, the current attribute. There are three steps: the call is
constructed as a pairlist of length 3, the list is filled in, and the expression represented by the pairlist is
evaluated.
A pairlist is quite distinct from a generic vector list, the only user-visible form of list in R. A pairlist is a linked
list (with CDR(t) computing the next entry), with items (accessed by CAR(t)) and names or tags (set by SET_TAG).
In this call there are to be three items, a symbol (pointing to the function to be called) and two argument values,
the first unnamed and the second named. Setting the type to LANGSXP makes this a call which can be evaluated.
Customarily, the evaluation environment is passed from the calling R code (see rho above). In special cases it is
possible that the C code may need to obtain the current evaluation environment which can be done via
R_GetCurrentEnv() function.
Zero-finding
Calculating numerical derivatives

Next: Calculating numerical derivatives, Previous: Evaluating R expressions from C, Up: Evaluating R
expressions from C [Contents][Index]

5.11.1 Zero-finding

In this section we re-work the example of Becker, Chambers & Wilks (1988, pp.~205–10) on finding a zero of a
univariate function. The R code and an example are
zero <- function(f, guesses, tol = 1e-7) {
f.check <- function(x) {
x <- f(x)
if(!is.numeric(x)) stop("Need a numeric result")
as.double(x)
}
.Call("zero", body(f.check), as.double(guesses), as.double(tol),
new.env())
}

cube1 <- function(x) (x^2 + 1) * (x - 1.5)

zero(cube1, c(0, 5))

where this time we do the coercion and error-checking in the R code. The C code is
SEXP mkans(double x)
{
// no need for PROTECT() here, as REAL(.) does not allocate:
SEXP ans = allocVector(REALSXP, 1);
REAL(ans)[0] = x;
return ans;
}
 double feval(double x, SEXP f, SEXP rho)
{
// a version with (too) much PROTECT()ion .. "better safe than sorry"
SEXP symbol, value;
PROTECT(symbol = install("x"));
PROTECT(value = mkans(x));
defineVar(symbol, value, rho);
UNPROTECT(2);
return(REAL(eval(f, rho))[0]);
}

SEXP zero(SEXP f, SEXP guesses, SEXP stol, SEXP rho)

{
double x0 = REAL(guesses)[0], x1 = REAL(guesses)[1],
tol = REAL(stol)[0];
double f0, f1, fc, xc;

if(tol <= 0.0) error("non-positive tol value");

f0 = feval(x0, f, rho); f1 = feval(x1, f, rho);
if(f0 == 0.0) return mkans(x0);
if(f1 == 0.0) return mkans(x1);
if(f0*f1 > 0.0) error("x[0] and x[1] have the same sign");

for(;;) {
xc = 0.5*(x0+x1);
if(fabs(x0-x1) < tol) return mkans(xc);
fc = feval(xc, f, rho);
if(fc == 0) return mkans(xc);
if(f0*fc > 0.0) {
x0 = xc; f0 = fc;
} else {
x1 = xc; f1 = fc;
}
}
}

Previous: Zero-finding, Up: Evaluating R expressions from C [Contents][Index]

5.11.2 Calculating numerical derivatives

We will use a longer example (by Saikat DebRoy) to illustrate the use of evaluation and .External. This
calculates numerical derivatives, something that could be done as effectively in interpreted R code but may be
needed as part of a larger C calculation.
An interpreted R version and an example are
numeric.deriv <- function(expr, theta, rho=sys.frame(sys.parent()))
{
eps <- sqrt(.Machine$double.eps)
ans <- eval(substitute(expr), rho)
grad <- matrix(, length(ans), length(theta),
dimnames=list(NULL, theta))
for (i in seq_along(theta)) {
old <- get(theta[i], envir=rho)
delta <- eps * max(1, abs(old))
assign(theta[i], old+delta, envir=rho)
ans1 <- eval(substitute(expr), rho)
assign(theta[i], old, envir=rho)
grad[, i] <- (ans1 - ans)/delta
}
attr(ans, "gradient") <- grad
ans
 }
omega <- 1:5; x <- 1; y <- 2
numeric.deriv(sin(omega*x*y), c("x", "y"))

where expr is an expression, theta a character vector of variable names and rho the environment to be used.
For the compiled version the call from R will be
.External("numeric_deriv", expr, theta, rho)

with example usage

.External("numeric_deriv", quote(sin(omega*x*y)),
c("x", "y"), .GlobalEnv)

Note the need to quote the expression to stop it being evaluated in the caller.
Here is the complete C code which we will explain section by section.
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>
#include <float.h> /* for DBL_EPSILON */

SEXP numeric_deriv(SEXP args)

{
SEXP theta, expr, rho, ans, ans1, gradient, par, dimnames;
double tt, xx, delta, eps = sqrt(DBL_EPSILON), *rgr, *rans;
int i, start;

expr = CADR(args);
if(!isString(theta = CADDR(args)))
error("theta should be of type character");
if(!isEnvironment(rho = CADDDR(args)))
error("rho should be an environment");

ans = PROTECT(coerceVector(eval(expr, rho), REALSXP));

gradient = PROTECT(allocMatrix(REALSXP, LENGTH(ans), LENGTH(theta)));
rgr = REAL(gradient); rans = REAL(ans);

for(i = 0, start = 0; i < LENGTH(theta); i++, start += LENGTH(ans)) {

par = PROTECT(findVar(installChar(STRING_ELT(theta, i)), rho));
tt = REAL(par)[0];
xx = fabs(tt);
delta = (xx < 1) ? eps : xx*eps;
REAL(par)[0] += delta;
ans1 = PROTECT(coerceVector(eval(expr, rho), REALSXP));
for(int j = 0; j < LENGTH(ans); j++)
rgr[j + start] = (REAL(ans1)[j] - rans[j])/delta;
REAL(par)[0] = tt;
UNPROTECT(2); /* par, ans1 */
}

dimnames = PROTECT(allocVector(VECSXP, 2));

SET_VECTOR_ELT(dimnames, 1, theta);
dimnamesgets(gradient, dimnames);
setAttrib(ans, install("gradient"), gradient);
UNPROTECT(3); /* ans gradient dimnames */
return ans;
}

The code to handle the arguments is

expr = CADR(args);
if(!isString(theta = CADDR(args)))
 error("theta should be of type character");
if(!isEnvironment(rho = CADDDR(args)))
error("rho should be an environment");

Note that we check for correct types of theta and rho but do not check the type of expr. That is because eval can
handle many types of R objects other than EXPRSXP. There is no useful coercion we can do, so we stop with an
error message if the arguments are not of the correct mode.
The first step in the code is to evaluate the expression in the environment rho, by
ans = PROTECT(coerceVector(eval(expr, rho), REALSXP));

We then allocate space for the calculated derivative by

gradient = PROTECT(allocMatrix(REALSXP, LENGTH(ans), LENGTH(theta)));

The first argument to allocMatrix gives the SEXPTYPE of the matrix: here we want it to be REALSXP. The other two
arguments are the numbers of rows and columns. (Note that LENGTH is intended to be used for vectors: length is
more generally applicable.)
for(i = 0, start = 0; i < LENGTH(theta); i++, start += LENGTH(ans)) {
par = PROTECT(findVar(installChar(STRING_ELT(theta, i)), rho));

Here, we are entering a for loop. We loop through each of the variables. In the for loop, we first create a symbol
corresponding to the i’th element of the STRSXP theta. Here, STRING_ELT(theta, i) accesses the i’th element of
the STRSXP theta. Macro CHAR() extracts the actual character representation151 of it: it returns a pointer. We then
install the name and use findVar to find its value.
tt = REAL(par)[0];
xx = fabs(tt);
delta = (xx < 1) ? eps : xx*eps;
REAL(par)[0] += delta;
ans1 = PROTECT(coerceVector(eval(expr, rho), REALSXP));

We first extract the real value of the parameter, then calculate delta, the increment to be used for approximating
the numerical derivative. Then we change the value stored in par (in environment rho) by delta and evaluate
expr in environment rho again. Because we are directly dealing with original R memory locations here, R does
the evaluation for the changed parameter value.
for(int j = 0; j < LENGTH(ans); j++)
rgr[j + start] = (REAL(ans1)[j] - rans[j])/delta;
REAL(par)[0] = tt;
UNPROTECT(2);
}

Now, we compute the i’th column of the gradient matrix. Note how it is accessed: R stores matrices by column
(like Fortran).
dimnames = PROTECT(allocVector(VECSXP, 2));
SET_VECTOR_ELT(dimnames, 1, theta);
dimnamesgets(gradient, dimnames);
setAttrib(ans, install("gradient"), gradient);
UNPROTECT(3);
return ans;
}

First we add column names to the gradient matrix. This is done by allocating a list (a VECSXP) whose first
element, the row names, is NULL (the default) and the second element, the column names, is set as theta. This list
is then assigned as the attribute having the symbol R_DimNamesSymbol. Finally we set the gradient matrix as the
gradient attribute of ans, unprotect the remaining protected locations and return the answer ans.

Next: External pointers and weak references, Previous: Evaluating R expressions from C, Up: System and
foreign language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.12 Parsing R code from C

Suppose an R extension want to accept an R expression from the user and evaluate it. The previous section
covered evaluation, but the expression will be entered as text and needs to be parsed first. A small part of R’s
parse interface is declared in header file R_ext/Parse.h152.
An example of the usage can be found in the (example) Windows package windlgs included in the R source
tree. The essential part is
#include <R.h>
#include <Rinternals.h>
#include <R_ext/Parse.h>

SEXP menu_ttest3()
{
char cmd[256];
SEXP cmdSexp, cmdexpr, ans = R_NilValue;
ParseStatus status;
...
if(done == 1) {
cmdSexp = PROTECT(allocVector(STRSXP, 1));
SET_STRING_ELT(cmdSexp, 0, mkChar(cmd));
cmdexpr = PROTECT(R_ParseVector(cmdSexp, -1, &status, R_NilValue));
if (status != PARSE_OK) {
UNPROTECT(2);
error("invalid call %s", cmd);
}
/* Loop is needed here as EXPSEXP will be of length > 1 */
for(int i = 0; i < length(cmdexpr); i++)
ans = eval(VECTOR_ELT(cmdexpr, i), R_GlobalEnv);
UNPROTECT(2);
}
return ans;
}

Note that a single line of text may give rise to more than one R expression.
R_ParseVector is essentially the code used to implement parse(text=) at R level. The first argument is a
character vector (corresponding to text) and the second the maximal number of expressions to parse
(corresponding to n). The third argument is a pointer to a variable of an enumeration type, and it is normal (as
parse does) to regard all values other than PARSE_OK as an error. Other values which might be returned are
PARSE_INCOMPLETE (an incomplete expression was found) and PARSE_ERROR (a syntax error), in both cases the
value returned being R_NilValue. The fourth argument is a length one character vector to be used as a filename
in error messages, a srcfile object or the R NULL object (as in the example above). If a srcfile object was used,
a srcref attribute would be attached to the result, containing a list of srcref objects of the same length as the
expression, to allow it to be echoed with its original formatting.
Accessing source references

Previous: Parsing R code from C, Up: Parsing R code from C [Contents][Index]

5.12.1 Accessing source references

The source references added by the parser are recorded by R’s evaluator as it evaluates code. Two functions
make these available to debuggers running C code:
SEXP R_GetCurrentSrcref(int skip);

This function checks R_Srcref and the current evaluation stack for entries that contain source reference
information. The skip argument tells how many source references to skip before returning the SEXP of the srcref
object, counting from the top of the stack. If skip < 0, abs(skip) locations are counted up from the bottom of
the stack. If too few or no source references are found, NULL is returned.
SEXP R_GetSrcFilename(SEXP srcref);

This function extracts the filename from the source reference for display, returning a length 1 character vector
containing the filename. If no name is found, "" is returned.
Next: Vector accessor functions, Previous: Parsing R code from C, Up: System and foreign language interfaces
[Contents][Index]

5.13 External pointers and weak references

The SEXPTYPEs EXTPTRSXP and WEAKREFSXP can be encountered at R level, but are created in C code.
External pointer SEXPs are intended to handle references to C structures such as ‘handles’, and are used for this
purpose in package RODBC for example. They are unusual in their copying semantics in that when an R object
is copied, the external pointer object is not duplicated. (For this reason external pointers should only be used as
part of an object with normal semantics, for example an attribute or an element of a list.)
An external pointer is created by
SEXP R_MakeExternalPtr(void *p, SEXP tag, SEXP prot);

where p is the pointer (and hence this cannot portably be a function pointer), and tag and prot are references to
ordinary R objects which will remain in existence (be protected from garbage collection) for the lifetime of the
external pointer object. A useful convention is to use the tag field for some form of type identification and the
prot field for protecting the memory that the external pointer represents, if that memory is allocated from the R
heap. Both tag and prot can be R_NilValue, and often are.
An alternative way to create an external pointer from a function pointer is
typedef void * (*R_DL_FUNC)();
SEXP R_MakeExternalPtrFn(R_DL_FUNC p, SEXP tag, SEXP prot);

The elements of an external pointer can be accessed and set via

void *R_ExternalPtrAddr(SEXP s);
DL_FUNC R_ExternalPtrAddrFn(SEXP s);
SEXP R_ExternalPtrTag(SEXP s);
SEXP R_ExternalPtrProtected(SEXP s);
void R_ClearExternalPtr(SEXP s);
void R_SetExternalPtrAddr(SEXP s, void *p);
void R_SetExternalPtrTag(SEXP s, SEXP tag);
void R_SetExternalPtrProtected(SEXP s, SEXP p);

Clearing a pointer sets its value to the C NULL pointer.

An external pointer object can have a finalizer, a piece of code to be run when the object is garbage collected.
This can be R code or C code, and the various interfaces are, respectively.
void R_RegisterFinalizer(SEXP s, SEXP fun);
void R_RegisterFinalizerEx(SEXP s, SEXP fun, Rboolean onexit);

typedef void (*R_CFinalizer_t)(SEXP);

void R_RegisterCFinalizer(SEXP s, R_CFinalizer_t fun);
void R_RegisterCFinalizerEx(SEXP s, R_CFinalizer_t fun, Rboolean onexit);

The R function indicated by fun should be a function of a single argument, the object to be finalized. R does not
perform a garbage collection when shutting down, and the onexit argument of the extended forms can be used
to ask that the finalizer be run during a normal shutdown of the R session. It is suggested that it is good practice
to clear the pointer on finalization.
The only R level function for interacting with external pointers is reg.finalizer which can be used to set a
finalizer.
It is probably not a good idea to allow an external pointer to be saved and then reloaded, but if this happens the
pointer will be set to the C NULL pointer.
Finalizers can be run at many places in the code base and much of it, including the R interpreter, is not re-
entrant. So great care is needed in choosing the code to be run in a finalizer. Finalizers are marked to be run at
garbage collection but only run at a somewhat safe point thereafter.
Weak references are used to allow the programmer to maintain information on entities without preventing the
garbage collection of the entities once they become unreachable.
A weak reference contains a key and a value. The value is reachable is if it either reachable directly or via weak
references with reachable keys. Once a value is determined to be unreachable during garbage collection, the key
and value are set to R_NilValue and the finalizer will be run later in the garbage collection.
Weak reference objects are created by one of
SEXP R_MakeWeakRef(SEXP key, SEXP val, SEXP fin, Rboolean onexit);
SEXP R_MakeWeakRefC(SEXP key, SEXP val, R_CFinalizer_t fin,
Rboolean onexit);

where the R or C finalizer are specified in exactly the same way as for an external pointer object (whose
finalization interface is implemented via weak references).
The parts can be accessed via
SEXP R_WeakRefKey(SEXP w);
SEXP R_WeakRefValue(SEXP w);
void R_RunWeakRefFinalizer(SEXP w);

A toy example of the use of weak references can be found at

https://homepage.stat.uiowa.edu/~luke/R/references/weakfinex.html, but that is used to add finalizers to external
pointers which can now be done more directly. At the time of writing no CRAN or Bioconductor package uses
weak references.
An example

Previous: External pointers and weak references, Up: External pointers and weak references [Contents][Index]

5.13.1 An example

Package RODBC uses external pointers to maintain its channels, connections to databases. There can be several
connections open at once, and the status information for each is stored in a C structure (pointed to by thisHandle
in the code extract below) that is returned via an external pointer as part of the RODBC ‘channel’ (as the
"handle_ptr" attribute). The external pointer is created by

SEXP ans, ptr;

ans = PROTECT(allocVector(INTSXP, 1));
ptr = R_MakeExternalPtr(thisHandle, install("RODBC_channel"), R_NilValue);
PROTECT(ptr);
R_RegisterCFinalizerEx(ptr, chanFinalizer, TRUE);
...
/* return the channel no */
INTEGER(ans)[0] = nChannels;
/* and the connection string as an attribute */
setAttrib(ans, install("connection.string"), constr);
setAttrib(ans, install("handle_ptr"), ptr);
UNPROTECT(3);
return ans;

Note the symbol given to identify the usage of the external pointer, and the use of the finalizer. Since the final
argument when registering the finalizer is TRUE, the finalizer will be run at the end of the R session (unless it
crashes). This is used to close and clean up the connection to the database. The finalizer code is simply
static void chanFinalizer(SEXP ptr)
{
if(!R_ExternalPtrAddr(ptr)) return;
inRODBCClose(R_ExternalPtrAddr(ptr));
R_ClearExternalPtr(ptr); /* not really needed */
}

Clearing the pointer and checking for a NULL pointer avoids any possibility of attempting to close an already-
closed channel.
R’s connections provide another example of using external pointers, in that case purely to be able to use a
finalizer to close and destroy the connection if it is no longer is use.
Next: Character encoding issues, Previous: External pointers and weak references, Up: System and foreign
language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.14 Vector accessor functions

The vector accessors like REAL, INTEGER, LOGICAL, RAW, COMPLEX, and VECTOR_ELT are functions when used in R
extensions. (For efficiency they may be macros or inline functions when used in the R source code, apart from
SET_STRING_ELT and SET_VECTOR_ELT which are always functions.)

The accessor functions check that they are being used on an appropriate type of SEXP.
Formerly it was possible for packages to obtain internal versions of some accessors by defining
‘USE_RINTERNALS’ before including Rinternals.h. This is no longer the case. Defining ‘USE_RINTERNALS’ now has
no effect.

Previous: Vector accessor functions, Up: System and foreign language interfaces [Contents][Index]

5.15 Character encoding issues

CHARSXPs can be marked as coming from a known encoding (Latin-1 or UTF-8). This is mainly intended for
human-readable output, and most packages can just treat such CHARSXPs as a whole. However, if they need to be
interpreted as characters or output at C level then it would normally be correct to ensure that they are converted
to the encoding of the current locale: this can be done by accessing the data in the CHARSXP by translateChar
rather than by CHAR. If re-encoding is needed this allocates memory with R_alloc which thus persists to the end
of the .Call/.External call unless vmaxset is used (see Transient storage allocation).
There is a similar function translateCharUTF8 which converts to UTF-8: this has the advantage that a faithful
translation is almost always possible (whereas only a few languages can be represented in the encoding of the
current locale unless that is UTF-8).
Both translateChar and translateCharUTF8 will translate any input, using escapes such as ‘<A9>’ and ‘<U+0093>’
to represent untranslatable parts of the input.
There is a public interface to the encoding marked on CHARSXPs via
typedef enum {CE_NATIVE, CE_UTF8, CE_LATIN1, CE_BYTES, CE_SYMBOL, CE_ANY} cetype_t;
cetype_t getCharCE(SEXP);
SEXP mkCharCE(const char *, cetype_t);

Only CE_UTF8 and CE_LATIN1 are marked on CHARSXPs (and so Rf_getCharCE will only return one of the first
three), and these should only be used on non-ASCII strings. Value CE_BYTES is used to make CHARSXPs which
should be regarded as a set of bytes and not translated. Value CE_SYMBOL is used internally to indicate Adobe
Symbol encoding. Value CE_ANY is used to indicate a character string that will not need re-encoding – this is used
for character strings known to be in ASCII, and can also be used as an input parameter where the intention is
that the string is treated as a series of bytes. (See the comments under mkChar about the length of input allowed.)
Function
const char *reEnc(const char *x, cetype_t ce_in, cetype_t ce_out,
int subst);

can be used to re-encode character strings: like translateChar it returns a string allocated by R_alloc. This can
translate from CE_SYMBOL to CE_UTF8, but not conversely. Argument subst controls what to do with untranslatable
characters or invalid input: this is done byte-by-byte with 1 indicates to output hex of the form <a0>, and 2 to
replace by ., with any other value causing the byte to produce no output.
There is also
SEXP mkCharLenCE(const char *, size_t, cetype_t);

to create marked character strings of a given length.

Next: Generic functions and methods, Previous: System and foreign language interfaces, Up: Writing R
Extensions [Contents][Index]
 6 The R API: entry points for C code
There are a large number of entry points in the R executable/DLL that can be called from C code (and some that
can be called from Fortran code). Only those documented here are stable enough that they will only be changed
with considerable notice.
The recommended procedure to use these is to include the header file R.h in your C code by
#include <R.h>

This will include several other header files from the directory R_INCLUDE_DIR/R_ext, and there are other header
files there that can be included too, but many of the features they contain should be regarded as undocumented
and unstable.
Most of these header files, including all those included by R.h, can be used from C++ code.

Note: Because R re-maps many of its external names to avoid clashes with system or user code, it is
essential to include the appropriate header files when using these entry points.

This remapping can cause problems153, and can be eliminated by defining R_NO_REMAP (before including any R
headers) and prepending ‘Rf_’ to all the function names used from Rinternals.h and R_ext/Error.h. These
problems can usually be avoided by including other headers (such as system headers and those for external
software used by the package) before any R headers. (Headers from other packages may include R headers
directly or via inclusion from further packages, and may define R_NO_REMAP with or without including
Rinternals.h.)
We can classify the entry points as

API
Entry points which are documented in this manual and declared in an installed header file. These can be
used in distributed packages and will only be changed after deprecation.
public
Entry points declared in an installed header file that are exported on all R platforms but are not
documented and subject to change without notice.
private
Entry points that are used when building R and exported on all R platforms but are not declared in the
installed header files. Do not use these in distributed code.
hidden
Entry points that are where possible (Windows and some modern Unix-alike compilers/loaders when
using R as a shared library) not exported.

Memory allocation
Error signaling
Random number generation
Missing and IEEE special values
Printing
Calling C from Fortran and vice versa
Numerical analysis subroutines
Optimization
Integration
Utility functions
Re-encoding
Condition handling and cleanup code
Allowing interrupts
Platform and version information
Inlining C functions
Controlling visibility
 Using these functions in your own C code
Organization of header files

Next: Error signaling, Previous: The R API: entry points for C code, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.1 Memory allocation

There are two types of memory allocation available to the C programmer, one in which R manages the clean-up
and the other in which user has full control (and responsibility).
These functions are declared in header R_exts/RS.h which is included by R.h.
Transient storage allocation
User-controlled memory

Next: User-controlled memory, Previous: Memory allocation, Up: Memory allocation [Contents][Index]

6.1.1 Transient storage allocation

Here R will reclaim the memory at the end of the call to .C, .Call or .External. Use
char *R_alloc(size_t n, int size)

which allocates n units of size bytes each. A typical usage (from package stats) is
x = (int *) R_alloc(nrows(merge)+2, sizeof(int));

(size_t is defined in stddef.h which the header defining R_alloc includes.)

There is a similar call, S_alloc (named for compatibility with older versions of S) which zeroes the memory
allocated,
char *S_alloc(long n, int size)

and
char *S_realloc(char *p, long new, long old, int size)

which (for new > old) changes the allocation size from old to new units, and zeroes the additional units. NB:
these calls are best avoided as long is insufficient for large memory allocations on 64-bit Windows (where it is
limited to 2^31-1 bytes).
This memory is taken from the heap, and released at the end of the .C, .Call or .External call. Users can also
manage it, by noting the current position with a call to vmaxget and subsequently clearing memory allocated by a
call to vmaxset. An example might be
void *vmax = vmaxget()
// a loop involving the use of R_alloc at each iteration
vmaxset(vmax)

This is only recommended for experts.

Note that this memory will be freed on error or user interrupt (if allowed: see Allowing interrupts).
The memory returned is only guaranteed to be aligned as required for double pointers: take precautions if
casting to a pointer which needs more. There is also
long double *R_allocLD(size_t n)

which is guaranteed to have the 16-byte alignment needed for long double pointers on some platforms.
These functions should only be used in code called by .C etc, never from front-ends. They are not thread-safe.

Previous: Transient storage allocation, Up: Memory allocation [Contents][Index]

6.1.2 User-controlled memory

The other form of memory allocation is an interface to malloc, the interface providing R error signaling. This
memory lasts until freed by the user and is additional to the memory allocated for the R workspace.
The interface macros are
type* R_Calloc(size_t n, type)
type* R_Realloc(any *p, size_t n, type)
void R_Free(any *p)

providing analogues of calloc, realloc and free. If there is an error during allocation it is handled by R, so if
these return the memory has been successfully allocated or freed. R_Free will set the pointer p to NULL. (Some
but not all versions of S did so.)
Users should arrange to R_Free this memory when no longer needed, including on error or user interrupt. This
can often be done most conveniently from an on.exit action in the calling R function – see pwilcox for an
example.
Do not assume that memory allocated by R_Calloc/R_Realloc comes from the same pool as used by malloc:154in
particular do not use free or strdup with it.
Memory obtained by these macros should be aligned in the same way as malloc, that is ‘suitably aligned for any
kind of variable’.
Historically the macros Calloc, Free and Realloc were used, and these remain available unless
STRICT_R_HEADERS was defined prior to the inclusion of the header.

char * CallocCharBuf(size_t n)
void * Memcpy(p, q, n)
void * Memzero(p, m)

CallocCharBuf is shorthand for R_Calloc(n+1, char) to allow for the nul terminator. Memcpy and Memzero take n
items from array p and copy them to array p or zero them respectively.

Next: Random number generation, Previous: Memory allocation, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.2 Error signaling

The basic error signaling routines are the equivalents of stop and warning in R code, and use the same interface.
void error(const char * format, ...);
void warning(const char * format, ...);
void errorcall(SEXP call, const char * format, ...);
void warningcall(SEXP call, const char * format, ...);
void warningcall_immediate(SEXP call, const char * format, ...);

These have the same call sequences as calls to printf, but in the simplest case can be called with a single
character string argument giving the error message. (Don’t do this if the string contains ‘%’ or might otherwise
be interpreted as a format.)
These are defined in header R_ext/Error.h included by R.h.
Error signaling from Fortran

Previous: Error signaling, Up: Error signaling [Contents][Index]

6.2.1 Error signaling from Fortran

There are two interface function provided to call error and warning from Fortran code, in each case with a
simple character string argument. They are defined as
subroutine rexit(message)
subroutine rwarn(message)

Messages of more than 255 characters are truncated, with a warning.

Next: Missing and IEEE special values, Previous: Error signaling, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.3 Random number generation

The interface to R’s internal random number generation routines is

double unif_rand();
double norm_rand();
double exp_rand();
double R_unif_index(double);

giving one uniform, normal or exponential pseudo-random variate. However, before these are used, the user
must call
GetRNGstate();

and after all the required variates have been generated, call
PutRNGstate();

These essentially read in (or create) .Random.seed and write it out after use.
These are defined in header R_ext/Random.h.
The random number generator is private to R; there is no way to select the kind of RNG nor set the seed except
by evaluating calls to the R functions.
The C code behind R’s rxxx functions can be accessed by including the header file Rmath.h; See Distribution
functions. Those calls should also be preceded and followed by calls to GetRNGstate and PutRNGstate.

Next: Printing, Previous: Random number generation, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents]
[Index]

6.4 Missing and IEEE special values

A set of functions is provided to test for NA, Inf, -Inf and NaN. These functions are accessed via macros:
ISNA(x) True for R’s NA only
ISNAN(x) True for R’s NA and IEEE NaN
R_FINITE(x) False for Inf, -Inf, NA, NaN
and via function R_IsNaN which is true for NaN but not NA.
Do use R_FINITE rather than isfinite or finite; the latter is often mendacious and isfinite is only available on
a some platforms, on which R_FINITE is a macro expanding to isfinite.
Currently in C code ISNAN is a macro calling isnan. (Since this gives problems on some C++ systems, if the R
headers is called from C++ code a function call is used.)
You can check for Inf or -Inf by testing equality to R_PosInf or R_NegInf, and set (but not test) an NA as NA_REAL.
All of the above apply to double variables only. For integer variables there is a variable accessed by the macro
NA_INTEGER which can used to set or test for missingness.
These are defined in header R_ext/Arith.h included by R.h.

Next: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa, Previous: Missing and IEEE special values, Up: The R API: entry
points for C code [Contents][Index]

6.5 Printing

The most useful function for printing from a C routine compiled into R is Rprintf. This is used in exactly the
same way as printf, but is guaranteed to write to R’s output (which might be a GUI console rather than a file,
and can be re-directed by sink). It is wise to write complete lines (including the "\n") before returning to R. It is
defined in R_ext/Print.h.
The function REprintf is similar but writes on the error stream (stderr) which may or may not be different from
the standard output stream.
Functions Rvprintf and REvprintf are analogues using the vprintf interface. Because that is a C99155 interface,
they are only defined by R_ext/Print.h in C++ code if the macro R_USE_C99_IN_CXX is defined before it is
included or (as from R 4.0.0) a C++11 compiler is used.
Another circumstance when it may be important to use these functions is when using parallel computation on a
cluster of computational nodes, as their output will be re-directed/logged appropriately.
Printing from Fortran

Previous: Printing, Up: Printing [Contents][Index]

6.5.1 Printing from Fortran

On many systems Fortran write and print statements can be used, but the output may not interleave well with
that of C, and may be invisible on GUI interfaces. They are not portable and best avoided.
Some subroutines are provided to ease the output of information from Fortran code.
subroutine dblepr(label, nchar, data, ndata)
subroutine realpr(label, nchar, data, ndata)
subroutine intpr (label, nchar, data, ndata)

and from R 4.0.0,

subroutine labelpr(label, nchar)
subroutine dblepr1(label, nchar, var)
subroutine realpr1(label, nchar, var)
subroutine intpr1 (label, nchar, var)

Here label is a character label of up to 255 characters, nchar is its length (which can be -1 if the whole label is
to be used), data is an array of length at least ndata of the appropriate type (double precision, real and integer
respectively) and var is a (scalar) variable. These routines print the label on one line and then print data or var
as if it were an R vector on subsequent line(s). Note that some compilers will give an error or warning unless
data is an array: others will accept a scalar when ndata has value one or zero. NB: There is no check on the type
of data or var, so using real (including a real constant) instead of double precision will give incorrect answers.
intpr works with zero ndata so can be used to print a label in earlier versions of R.

Next: Numerical analysis subroutines, Previous: Printing, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents]
[Index]

6.6 Calling C from Fortran and vice versa

Naming conventions for symbols generated by Fortran differ by platform: it is not safe to assume that Fortran
names appear to C with a trailing underscore. To help cover up the platform-specific differences there is a set of
macros156 that should be used.
F77_SUB(name)
to define a function in C to be called from Fortran
F77_NAME(name)
to declare a Fortran routine in C before use
F77_CALL(name)
to call a Fortran routine from C
F77_COMDECL(name)
to declare a Fortran common block in C
F77_COM(name)
to access a Fortran common block from C
On most current platforms these are all the same, but it is unwise to rely on this. Note that names containing
underscores were not legal in Fortran 77, and are not portably handled by the above macros. (Also, all Fortran
names for use by R are lower case, but this is not enforced by the macros.)
For example, suppose we want to call R’s normal random numbers from Fortran. We need a C wrapper along the
lines of
#include <R.h>

void F77_SUB(rndstart)(void) { GetRNGstate(); }

void F77_SUB(rndend)(void) { PutRNGstate(); }
double F77_SUB(normrnd)(void) { return norm_rand(); }

to be called from Fortran as in

subroutine testit()
double precision normrnd, x
call rndstart()
x = normrnd()
call dblepr("X was", 5, x, 1)
call rndend()
end

Note that this is not guaranteed to be portable, for the return conventions might not be compatible between the C
and Fortran compilers used. (Passing values via arguments is safer.)
The standard packages, for example stats, are a rich source of further examples.
Where supported, link time optimization provides a reliable way to check the consistency of calls to C from
Fortran or vice versa. See Using Link-time Optimization. One place where this occurs is the registration of
.Fortran calls in C code (see Registering native routines). For example

init.c:10:13: warning: type of ‘vsom_’ does not match original

declaration [-Wlto-type-mismatch]
extern void F77_NAME(vsom)(void *, void *, void *, void *,
void *, void *, void *, void *, void *);
vsom.f90:20:33: note: type mismatch in parameter 9
subroutine vsom(neurons,dt,dtrows,dtcols,xdim,ydim,alpha,train)
vsom.f90:20:33: note: ‘vsom’ was previously declared here

shows that a subroutine has been registered with 9 arguments (as that is what the .Fortran call used) but only
has 8.
Fortran character strings
Fortran LOGICAL
Passing functions

Next: Fortran LOGICAL, Previous: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa, Up: Calling C from Fortran and vice
versa [Contents][Index]

6.6.1 Fortran character strings

Passing character strings from C to Fortran or vice versa is not portable, but can be done with care. The internal
representations are different: a character array in C (or C++) is nul-terminated so its length can be computed by
strlen. Fortran character arrays are typically stored as an array of bytes and a length. This matters when passing
strings from C to Fortran or vice versa: in many cases one has been able to get away with passing the string but
not the length. However, in 2019 this changed for gfortran, starting with version 9 but backported to versions 7
and 8. Several months later, gfortran 9.2 introduced an option
-ftail-call-workaround

and made it the current default but said it might be withdrawn in future.
Suppose we want a function to report a message from Fortran to R’s console (one could use labelpr, or intpr
with dummy data, but this might be the basis of a custom reporting function). Suppose the equivalent in Fortran
would be
 subroutine rmsg(msg)
character*(*) msg
print *.msg
end

in file rmsg.f. Using gfortran 9.2 and later we can extract the C view by
gfortran -c -fc-prototypes-external rmsg.f

which gives
void rmsg_ (char *msg, size_t msg_len);

(where size_t applies to version 8 and later). We could re-write that portably in C as
#define USE_FC_LEN_T
#include <Rconfig.h> // included by R.h, so define USE_FC_LEN_T early

void F77_NAME(rmsg)(char *msg, FC_LEN_T msg_len)

{
char cmsg[msg_len+1];
strncpy(cmsg, msg, msg_len);
cmsg[msg_len] = ‘\0’; // nul-terminate the string, to be sure
// do something with ‘cmsg’
}

in code depending on R(>= 3.6.2). For earlier versions of R we could just assume that msg is nul-terminated (not
guaranteed, but people have been getting away with it for many years), so the complete C side might be
#define USE_FC_LEN_T
#include <Rconfig.h>

#ifdef FC_LEN_T
void F77_NAME(rmsg)(char *msg, FC_LEN_T msg_len)
{
char cmsg[msg_len+1];
strncpy(cmsg, msg, msg_len);
cmsg[msg_len] = ‘\0’;
// do something with ‘cmsg’
}
#else
void F77_NAME(rmsg)(char *msg)
{
// do something with ‘msg’
}
#endif

An alternative is to use Fortran 2003 features to set up the Fortran routine to pass a C-compatible character
string. We could use something like
module cfuncs
use iso_c_binding, only: c_char, c_null_char
interface
subroutine cmsg(msg) bind(C, name = ‘cmsg’)
use iso_c_binding, only: c_char
character(kind = c_char):: msg(*)
end subroutine cmsg
end interface
end module

subroutine rmsg(msg)
use cfuncs
character(*) msg
call cmsg(msg//c_null_char) ! need to concatenate a nul terminator
end subroutine rmsg

where the C side is simply

void cmsg(const char *msg)
{
 // do something with nul-terminated string ‘msg’
}

Passing a variable-length string from C to Fortran is trickier, but

https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/documentation/fortran-compiler-oneapi-dev-guide-and-
reference/top/compiler-reference/mixed-language-programming/standard-tools-for-interoperability/bind.html
provides a recipe. However, all the uses in BLAS and LAPACK are of a single character, and for these we can
write a wrapper in Fortran along the lines of
subroutine c_dgemm(transa, transb, m, n, k, alpha,
+ a, lda, b, ldb, beta, c, ldc)
+ bind(C, name = ‘Cdgemm’)
use iso_c_binding, only : c_char, c_int, c_double
character(c_char):: transa, transb
integer(c_int):: m, n, k, lda, ldb, ldc
real(c_double):: alpha, beta, a(lda,*), b(ldb,*), c(ldc,*)
call dgemm(transa, transb, m, n, k, alpha,
+ a, lda, b, ldb, beta, c, ldc)
end subroutine c_dgemm

which is then called from C with declaration

void
Cdgemm(const char *transa, const char *transb, const int *m,
const int *n, const int *k, const double *alpha,
const double *a, const int *lda, const double *b, const int *ldb,
const double *beta, double *c, const int *ldc);

Alternatively, do as R does as from version 3.6.2 and pass the character length(s) from C to Fortran. A portable
way to do this is
// before any R headers, or define in PKG_CPPFLAGS
#define USE_FC_LEN_T
#include <Rconfig.h>
#include <R_ext/BLAS.h>
#ifndef FCONE
# define FCONE
#endif
...
F77_CALL(dgemm)("N", "T", &nrx, &ncy, &ncx, &one, x,
&nrx, y, &nry, &zero, z, &nrx FCONE FCONE);

(Note there is no comma before or between the FCONE invocations.) It is strongly recommended that packages
which call from C/C++ BLAS/LAPACK routines with character arguments adopt this approach.

Next: Passing functions, Previous: Fortran character strings, Up: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa
[Contents][Index]

6.6.2 Fortran LOGICAL

Passing Fortran LOGICAL variables to/from C/C++ is potentially compiler-dependent. Fortran compilers have
long used a 32-bit integer type so it is pretty portable to use int * on the C/C++ side. However, recent versions
of gfortran via the option -fc-prototypes-external say the C equivalent is int_least32_t *: ‘Link-Time
Optimization’ will report int * as a mismatch. It is possible to use iso_c_binding in Fortran to map LOGICAL
variables to the C99 type _Bool, but it is usually simpler to pass integers to and fro.

Previous: Fortran LOGICAL, Up: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa [Contents][Index]

6.6.3 Passing functions

A number of packages call C functions passed as arguments to Fortran code along the lines of
c subroutine fcn(m,n,x,fvec,iflag)
c integer m,n,iflag
c double precision x(n),fvec(m)
...
subroutine lmdif(fcn, ...
where the C declaration and call are
void fcn_lmdif(int *m, int *n, double *par, double *fvec, int *iflag);

void F77_NAME(lmdif)(void (*fcn_lmdif)(int *m, int *n, double *par,

double *fvec, int *iflag), ...

F77_CALL(lmdif)(&fcn_lmdif, ...

This works on most platforms but depends on the C and Fortran compilers agreeing on calling conventions: this
have been seen to fail. The most portable solution seems to be to convert the Fortran code to C, perhaps using
f2c.

Next: Optimization, Previous: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.7 Numerical analysis subroutines

R contains a large number of mathematical functions for its own use, for example numerical linear algebra
computations and special functions.
The header files R_ext/BLAS.h, R_ext/Lapack.h and R_ext/Linpack.h contains declarations of the BLAS,
LAPACK and LINPACK linear algebra functions included in R. These are expressed as calls to Fortran
subroutines, and they will also be usable from users’ Fortran code. Although not part of the official API, this set
of subroutines is unlikely to change (but might be supplemented).
The header file Rmath.h lists many other functions that are available and documented in the following
subsections. Many of these are C interfaces to the code behind R functions, so the R function documentation
may give further details.
Distribution functions
Mathematical functions
Numerical Utilities
Mathematical constants

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[Contents][Index]

6.7.1 Distribution functions

The routines used to calculate densities, cumulative distribution functions and quantile functions for the standard
statistical distributions are available as entry points.
The arguments for the entry points follow the pattern of those for the normal distribution:
double dnorm(double x, double mu, double sigma, int give_log);
double pnorm(double x, double mu, double sigma, int lower_tail,
int give_log);
double qnorm(double p, double mu, double sigma, int lower_tail,
int log_p);
double rnorm(double mu, double sigma);

That is, the first argument gives the position for the density and CDF and probability for the quantile function,
followed by the distribution’s parameters. Argument lower_tail should be TRUE (or 1) for normal use, but can be
FALSE (or 0) if the probability of the upper tail is desired or specified.

Finally, give_log should be non-zero if the result is required on log scale, and log_p should be non-zero if p has
been specified on log scale.
Note that you directly get the cumulative (or “integrated”) hazard function, H(t) = - log(1 - F(t)), by using
- pdist(t, ..., /*lower_tail = */ FALSE, /* give_log = */ TRUE)

or shorter (and more cryptic) - pdist(t, ..., 0, 1).

The random-variate generation routine rnorm returns one normal variate. See Random number generation, for
the protocol in using the random-variate routines.
Note that these argument sequences are (apart from the names and that rnorm has no n) mainly the same as the
corresponding R functions of the same name, so the documentation of the R functions can be used. Note that the
exponential and gamma distributions are parametrized by scale rather than rate.
For reference, the following table gives the basic name (to be prefixed by ‘d’, ‘p’, ‘q’ or ‘r’ apart from the
exceptions noted) and distribution-specific arguments for the complete set of distributions.

beta beta a, b
non-central beta nbeta a, b, ncp
binomial binom n, p
Cauchy cauchy location, scale
chi-squared chisq df
non-central chi-squared nchisq df, ncp
exponential exp scale (and not rate)
F f n1, n2
non-central F nf n1, n2, ncp
gamma gamma shape, scale
geometric geom p
hypergeometric hyper NR, NB, n
logistic logis location, scale
lognormal lnorm logmean, logsd
negative binomial nbinom size, prob
normal norm mu, sigma
Poisson pois lambda
Student’s t t n
non-central t nt df, delta
Studentized range tukey (*) rr, cc, df
uniform unif a, b
Weibull weibull shape, scale
Wilcoxon rank sum wilcox m, n
Wilcoxon signed rank signrank n

Entries marked with an asterisk only have ‘p’ and ‘q’ functions available, and none of the non-central
distributions have ‘r’ functions.
(If remapping is suppressed, the Normal distribution names are Rf_dnorm4, Rf_pnorm5 and Rf_qnorm5.)
Additionally, a multivariate RNG for the multinomial distribution is
void rmultinom(int n, double* prob, int K, int* rN)

where K = length(prob), sum(prob[.]) == 1 and rN must point to a length-K integer vector n1 n2 .. nK where
each entry nj=rN[j] is “filled” by a random binomial from Bin(n; prob[j]), constrained to sum(rN[.]) == n.
After calls to dwilcox, pwilcox or qwilcox the function wilcox_free() should be called, and similarly
signrank_free() for the signed rank functions. Since wilcox_free() and signrank_free() were only added to
Rmath.h in R 4.2.0, their use requires something like

#include "Rmath.h"
#include "Rversion.h"

#if R_VERSION < R_Version(4, 2, 0)

extern void wilcox_free(void);
extern void signrank_free(void);
#endif
For the negative binomial distribution (‘nbinom’), in addition to the (size, prob) parametrization, the alternative
(size, mu) parametrization is provided as well by functions ‘[dpqr]nbinom_mu()’, see ?NegBinomial in R.

Functions dpois_raw(x, *) and dbinom_raw(x, *) are versions of the Poisson and binomial probability mass
functions which work continuously in x, whereas dbinom(x,*) and dpois(x,*) only return non zero values for
integer x.
double dbinom_raw(double x, double n, double p, double q, int give_log)
double dpois_raw (double x, double lambda, int give_log)

Note that dbinom_raw() returns both p and q = 1-p which may be advantageous when one of them is close to 1.

Next: Numerical Utilities, Previous: Distribution functions, Up: Numerical analysis subroutines [Contents]
[Index]

6.7.2 Mathematical functions

Function: double gammafn (double x)

Function: double lgammafn (double x)
Function: double digamma (double x)
Function: double trigamma (double x)
Function: double tetragamma (double x)
Function: double pentagamma (double x)
Function: double psigamma (double x, double deriv)
Function: void dpsifn (double x, int n, int kode, int m, double* ans, int* nz, int* ierr)
The Gamma function, the natural logarithm of its absolute value and first four derivatives and the n-th
derivative of Psi, the digamma function, which is the derivative of lgammafn. In other words, digamma(x) is
the same as psigamma(x,0), trigamma(x) == psigamma(x,1), etc. The underlying workhorse, dpsifn(), is
useful, e.g., when several derivatives of log Gamma=lgammafn are desired. It computes and returns in
ans[] the length-m sequence (-1)^(k+1) / gamma(k+1) * psi(k;x) for k = n ... n+m-1, where psi(k;x) is the
k-th derivative of Psi(x), i.e., psigamma(x,k). For more details, see the comments in
src/nmath/polygamma.c.

Function: double beta (double a, double b)

Function: double lbeta (double a, double b)
The (complete) Beta function and its natural logarithm.

Function: double choose (double n, double k)

Function: double lchoose (double n, double k)
The number of combinations of k items chosen from from n and the natural logarithm of its absolute
value, generalized to arbitrary real n. k is rounded to the nearest integer (with a warning if needed).

Function: double bessel_i (double x, double nu, double expo)

Function: double bessel_j (double x, double nu)
Function: double bessel_k (double x, double nu, double expo)
Function: double bessel_y (double x, double nu)
Bessel functions of types I, J, K and Y with index nu. For bessel_i and bessel_k there is the option to
return exp(-x) I(x; nu) or exp(x) K(x; nu) if expo is 2. (Use expo == 1 for unscaled values.)

Next: Mathematical constants, Previous: Mathematical functions, Up: Numerical analysis subroutines
[Contents][Index]

6.7.3 Numerical Utilities

There are a few other numerical utility functions available as entry points.

Function: double R_pow (double x, double y)

Function: double R_pow_di (double x, int i)
 R_pow(x, y) and R_pow_di(x, i) compute x^y and x^i, respectively using R_FINITE checks and returning
the proper result (the same as R) for the cases where x, y or i are 0 or missing or infinite or NaN.

Function: double log1p (double x)

Computes log(1 + x) (log 1 plus x), accurately even for small x, i.e., |x| << 1.
This should be provided by your platform, in which case it is not included in Rmath.h, but is (probably) in
math.h which Rmath.h includes (except under C++, so it may not be declared for C++98).

Function: double log1pmx (double x)

Computes log(1 + x) - x (log 1 plus x minus x), accurately even for small x, i.e., |x| << 1.

Function: double log1pexp (double x)

Computes log(1 + exp(x)) (log 1 plus exp), accurately, notably for large x, e.g., x > 720.

Function: double log1mexp (double x)

Computes log(1 - exp(-x)) (log 1 minus exp), accurately, carefully for two regions of x, optimally
cutting off at log 2 (= 0.693147..), using ((-x) > -M_LN2 ? log(-expm1(-x)) : log1p(-exp(-x))).

Function: double expm1 (double x)

Computes exp(x) - 1 (exp x minus 1), accurately even for small x, i.e., |x| << 1.
This should be provided by your platform, in which case it is not included in Rmath.h, but is (probably) in
math.h which Rmath.h includes (except under C++, so it may not be declared for C++98).

Function: double lgamma1p (double x)

Computes log(gamma(x + 1)) (log(gamma(1 plus x))), accurately even for small x, i.e., 0 < x < 0.5.

Function: double cospi (double x)

Computes cos(pi * x) (where pi is 3.14159...), accurately, notably for half integer x.
This might be provided by your platform157, in which case it is not included in Rmath.h, but is in math.h
which Rmath.h includes. (Ensure that neither math.h nor cmath is included before Rmath.h or define
#define __STDC_WANT_IEC_60559_FUNCS_EXT__ 1

before the first inclusion.)

Function: double sinpi (double x)

Computes sin(pi * x) accurately, notably for (half) integer x.
This might be provided by your platform, in which case it is not included in Rmath.h, but is in math.h
which Rmath.h includes (but see the comments for cospi).

Function: double Rtanpi (double x)

Computes tan(pi * x) accurately, notably for integer x, giving NaN for half integer x and exactly +1 or -1
for (non half) quarter integers.

Function: double tanpi (double x)

Computes tan(pi * x) accurately for integer x with possibly platform dependent behavior for half (and
quarter) integers. This might be provided by your platform, in which case it is not included in Rmath.h, but
is in math.h which Rmath.h includes (but see the comments for cospi).

Function: double logspace_add (double logx, double logy)

Function: double logspace_sub (double logx, double logy)
Function: double logspace_sum (const double* logx, int n)
Compute the log of a sum or difference from logs of terms, i.e., “x + y” as log (exp(logx) + exp(logy))
and “x - y” as log (exp(logx) - exp(logy)), and “sum_i x[i]” as log (sum[i = 1:n exp(logx[i])] )
without causing unnecessary overflows or throwing away too much accuracy.
Function: int imax2 (int x, int y)
Function: int imin2 (int x, int y)
Function: double fmax2 (double x, double y)
Function: double fmin2 (double x, double y)
Return the larger (max) or smaller (min) of two integer or double numbers, respectively. Note that fmax2
and fmin2 differ from C99/C++11’s fmax and fmin when one of the arguments is a NaN: these versions
return NaN.

Function: double sign (double x)

Compute the signum function, where sign(x) is 1, 0, or -1, when x is positive, 0, or negative, respectively,
and NaN if x is a NaN.

Function: double fsign (double x, double y)

Performs “transfer of sign” and is defined as |x| * sign(y).

Function: double fprec (double x, double digits)

Returns the value of x rounded to digits decimal digits (after the decimal point).
This is the function used by R’s signif().

Function: double fround (double x, double digits)

Returns the value of x rounded to digits significant decimal digits.
This is the function used by R’s round(). (Note that C99/C++11 provide a round function but C++98 need
not.)

Function: double ftrunc (double x)

Returns the value of x truncated (to an integer value) towards zero.

Previous: Numerical Utilities, Up: Numerical analysis subroutines [Contents][Index]

6.7.4 Mathematical constants

R has a set of commonly used mathematical constants encompassing constants defined by POSIX and usually
found in headers math.h and cmath, as well as further ones that are used in statistical computations. These are
defined to (at least) 30 digits accuracy in Rmath.h. The following definitions use ln(x) for the natural logarithm
(log(x) in R).

Name Definition (ln = log) round(value, 7)

M_E e 2.7182818
M_LOG2E log2(e) 1.4426950
M_LOG10E log10(e) 0.4342945
M_LN2 ln(2) 0.6931472
M_LN10 ln(10) 2.3025851
M_PI pi 3.1415927
M_PI_2 pi/2 1.5707963
M_PI_4 pi/4 0.7853982
M_1_PI 1/pi 0.3183099
M_2_PI 2/pi 0.6366198
M_2_SQRTPI 2/sqrt(pi) 1.1283792
M_SQRT2 sqrt(2) 1.4142136
M_SQRT1_2 1/sqrt(2) 0.7071068
M_SQRT_3 sqrt(3) 1.7320508
M_SQRT_32 sqrt(32) 5.6568542
M_LOG10_2 log10(2) 0.3010300
 Name Definition (ln = log) round(value, 7)
M_2PI 2*pi 6.2831853
M_SQRT_PI sqrt(pi) 1.7724539
M_1_SQRT_2PI 1/sqrt(2*pi) 0.3989423
M_SQRT_2dPI sqrt(2/pi) 0.7978846
M_LN_SQRT_PI ln(sqrt(pi)) 0.5723649
M_LN_SQRT_2PI ln(sqrt(2*pi)) 0.9189385
M_LN_SQRT_PId2 ln(sqrt(pi/2)) 0.2257914

There are a set of constants (PI, DOUBLE_EPS) (and so on) defined (unless STRICT_R_HEADERS is defined) in the
included header R_ext/Constants.h, mainly for compatibility with S. All but PI are deprecated and should be
replaced by the C99/C++11 versions used in that file.
Further, the included header R_ext/Boolean.h has enumeration constants TRUE and FALSE of type Rboolean in
order to provide a way of using “logical” variables in C consistently. This can conflict with other software: for
example it conflicts with the headers in IJG’s jpeg-9 (but not earlier versions).

Next: Integration, Previous: Numerical analysis subroutines, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.8 Optimization

The C code underlying optim can be accessed directly. The user needs to supply a function to compute the
function to be minimized, of the type
typedef double optimfn(int n, double *par, void *ex);

where the first argument is the number of parameters in the second argument. The third argument is a pointer
passed down from the calling routine, normally used to carry auxiliary information.
Some of the methods also require a gradient function
typedef void optimgr(int n, double *par, double *gr, void *ex);

which passes back the gradient in the gr argument. No function is provided for finite-differencing, nor for
approximating the Hessian at the result.
The interfaces (defined in header R_ext/Applic.h) are
Nelder Mead:
void nmmin(int n, double *xin, double *x, double *Fmin, optimfn fn,
int *fail, double abstol, double intol, void *ex,
double alpha, double beta, double gamma, int trace,
int *fncount, int maxit);

BFGS:
void vmmin(int n, double *x, double *Fmin,
optimfn fn, optimgr gr, int maxit, int trace,
int *mask, double abstol, double reltol, int nREPORT,
void *ex, int *fncount, int *grcount, int *fail);

Conjugate gradients:
void cgmin(int n, double *xin, double *x, double *Fmin,
optimfn fn, optimgr gr, int *fail, double abstol,
double intol, void *ex, int type, int trace,
int *fncount, int *grcount, int maxit);

Limited-memory BFGS with bounds:

void lbfgsb(int n, int lmm, double *x, double *lower,
double *upper, int *nbd, double *Fmin, optimfn fn,
optimgr gr, int *fail, void *ex, double factr,
 double pgtol, int *fncount, int *grcount,
int maxit, char *msg, int trace, int nREPORT);

Simulated annealing:
void samin(int n, double *x, double *Fmin, optimfn fn, int maxit,
int tmax, double temp, int trace, void *ex);

Many of the arguments are common to the various methods. n is the number of parameters, x or xin is the
starting parameters on entry and x the final parameters on exit, with final value returned in Fmin. Most of the
other parameters can be found from the help page for optim: see the source code src/appl/lbfgsb.c for the
values of nbd, which specifies which bounds are to be used.

Next: Utility functions, Previous: Optimization, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents][Index]

6.9 Integration

The C code underlying integrate can be accessed directly. The user needs to supply a vectorizing C function to
compute the function to be integrated, of the type
typedef void integr_fn(double *x, int n, void *ex);

where x[] is both input and output and has length n, i.e., a C function, say fn, of type integr_fn must basically
do for(i in 1:n) x[i] := f(x[i], ex). The vectorization requirement can be used to speed up the integrand
instead of calling it n times. Note that in the current implementation built on QUADPACK, n will be either 15 or
21. The ex argument is a pointer passed down from the calling routine, normally used to carry auxiliary
information.
There are interfaces (defined in header R_ext/Applic.h) for integrals over finite and infinite intervals (or
“ranges” or “integration boundaries”).
Finite:
void Rdqags(integr_fn f, void *ex, double *a, double *b,
double *epsabs, double *epsrel,
double *result, double *abserr, int *neval, int *ier,
int *limit, int *lenw, int *last,
int *iwork, double *work);

Infinite:
void Rdqagi(integr_fn f, void *ex, double *bound, int *inf,
double *epsabs, double *epsrel,
double *result, double *abserr, int *neval, int *ier,
int *limit, int *lenw, int *last,
int *iwork, double *work);

Only the 3rd and 4th argument differ for the two integrators; for the finite range integral using Rdqags, a and b
are the integration interval bounds, whereas for an infinite range integral using Rdqagi, bound is the finite bound
of the integration (if the integral is not doubly-infinite) and inf is a code indicating the kind of integration range,
inf = 1
corresponds to (bound, +Inf),
inf = -1
corresponds to (-Inf, bound),
inf = 2
corresponds to (-Inf, +Inf),

f and ex define the integrand function, see above; epsabs and epsrel specify the absolute and relative accuracy
requested, result, abserr and last are the output components value, abs.err and subdivisions of the R
function integrate, where neval gives the number of integrand function evaluations, and the error code ier is
translated to R’s integrate() $ message, look at that function definition. limit corresponds to integrate(...,
subdivisions = *). It seems you should always define the two work arrays and the length of the second one as
 lenw = 4 * limit;
iwork = (int *) R_alloc(limit, sizeof(int));
work = (double *) R_alloc(lenw, sizeof(double));

The comments in the source code in src/appl/integrate.c give more details, particularly about reasons for
failure (ier >= 1).

Next: Re-encoding, Previous: Integration, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents][Index]

6.10 Utility functions

R has a fairly comprehensive set of sort routines which are made available to users’ C code. The following is
declared in header file Rinternals.h.

Function: void R_orderVector (int* indx, int n, SEXP arglist, Rboolean nalast, Rboolean decreasing)
Function: void R_orderVector1 (int* indx, int n, SEXP x, Rboolean nalast, Rboolean decreasing)
R_orderVector() corresponds to R’s order(..., na.last, decreasing). More specifically, indx <-
order(x, y, na.last, decreasing) corresponds to R_orderVector(indx, n, Rf_lang2(x, y), nalast,
decreasing) and for three vectors, Rf_lang3(x,y,z) is used as arglist.
Both R_orderVector and R_orderVector1 assume the vector indx to be allocated to length >= n. On return,
indx[] contains a permutation of 0:(n-1), i.e., 0-based C indices (and not 1-based R indices, as R’s
order()).

When ordering only one vector, R_orderVector1 is faster and corresponds (but is 0-based) to R’s indx <-
order(x, na.last, decreasing). It was added in R 3.3.0.

All other sort routines are declared in header file R_ext/Utils.h (included by R.h) and include the following.

Function: void R_isort (int* x, int n)

Function: void R_rsort (double* x, int n)
Function: void R_csort (Rcomplex* x, int n)
Function: void rsort_with_index (double* x, int* index, int n)
The first three sort integer, real (double) and complex data respectively. (Complex numbers are sorted by
the real part first then the imaginary part.) NAs are sorted last.
rsort_with_index sorts on x, and applies the same permutation to index. NAs are sorted last.

Function: void revsort (double* x, int* index, int n)

Is similar to rsort_with_index but sorts into decreasing order, and NAs are not handled.

Function: void iPsort (int* x, int n, int k)

Function: void rPsort (double* x, int n, int k)
Function: void cPsort (Rcomplex* x, int n, int k)
These all provide (very) partial sorting: they permute x so that x[k] is in the correct place with smaller
values to the left, larger ones to the right.

Function: void R_qsort (double *v, size_t i, size_t j)

Function: void R_qsort_I (double *v, int *I, int i, int j)
Function: void R_qsort_int (int *iv, size_t i, size_t j)
Function: void R_qsort_int_I (int *iv, int *I, int i, int j)
These routines sort v[i:j] or iv[i:j] (using 1-indexing, i.e., v[1] is the first element) calling the
quicksort algorithm as used by R’s sort(v, method = "quick") and documented on the help page for the
R function sort. The ..._I() versions also return the sort.index() vector in I. Note that the ordering is
not stable, so tied values may be permuted.
Note that NAs are not handled (explicitly) and you should use different sorting functions if NAs can be
present.

Function: subroutine qsort4 (double precision v, integer indx, integer ii, integer jj)
Function: subroutine qsort3 (double precision v, integer ii, integer jj)
 The Fortran interface routines for sorting double precision vectors are qsort3 and qsort4, equivalent to
R_qsort and R_qsort_I, respectively.

Function: void R_max_col (double* matrix, int* nr, int* nc, int* maxes, int* ties_meth)
Given the nr by nc matrix matrix in column-major (“Fortran”) order, R_max_col() returns in maxes[i-1]
the column number of the maximal element in the i-th row (the same as R’s max.col() function). In the
case of ties (multiple maxima), *ties_meth is an integer code in 1:3 determining the method: 1 =
“random”, 2 = “first” and 3 = “last”. See R’s help page ?max.col.

Function: int findInterval (double* xt, int n, double x, Rboolean rightmost_closed, Rboolean all_inside, int ilo,
int* mflag)
Function: int findInterval2(double* xt, int n, double x, Rboolean rightmost_closed, Rboolean all_inside,
Rboolean left_open, int ilo, int* mflag)
Given the ordered vector xt of length n, return the interval or index of x in xt[], typically max(i; 1 <= i <=
n & xt[i] <= x) where we use 1-indexing as in R and Fortran (but not C). If rightmost_closed is true, also
returns n-1 if x equals xt[n]. If all_inside is not 0, the result is coerced to lie in 1:(n-1) even when x is
outside the xt[] range. On return, *mflag equals -1 if x < xt[1], +1 if x >= xt[n], and 0 otherwise.
The algorithm is particularly fast when ilo is set to the last result of findInterval() and x is a value of a
sequence which is increasing or decreasing for subsequent calls.
findInterval2() is a generalization of findInterval(), with an extra Rboolean argument left_open.
Setting left_open = TRUE basically replaces all left-closed right-open intervals t) by left-open ones t], see
the help page of R function findInterval for details.
There is also an F77_CALL(interv)() version of findInterval() with the same arguments, but all pointers.

A system-independent interface to produce the name of a temporary file is provided as

Function: char * R_tmpnam (const char *prefix, const char *tmpdir)

Function: char * R_tmpnam2 (const char *prefix, const char *tmpdir, const char *fileext)
Function: void R_free_tmpnam (char *name)
Return a pathname for a temporary file with name beginning with prefix and ending with fileext in
directory tmpdir. A NULL prefix or extension is replaced by "". Note that the return value is dynamically
allocated and should be freed using R_free_tmpnam when no longer needed (unlike the system call tmpnam).
Freeing the result using free is no longer recommended.

There is also the internal function used to expand file names in several R functions, and called directly by
path.expand.

Function: const char * R_ExpandFileName (const char *fn)

Expand a path name fn by replacing a leading tilde by the user’s home directory (if defined). The precise
meaning is platform-specific; it will usually be taken from the environment variable HOME if this is defined.

For historical reasons there are Fortran interfaces to functions D1MACH and I1MACH. These can be called from C
code as e.g. F77_CALL(d1mach)(4). Note that these are emulations of the original functions by Fox, Hall and
Schryer on NetLib at https://www.netlib.org/slatec/src/ for IEC 60559 arithmetic (required by R).

Next: Condition handling and cleanup code, Previous: Utility functions, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.11 Re-encoding

R has its own C-level interface to the encoding conversion capabilities provided by iconv because there are
incompatibilities between the declarations in different implementations of iconv.
These are declared in header file R_ext/Riconv.h.

Function: void * Riconv_open (const char *to, const char *from)

Set up a pointer to an encoding object to be used to convert between two encodings: "" indicates the current
locale.

Function: size_t Riconv (void *cd, const char **inbuf, size_t *inbytesleft, char **outbuf, size_t *outbytesleft)

Convert as much as possible of inbuf to outbuf. Initially the size_t variables indicate the number of bytes
available in the buffers, and they are updated (and the char pointers are updated to point to the next free byte in
the buffer). The return value is the number of characters converted, or (size_t)-1 (beware: size_t is usually an
unsigned type). It should be safe to assume that an error condition sets errno to one of E2BIG (the output buffer is
full), EILSEQ (the input cannot be converted, and might be invalid in the encoding specified) or EINVAL (the input
does not end with a complete multi-byte character).

Function: int Riconv_close (void * cd)

Free the resources of an encoding object.

Next: Allowing interrupts, Previous: Re-encoding, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents][Index]

6.12 Condition handling and cleanup code

Three functions are available for establishing condition handlers from within C code:
#include <Rinternals.h>

SEXP R_tryCatchError(SEXP (*fun)(void *data), void *data,

SEXP (*hndlr)(SEXP cond, void *hdata), void *hdata);

SEXP R_tryCatch(SEXP (*fun)(void *data), void *data,

SEXP,
SEXP (*hndlr)(SEXP cond, void *hdata), void *hdata,
void (*clean)(void *cdata), void *cdata);
SEXP R_withCallingErrorHandler(SEXP (*fun)(void *data), void *data,
SEXP (*hndlr)(SEXP cond, void *hdata), void *hdata)

R_tryCatchError establishes an exiting handler for conditions inheriting form class error.
R_tryCatch can be used to establish a handler for other conditions and to register a cleanup action. The
conditions to be handled are specified as a character vector (STRSXP). A NULL pointer can be passed as fun or
clean if condition handling or cleanup are not needed.

These are currently implemented using the R-level tryCatch mechanism so are subject to some overhead.
R_withCallingErrorHandler establishes a calling handler for conditions inheriting form class error. It
establishes the handler without calling back into R and will therefore be more efficient.
The function R_UnwindProtect can be used to ensure that a cleanup action takes place on ordinary return as well
as on a non-local transfer of control, which R implements as a longjmp.
SEXP R_UnwindProtect(SEXP (*fun)(void *data), void *data,
void (*clean)(void *data, Rboolean jump), void *cdata,
SEXP cont);

R_UnwindProtect can be used in two ways. The simper usage, suitable for use in C code, passes NULL for the cont
argument. R_UnwindProtect will call fun(data). If fun returns a value, then R_UnwindProtect calls
clean(cleandata, FALSE) before returning the value returned by fun. If fun executes a non-local transfer of
control, then clean(cleandata, TRUE) is called, and the non-local transfer of control is resumed.
The second use pattern, suitable to support C++ stack unwinding, uses two additional functions:
SEXP R_MakeUnwindCont();
void NORET R_ContinueUnwind(SEXP cont);

R_MakeUnwindCont allocates a continuation token cont to pass to R_UnwindProtect. This token should be protected
with PROTECT before calling R_UnwindProtect. When the clean function is called with jump == TRUE, indicating
that R is executing a non-local transfer of control, it can throw a C++ exception to a C++ catch outside the C++
code to be unwound, and then use the continuation token in the a call R_ContinueUnwind(cont) to resume the
non-local transfer of control within R.

Next: Platform and version information, Previous: Condition handling and cleanup code, Up: The R API: entry
points for C code [Contents][Index]

6.13 Allowing interrupts

No part of R can be interrupted whilst running long computations in compiled code, so programmers should
make provision for the code to be interrupted at suitable points by calling from C
#include <R_ext/Utils.h>

void R_CheckUserInterrupt(void);

and from Fortran

subroutine rchkusr()

These check if the user has requested an interrupt, and if so branch to R’s error signaling functions.
Note that it is possible that the code behind one of the entry points defined here if called from your C or Fortran
code could be interruptible or generate an error and so not return to your code.

Next: Inlining C functions, Previous: Allowing interrupts, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents]
[Index]

6.14 Platform and version information

The header files define USING_R, which can be used to test if the code is indeed being used with R.
Header file Rconfig.h (included by R.h) is used to define platform-specific macros that are mainly for use in
other header files. The macro WORDS_BIGENDIAN is defined on big-endian158 systems (e.g. most OSes on Sparc
and PowerPC hardware) and not on little-endian systems (nowadays all the commoner R platforms). It can be
useful when manipulating binary files. NB: these macros apply only to the C compiler used to build R, not
necessarily to another C or C++ compiler.
Header file Rversion.h (not included by R.h) defines a macro R_VERSION giving the version number encoded as
an integer, plus a macro R_Version to do the encoding. This can be used to test if the version of R is late enough,
or to include back-compatibility features. For protection against very old versions of R which did not have this
macro, use a construction such as
#if defined(R_VERSION) && R_VERSION >= R_Version(3, 1, 0)
...
#endif

More detailed information is available in the macros R_MAJOR, R_MINOR, R_YEAR, R_MONTH and R_DAY: see the header
file Rversion.h for their format. Note that the minor version includes the patchlevel (as in ‘2.2’).
Packages which use alloca need to ensure it is defined: as it is part of neither C nor POSIX there is no standard
way to do so. One can use
#include <Rconfig.h> // for HAVE_ALLOCA_H
#ifdef __GNUC__
// this covers gcc, clang, icc
# undef alloca
# define alloca(x) __builtin_alloca((x))
#elif defined(HAVE_ALLOCA_H)
// needed for native compilers on Solaris and AIX
# include <alloca.h>
#endif

(and this should be included before standard C headers such as stdlib.h, since on some platforms these include
malloc.h which may have a conflicting definition), which suffices for known R platforms.
Next: Controlling visibility, Previous: Platform and version information, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.15 Inlining C functions

The C99 keyword inline should be recognized by all compilers nowadays used to build R. Portable code which
might be used with earlier versions of R can be written using the macro R_INLINE (defined in file Rconfig.h
included by R.h), as for example from package cluster
#include <R.h>

static R_INLINE int ind_2(int l, int j)

{
...
}

Be aware that using inlining with functions in more than one compilation unit is almost impossible to do
portably, see https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/tech/inline.html, so this usage is for static functions as in the
example. All the R configure code has checked is that R_INLINE can be used in a single C file with the compiler
used to build R. We recommend that packages making extensive use of inlining include their own configure
code.

Next: Using these functions in your own C code, Previous: Inlining C functions, Up: The R API: entry points for
C code [Contents][Index]

6.16 Controlling visibility

Header R_ext/Visibility.h has some definitions for controlling the visibility of entry points. These are only
effective when ‘HAVE_VISIBILITY_ATTRIBUTE’ is defined – this is checked when R is configured and recorded in
header Rconfig.h (included by R_ext/Visibility.h). It is often defined on modern Unix-alikes with a recent
compiler159, but not supported on macOS nor Windows. Minimizing the visibility of symbols in a shared library
will both speed up its loading (unlikely to be significant) and reduce the possibility of linking to other entry
points of the same name.
C/C++ entry points prefixed by attribute_hidden will not be visible in the shared object. There is no
comparable mechanism for Fortran entry points, but there is a more comprehensive scheme used by, for example
package stats. Most compilers which allow control of visibility will allow control of visibility for all symbols
via a flag, and where known the flag is encapsulated in the macros ‘C_VISIBILITY’, ‘CXX_VISIBILITY’160 and
‘F_VISIBILITY’ for C, C++ and Fortran compilers.161 These are defined in etc/Makeconf and so available for
normal compilation of package code. For example, src/Makevars could include some of
PKG_CFLAGS=$(C_VISIBILITY)
PKG_CXXFLAGS=$(CXX_VISIBILITY)
PKG_FFLAGS=$(F_VISIBILITY)

This would end up with no visible entry points, which would be pointless. However, the effect of the flags can
be overridden by using the attribute_visible prefix. A shared object which registers its entry points needs only
for have one visible entry point, its initializer, so for example package stats has
void attribute_visible R_init_stats(DllInfo *dll)
{
R_registerRoutines(dll, CEntries, CallEntries, FortEntries, NULL);
R_useDynamicSymbols(dll, FALSE);
...
}

Because the ‘C_VISIBILITY’ mechanism is only useful in conjunction with attribute_visible, it is not enabled
unless ‘HAVE_VISIBILITY_ATTRIBUTE’ is defined. The usual visibility flag is -fvisibility=hidden: some
compilers also support -fvisibility-inlines-hidden which can be used by overriding ‘C_VISIBILITY’ and
‘CXX_VISIBILITY’ in config.site when building R, or editing etc/Makeconf in the R installation.
Note that configure only checks that visibility attributes and flags are accepted, not that they actually hide
symbols.
The visibility mechanism is not available on Windows, but there is an equally effective way to control which
entry points are visible, by supplying a definitions file pkgnme/src/pkgname-win.def: only entry points listed in
that file will be visible. Again using stats as an example, it has
LIBRARY stats.dll
EXPORTS
R_init_stats

Next: Organization of header files, Previous: Controlling visibility, Up: The R API: entry points for C code
[Contents][Index]

6.17 Using these functions in your own C code

It is possible to build Mathlib, the R set of mathematical functions documented in Rmath.h, as a standalone
library libRmath under both Unix-alikes and Windows. (This includes the functions documented in Numerical
analysis subroutines as from that header file.)
The library is not built automatically when R is installed, but can be built in the directory src/nmath/standalone
in the R sources: see the file README there. To use the code in your own C program include
#define MATHLIB_STANDALONE
#include <Rmath.h>

and link against ‘-lRmath’ (and perhaps ‘-lm’). There is an example file test.c.
A little care is needed to use the random-number routines. You will need to supply the uniform random number
generator
double unif_rand(void)

or use the one supplied (and with a dynamic library or DLL you will have to use the one supplied, which is the
Marsaglia-multicarry with an entry points
set_seed(unsigned int, unsigned int)

to set its seeds and

get_seed(unsigned int *, unsigned int *)

to read the seeds).

Previous: Using these functions in your own C code, Up: The R API: entry points for C code [Contents][Index]

6.18 Organization of header files

The header files which R installs are in directory R_INCLUDE_DIR (default R_HOME/include). This currently
includes

R.h includes many other files

Rinternals.h definitions for using R’s internal structures
Rdefines.h
macros for an S-like interface to the above (no longer
maintained)
Rmath.h standalone math library
Rversion.h R version information
Rinterface.h for add-on front-ends (Unix-alikes only)
Rembedded.h for add-on front-ends
R_ext/Applic.h optimization and integration
R_ext/BLAS.h C definitions for BLAS routines
R_ext/Callbacks.h C (and R function) top-level task handlers
R_ext/GetX11Image.h X11Image interface used by package trkplot
R_ext/Lapack.h C definitions for some LAPACK routines
 R_ext/Linpack.h C definitions for some LINPACK routines, not all of which are
included in R
R_ext/Parse.h a small part of R’s parse interface: not part of the stable API.
R_ext/RStartup.h for add-on front-ends
R_ext/Rdynload.h needed to register compiled code in packages
R_ext/Riconv.h interface to iconv
R_ext/Visibility.h definitions controlling visibility
R_ext/eventloop.h
for add-on front-ends and for packages that need to share in the
R event loops (not Windows)

The following headers are included by R.h:

Rconfig.h configuration info that is made available

R_ext/Arith.h handling for NAs, NaNs, Inf/-Inf
R_ext/Boolean.h TRUE/FALSE type
R_ext/Complex.h C typedefs for R’s complex
R_ext/Constants.h constants
R_ext/Error.h error signaling
R_ext/Memory.h memory allocation
R_ext/Print.h Rprintf and variations.

R_ext/RS.h
definitions common to R.h and the former S.h, including
F77_CALL etc.
R_ext/Random.h random number generation
R_ext/Utils.h sorting and other utilities
R_ext/libextern.h definitions for exports from R.dll on Windows.

The graphics systems are exposed in headers R_ext/GraphicsEngine.h, R_ext/GraphicsDevice.h (which it

includes) and R_ext/QuartzDevice.h. Facilities for defining custom connection implementations are provided in
R_ext/Connections.h, but make sure you consult the file before use.
Let us re-iterate the advice to include system headers before the R header files, especially Rinternals.h
(included by Rdefines.h) and Rmath.h, which redefine names which may be used in system headers (fewer if
‘R_NO_REMAP’ is defined before inclusion, or ‘R_NO_REMAP_RMATH’ for Rmath.h).

Next: Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R, Previous: The R API: entry points for C code, Up: Writing R
Extensions [Contents][Index]

7 Generic functions and methods

R programmers will often want to add methods for existing generic functions, and may want to add new generic
functions or make existing functions generic. In this chapter we give guidelines for doing so, with examples of
the problems caused by not adhering to them.
This chapter only covers the ‘informal’ class system copied from S3, and not with the S4 (formal) methods of
package methods.
First, a caveat: a function named gen.cl will be invoked by the generic gen for class cl, so do not name
functions in this style unless they are intended to be methods.
The key function for methods is NextMethod, which dispatches the next method. It is quite typical for a method
function to make a few changes to its arguments, dispatch to the next method, receive the results and modify
them a little. An example is
t.data.frame <- function(x)
{
x <- as.matrix(x)
NextMethod("t")
}
Note that the example above works because there is a next method, the default method, not that a new method is
selected when the class is changed.
Any method a programmer writes may be invoked from another method by NextMethod, with the arguments
appropriate to the previous method. Further, the programmer cannot predict which method NextMethod will pick
(it might be one not yet dreamt of), and the end user calling the generic needs to be able to pass arguments to the
next method. For this to work

A method must have all the arguments of the generic, including … if the generic does.

It is a grave misunderstanding to think that a method needs only to accept the arguments it needs. The original S
version of predict.lm did not have a … argument, although predict did. It soon became clear that predict.glm
needed an argument dispersion to handle over-dispersion. As predict.lm had neither a dispersion nor a …
argument, NextMethod could no longer be used. (The legacy, two direct calls to predict.lm, lives on in
predict.glm in R, which is based on the workaround for S3 written by Venables & Ripley.)
Further, the user is entitled to use positional matching when calling the generic, and the arguments to a method
called by UseMethod are those of the call to the generic. Thus

A method must have arguments in exactly the same order as the generic.

To see the scale of this problem, consider the generic function scale, defined as
scale <- function (x, center = TRUE, scale = TRUE)
UseMethod("scale")

Suppose an unthinking package writer created methods such as

scale.foo <- function(x, scale = FALSE, ...) { }

Then for x of class "foo" the calls

scale(x, , TRUE)
scale(x, scale = TRUE)

would most likely do different things, to the justifiable consternation of the end user.
To add a further twist, which default is used when a user calls scale(x) in our example? What if
scale.bar <- function(x, center, scale = TRUE) NextMethod("scale")

and x has class c("bar", "foo")? It is the default specified in the method that is used, but the default specified in
the generic may be the one the user sees. This leads to the recommendation:

If the generic specifies defaults, all methods should use the same defaults.

An easy way to follow these recommendations is to always keep generics simple, e.g.
scale <- function(x, ...) UseMethod("scale")

Only add parameters and defaults to the generic if they make sense in all possible methods implementing it.
Adding new generics

Previous: Generic functions and methods, Up: Generic functions and methods [Contents][Index]

7.1 Adding new generics

When creating a new generic function, bear in mind that its argument list will be the maximal set of arguments
for methods, including those written elsewhere years later. So choosing a good set of arguments may well be an
important design issue, and there need to be good arguments not to include a … argument.
If a … argument is supplied, some thought should be given to its position in the argument sequence. Arguments
which follow … must be named in calls to the function, and they must be named in full (partial matching is
suppressed after …). Formal arguments before … can be partially matched, and so may ‘swallow’ actual
arguments intended for …. Although it is commonplace to make the … argument the last one, that is not always
the right choice.
Sometimes package writers want to make generic a function in the base package, and request a change in R.
This may be justifiable, but making a function generic with the old definition as the default method does have a
small performance cost. It is never necessary, as a package can take over a function in the base package and
make it generic by something like
foo <- function(object, ...) UseMethod("foo")
foo.default <- function(object, ...) base::foo(object)

Earlier versions of this manual suggested assigning foo.default <- base::foo. This is not a good idea, as it
captures the base function at the time of installation and it might be changed as R is patched or updated.
The same idea can be applied for functions in other packages.

Next: Function and variable index, Previous: Generic functions and methods, Up: Writing R Extensions
[Contents][Index]

8 Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R

There are a number of ways to build front-ends to R: we take this to mean a GUI or other application that has
the ability to submit commands to R and perhaps to receive results back (not necessarily in a text format). There
are other routes besides those described here, for example the package Rserve (from CRAN, see also
https://www.rforge.net/Rserve/) and connections to Java in ‘JRI’ (part of the rJava package on CRAN).
Note that the APIs described in this chapter are only intended to be used in an alternative front-end: they are not
part of the API made available for R packages and can be dangerous to use in a conventional package (although
packages may contain alternative front-ends). Conversely some of the functions from the API (such as R_alloc)
should not be used in front-ends.
Embedding R under Unix-alikes
Embedding R under Windows

Next: Embedding R under Windows, Previous: Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R, Up: Linking GUIs and
other front-ends to R [Contents][Index]

8.1 Embedding R under Unix-alikes

R can be built as a shared library162 if configured with --enable-R-shlib. This shared library can be used to run
R from alternative front-end programs. We will assume this has been done for the rest of this section. Also, it
can be built as a static library if configured with --enable-R-static-lib, and that can be used in a very similar
way (at least on Linux: on other platforms one needs to ensure that all the symbols exported by libR.a are linked
into the front-end).
The command-line R front-end, R_HOME/bin/exec/R, is one such example, and the former GNOME (see package
gnomeGUI on CRAN’s ‘Archive’ area) and macOS consoles are others. The source for R_HOME/bin/exec/R is in
file src/main/Rmain.c and is very simple
int Rf_initialize_R(int ac, char **av); /* in ../unix/system.c */
void Rf_mainloop(); /* in main.c */

extern int R_running_as_main_program; /* in ../unix/system.c */

int main(int ac, char **av)

{
R_running_as_main_program = 1;
Rf_initialize_R(ac, av);
Rf_mainloop(); /* does not return */
return 0;
}

indeed, misleadingly simple. Remember that R_HOME/bin/exec/R is run from a shell script R_HOME/bin/R which
sets up the environment for the executable, and this is used for
 Setting R_HOME and checking it is valid, as well as the path R_SHARE_DIR and R_DOC_DIR to the installed
share and doc directory trees. Also setting R_ARCH if needed.
Setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the directories used in linking R. This is recorded as the default setting
of R_LD_LIBRARY_PATH in the shell script R_HOME/etcR_ARCH/ldpaths.
Processing some of the arguments, for example to run R under a debugger and to launch alternative front-
ends to provide GUIs.
The first two of these can be achieved for your front-end by running it via R CMD. So, for example
R CMD /usr/local/lib/R/bin/exec/R
R CMD exec/R

will both work in a standard R installation. (R CMD looks first for executables in R_HOME/bin. These command-
lines need modification if a sub-architecture is in use.) If you do not want to run your front-end in this way, you
need to ensure that R_HOME is set and LD_LIBRARY_PATH is suitable. (The latter might well be, but modern
Unix/Linux systems do not normally include /usr/local/lib (/usr/local/lib64 on some architectures), and R
does look there for system components.)
The other senses in which this example is too simple are that all the internal defaults are used and that control is
handed over to the R main loop. There are a number of small examples163 in the tests/Embedding directory.
These make use of Rf_initEmbeddedR in src/main/Rembedded.c, and essentially use
#include <Rembedded.h>

int main(int ac, char **av)

{
/* do some setup */
Rf_initEmbeddedR(argc, argv);
/* do some more setup */

/* submit some code to R, which is done interactively via

run_Rmainloop();

A possible substitute for a pseudo-console is

R_ReplDLLinit();
while(R_ReplDLLdo1() > 0) {
/* add user actions here if desired */
}

*/
Rf_endEmbeddedR(0);
/* final tidying up after R is shutdown */
return 0;
}

If you do not want to pass R arguments, you can fake an argv array, for example by
char *argv[]= {"REmbeddedPostgres", "--silent"};
Rf_initEmbeddedR(sizeof(argv)/sizeof(argv[0]), argv);

However, to make a GUI we usually do want to run run_Rmainloop after setting up various parts of R to talk to
our GUI, and arranging for our GUI callbacks to be called during the R mainloop.
One issue to watch is that on some platforms Rf_initEmbeddedR and Rf_endEmbeddedR change the settings of the
FPU (e.g. to allow errors to be trapped and to make use of extended precision registers).
The standard code sets up a session temporary directory in the usual way, unless R_TempDir is set to a non-NULL
value before Rf_initEmbeddedR is called. In that case the value is assumed to contain an existing writable
directory, and it is not cleaned up when R is shut down.
Rf_initEmbeddedR sets R to be in interactive mode: you can set R_Interactive (defined in Rinterface.h)
subsequently to change this.
Note that R expects to be run with the locale category ‘LC_NUMERIC’ set to its default value of C, and so should
not be embedded into an application which changes that.
It is the user’s responsibility to attempt to initialize only once. To protect the R interpreter, Rf_initialize_R will
exit the process if re-initialization is attempted.
Compiling against the R library
Setting R callbacks
Registering symbols
Meshing event loops
Threading issues

Next: Setting R callbacks, Previous: Embedding R under Unix-alikes, Up: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
[Contents][Index]

8.1.1 Compiling against the R library

Suitable flags to compile and link against the R (shared or static) library can be found by
R CMD config --cppflags
R CMD config --ldflags

(These apply only to an uninstalled copy or a standard install.)

If R is installed, pkg-config is available and neither sub-architectures nor a macOS framework have been used,
alternatives for a shared R library are
pkg-config --cflags libR
pkg-config --libs libR

and for a static R library

pkg-config --cflags libR
pkg-config --static --libs libR

(This may work for an installed OS framework if pkg-config is taught where to look for libR.pc: it is installed
inside the framework.)
However, a more comprehensive way is to set up a Makefile to compile the front-end. Suppose file myfe.c is to
be compiled to myfe. A suitable Makefile might be
## WARNING: does not work when ${R_HOME} contains spaces
include ${R_HOME}/etc${R_ARCH}/Makeconf
all: myfe

## The following is not needed, but avoids PIC flags.

myfe.o: myfe.c
$(CC) $(ALL_CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) -c myfe.c -o $@

## replace $(LIBR) $(LIBS) by $(STATIC_LIBR) if R was build with a static libR

myfe: myfe.o
$(MAIN_LINK) -o $@ myfe.o $(LIBR) $(LIBS)

invoked as
R CMD make
R CMD myfe

Even though not recommended, ${R_HOME} may contain spaces. In that case, it cannot be passed as an argument
to include in the makefile. Instead, one can instruct make using the -f option to include Makeconf, for example
via recursive invocation of make, see Writing portable packages.
all:
$(MAKE) -f "${R_HOME}/etc${R_ARCH}/Makeconf" -f Makefile.inner

Additional flags which $(MAIN_LINK) includes are, amongst others, those to select OpenMP and --export-
dynamic for the GNU linker on some platforms. In principle $(LIBS) is not needed when using a shared R library
as libR is linked against those libraries, but some platforms need the executable also linked against them.
Next: Registering symbols, Previous: Compiling against the R library, Up: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
[Contents][Index]

8.1.2 Setting R callbacks

For Unix-alikes there is a public header file Rinterface.h that makes it possible to change the standard callbacks
used by R in a documented way. This defines pointers (if R_INTERFACE_PTRS is defined)
extern void (*ptr_R_Suicide)(const char *);
extern void (*ptr_R_ShowMessage)(const char *);
extern int (*ptr_R_ReadConsole)(const char *, unsigned char *, int, int);
extern void (*ptr_R_WriteConsole)(const char *, int);
extern void (*ptr_R_WriteConsoleEx)(const char *, int, int);
extern void (*ptr_R_ResetConsole)();
extern void (*ptr_R_FlushConsole)();
extern void (*ptr_R_ClearerrConsole)();
extern void (*ptr_R_Busy)(int);
extern void (*ptr_R_CleanUp)(SA_TYPE, int, int);
extern int (*ptr_R_ShowFiles)(int, const char **, const char **,
const char *, Rboolean, const char *);
extern int (*ptr_R_ChooseFile)(int, char *, int);
extern int (*ptr_R_EditFile)(const char *);
extern void (*ptr_R_loadhistory)(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
extern void (*ptr_R_savehistory)(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
extern void (*ptr_R_addhistory)(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
extern int (*ptr_R_EditFiles)(int, const char **, const char **, const char *);
extern SEXP (*ptr_do_selectlist)(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
extern SEXP (*ptr_do_dataentry)(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
extern SEXP (*ptr_do_dataviewer)(SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
extern void (*ptr_R_ProcessEvents)();

which allow standard R callbacks to be redirected to your GUI. What these do is generally documented in the
file src/unix/system.txt.

Function: void R_ShowMessage (char *message)

This should display the message, which may have multiple lines: it should be brought to the user’s
attention immediately.

Function: void R_Busy (int which)

This function invokes actions (such as change of cursor) when R embarks on an extended computation
(which=1) and when such a state terminates (which=0).

Function: int R_ReadConsole (const char *prompt, unsigned char *buf, int buflen, int hist)
Function: void R_WriteConsole (const char *buf, int buflen)
Function: void R_WriteConsoleEx (const char *buf, int buflen, int otype)
Function: void R_ResetConsole ()
Function: void R_FlushConsole ()
Function: void R_ClearerrConsole ()
These functions interact with a console.
R_ReadConsole prints the given prompt at the console and then does a fgets(3)–like operation, transferring
up to buflen characters into the buffer buf. The last two bytes should be set to ‘"\n\0"’ to preserve sanity.
If hist is non-zero, then the line should be added to any command history which is being maintained. The
return value is 0 is no input is available and >0 otherwise.
R_WriteConsoleEx writes the given buffer to the console, otype specifies the output type (regular output or
warning/error). Call to R_WriteConsole(buf, buflen) is equivalent to R_WriteConsoleEx(buf, buflen, 0).
To ensure backward compatibility of the callbacks, ptr_R_WriteConsoleEx is used only if
ptr_R_WriteConsole is set to NULL. To ensure that stdout() and stderr() connections point to the console,
set the corresponding files to NULL via
R_Outputfile = NULL;
R_Consolefile = NULL;
 R_ResetConsole is called when the system is reset after an error. R_FlushConsole is called to flush any
pending output to the system console. R_ClearerrConsole clears any errors associated with reading from
the console.

Function: int R_ShowFiles (int nfile, const char **file, const char **headers, const char *wtitle, Rboolean del,
const char *pager)
This function is used to display the contents of files.

Function: int R_ChooseFile (int new, char *buf, int len)

Choose a file and return its name in buf of length len. Return value is 0 for success, > 0 otherwise.

Function: int R_EditFile (const char *buf)

Send a file to an editor window.

Function: int R_EditFiles (int nfile, const char **file, const char **title, const char *editor)
Send nfile files to an editor, with titles possibly to be used for the editor window(s).

Function: SEXP R_loadhistory (SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);

Function: SEXP R_savehistory (SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
Function: SEXP R_addhistory (SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
.Internal functions for loadhistory, savehistory and timestamp.

If the console has no history mechanism these can be as simple as

SEXP R_loadhistory (SEXP call, SEXP op, SEXP args, SEXP env)
{
errorcall(call, "loadhistory is not implemented");
return R_NilValue;
}
SEXP R_savehistory (SEXP call, SEXP op , SEXP args, SEXP env)
{
errorcall(call, "savehistory is not implemented");
return R_NilValue;
}
SEXP R_addhistory (SEXP call, SEXP op , SEXP args, SEXP env)
{
return R_NilValue;
}

The R_addhistory function should return silently if no history mechanism is present, as a user may be
calling timestamp purely to write the time stamp to the console.

Function: void R_Suicide (const char *message)

This should abort R as rapidly as possible, displaying the message. A possible implementation is
void R_Suicide (const char *message)
{
char pp[1024];
snprintf(pp, 1024, "Fatal error: %s\n", message);
R_ShowMessage(pp);
R_CleanUp(SA_SUICIDE, 2, 0);
}

Function: void R_CleanUp (SA_TYPE saveact, int status, int RunLast)

This function invokes any actions which occur at system termination. It needs to be quite complex:
#include <Rinterface.h>
#include <Rembedded.h> /* for Rf_KillAllDevices */

void R_CleanUp (SA_TYPE saveact, int status, int RunLast)

{
if(saveact == SA_DEFAULT) saveact = SaveAction;
if(saveact == SA_SAVEASK) {
/* ask what to do and set saveact */
 }
switch (saveact) {
case SA_SAVE:
if(runLast) R_dot_Last();
if(R_DirtyImage) R_SaveGlobalEnv();
/* save the console history in R_HistoryFile */
break;
case SA_NOSAVE:
if(runLast) R_dot_Last();
break;
case SA_SUICIDE:
default:
break;
}

R_RunExitFinalizers();
/* clean up after the editor e.g. CleanEd() */

R_CleanTempDir();

/* close all the graphics devices */

if(saveact != SA_SUICIDE) Rf_KillAllDevices();
fpu_setup(FALSE);

exit(status);
}

These callbacks should never be changed in a running R session (and hence cannot be called from an extension
package).

Function: SEXP R_dataentry (SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);

Function: SEXP R_dataviewer (SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
Function: SEXP R_selectlist (SEXP, SEXP, SEXP, SEXP);
.External functions for dataentry (and edit on matrices and data frames), View and select.list. These
can be changed if they are not currently in use.

Next: Meshing event loops, Previous: Setting R callbacks, Up: Embedding R under Unix-alikes [Contents]
[Index]

8.1.3 Registering symbols

An application embedding R needs a different way of registering symbols because it is not a dynamic library
loaded by R as would be the case with a package. Therefore R reserves a special DllInfo entry for the
embedding application such that it can register symbols to be used with .C, .Call etc. This entry can be obtained
by calling getEmbeddingDllInfo, so a typical use is
DllInfo *info = R_getEmbeddingDllInfo();
R_registerRoutines(info, cMethods, callMethods, NULL, NULL);

The native routines defined by cMethods and callMethods should be present in the embedding application. See
Registering native routines for details on registering symbols in general.

Next: Threading issues, Previous: Registering symbols, Up: Embedding R under Unix-alikes [Contents][Index]

8.1.4 Meshing event loops

One of the most difficult issues in interfacing R to a front-end is the handling of event loops, at least if a single
thread is used. R uses events and timers for
Running X11 windows such as the graphics device and data editor, and interacting with them (e.g., using
locator()).
Supporting Tcl/Tk events for the tcltk package (for at least the X11 version of Tk).
Preparing input.
Timing operations, for example for profiling R code and Sys.sleep().
 Interrupts, where permitted.
Specifically, the Unix-alike command-line version of R runs separate event loops for
Preparing input at the console command-line, in file src/unix/sys-unix.c.
Waiting for a response from a socket in the internal functions for direct socket access in file
src/modules/internet/Rsock.c and for the interface to libcurl.
Mouse and window events when displaying the X11-based dataentry window, in file
src/modules/X11/dataentry.c. This is regarded as modal, and no other events are serviced whilst it is
active.
There is a protocol for adding event handlers to the first two types of event loops, using types and functions
declared in the header R_ext/eventloop.h and described in comments in file src/unix/sys-std.c. It is possible
to add (or remove) an input handler for events on a particular file descriptor, or to set a polling interval (via
R_wait_usec) and a function to be called periodically via R_PolledEvents: the polling mechanism is used by the
tcltk package.
It is not intended that these facilities are used by packages, but if they are needed exceptionally, the package
should ensure that it cleans up and removes its handlers when its namespace is unloaded. Note that the header
sys/select.h is needed164: users should check this is available and define HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H before including
R_ext/eventloop.h. (It is often the case that another header will include sys/select.h before eventloop.h is
processed, but this should not be relied on.)
An alternative front-end needs both to make provision for other R events whilst waiting for input, and to ensure
that it is not frozen out during events of the second type. The ability to add a polled handler as
R_timeout_handler is used by the tcltk package.

Previous: Meshing event loops, Up: Embedding R under Unix-alikes [Contents][Index]

8.1.5 Threading issues

Embedded R is designed to be run in the main thread, and all the testing is done in that context. There is a
potential issue with the stack-checking mechanism where threads are involved. This uses two variables declared
in Rinterface.h (if CSTACK_DEFNS is defined) as
extern uintptr_t R_CStackLimit; /* C stack limit */
extern uintptr_t R_CStackStart; /* Initial stack address */

Note that uintptr_t is an optional C99 type for which a substitute is defined in R, so your code needs to define
HAVE_UINTPTR_T appropriately. To do so, test if the type is defined in C header stdint.h or C++ header cstdint
and if so include the header and define HAVE_UINTPTR_T before including Rinterface.h. (For C code one can
simply include Rconfig.h, possibly via R.h, and for C++11 code Rinterface.h will include the header cstdint.)
These will be set165 when Rf_initialize_R is called, to values appropriate to the main thread. Stack-checking
can be disabled by setting R_CStackLimit = (uintptr_t)-1 immediately after Rf_initialize_R is called, but it is
better to if possible set appropriate values. (What these are and how to determine them are OS-specific, and the
stack size limit may differ for secondary threads. If you have a choice of stack size, at least 10Mb is
recommended.)
You may also want to consider how signals are handled: R sets signal handlers for several signals, including
SIGINT, SIGSEGV, SIGPIPE, SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2, but these can all be suppressed by setting the variable
R_SignalHandlers (declared in Rinterface.h) to 0.

Note that these variables must not be changed by an R package: a package should not call R internals which
makes use of the stack-checking mechanism on a secondary thread.

Previous: Embedding R under Unix-alikes, Up: Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R [Contents][Index]

8.2 Embedding R under Windows

All Windows interfaces to R call entry points in the DLL R.dll, directly or indirectly. Simpler applications may
find it easier to use the indirect route via (D)COM.
Using (D)COM
 Calling R.dll directly
Finding R_HOME

Next: Calling R.dll directly, Previous: Embedding R under Windows, Up: Embedding R under Windows
[Contents][Index]

8.2.1 Using (D)COM

(D)COM is a standard Windows mechanism used for communication between Windows applications. One
application (here R) is run as COM server which offers services to clients, here the front-end calling application.
The services are described in a ‘Type Library’ and are (more or less) language-independent, so the calling
application can be written in C or C++ or Visual Basic or Perl or Python and so on. The ‘D’ in (D)COM refers to
‘distributed’, as the client and server can be running on different machines.
The basic R distribution is not a (D)COM server, but two addons are currently available that interface directly
with R and provide a (D)COM server:
There is a (D)COM server called StatConnector written by Thomas Baier available via
https://www.autstat.com/, which works with R packages to support transfer of data to and from R and
remote execution of R commands, as well as embedding of an R graphics window.
Recent versions have usage restrictions.

Next: Finding R_HOME, Previous: Using (D)COM, Up: Embedding R under Windows [Contents][Index]

8.2.2 Calling R.dll directly

The R DLL is mainly written in C and has _cdecl entry points. Calling it directly will be tricky except from C
code (or C++ with a little care).
There is a version of the Unix-alike interface calling
int Rf_initEmbeddedR(int ac, char **av);
void Rf_endEmbeddedR(int fatal);

which is an entry point in R.dll. Examples of its use (and a suitable Makefile.win) can be found in the
tests/Embedding directory of the sources. You may need to ensure that R_HOME/bin is in your PATH so the R DLLs
are found.
Examples of calling R.dll directly are provided in the directory src/gnuwin32/front-ends, including a simple
command-line front end rtest.c whose code is
#define Win32
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <Rversion.h>
#define LibExtern __declspec(dllimport) extern
#include <Rembedded.h>
#include <R_ext/RStartup.h>
/* for askok and askyesnocancel */
#include <graphapp.h>

/* for signal-handling code */

#include <psignal.h>

/* simple input, simple output */

/* This version blocks all events: a real one needs to call ProcessEvents
frequently. See rterm.c and ../system.c for one approach using
a separate thread for input.
*/
int myReadConsole(const char *prompt, unsigned char *buf, int len, int addtohistory)
{
fputs(prompt, stdout);
fflush(stdout);
if(fgets((char *)buf, len, stdin)) return 1; else return 0;
}
void myWriteConsole(const char *buf, int len)
{
printf("%s", buf);
}

void myCallBack(void)
{
/* called during i/o, eval, graphics in ProcessEvents */
}

void myBusy(int which)

{
/* set a busy cursor ... if which = 1, unset if which = 0 */
}

static void my_onintr(int sig) { UserBreak = 1; }

int main (int argc, char **argv)

{
structRstart rp;
Rstart Rp = &rp;
char Rversion[25], *RHome;

sprintf(Rversion, "%s.%s", R_MAJOR, R_MINOR);

if(strcmp(getDLLVersion(), Rversion) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "Error: R.DLL version does not match\n");
exit(1);
}

R_setStartTime();
R_DefParamsEx(Rp, RSTART_VERSION);
if((RHome = get_R_HOME()) == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "R_HOME must be set in the environment or Registry\n");
exit(1);
}
Rp->rhome = RHome;
Rp->home = getRUser();
Rp->CharacterMode = LinkDLL;
Rp->EmitEmbeddedUTF8 = FALSE;
Rp->ReadConsole = myReadConsole;
Rp->WriteConsole = myWriteConsole;
Rp->CallBack = myCallBack;
Rp->ShowMessage = askok;
Rp->YesNoCancel = askyesnocancel;
Rp->Busy = myBusy;

Rp->R_Quiet = TRUE; /* Default is FALSE */

Rp->R_Interactive = FALSE; /* Default is TRUE */
Rp->RestoreAction = SA_RESTORE;
Rp->SaveAction = SA_NOSAVE;
R_SetParams(Rp);
R_set_command_line_arguments(argc, argv);

FlushConsoleInputBuffer(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE));

signal(SIGBREAK, my_onintr);
GA_initapp(0, 0);
readconsolecfg();
setup_Rmainloop();
#ifdef SIMPLE_CASE
run_Rmainloop();
#else
R_ReplDLLinit();
while(R_ReplDLLdo1() > 0) {
/* add user actions here if desired */
}
/* only get here on EOF (not q()) */
#endif
Rf_endEmbeddedR(0);
 return 0;
}

The ideas are

Check that the front-end and the linked R.dll match – other front-ends may allow a looser match.
Find and set the R home directory and the user’s home directory. The former may be available from the
Windows Registry: it will be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath from an
administrative install and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\R-core\R\InstallPath otherwise, if selected
during installation (as it is by default).
Define startup conditions and callbacks via the Rstart structure. R_DefParams sets the defaults, and
R_SetParams sets updated values. R_DefParamsEx takes an extra argument, the version number of the Rstart
structure provided (RSTART_VERSION refers to the current version) and returns a non-zero status when that
version is not supported by R.
Record the command-line arguments used by R_set_command_line_arguments for use by the R function
commandArgs().
Set up the signal handler and the basic user interface.
Run the main R loop, possibly with our actions intermeshed.
Arrange to clean up.
An underlying theme is the need to keep the GUI ‘alive’, and this has not been done in this example. The R
callback R_ProcessEvents needs to be called frequently to ensure that Windows events in R windows are
handled expeditiously. Conversely, R needs to allow the GUI code (which is running in the same process) to
update itself as needed – two ways are provided to allow this:
R_ProcessEvents calls the callback registered by Rp->callback. A version of this is used to run package
Tcl/Tk for tcltk under Windows, for the code is
void R_ProcessEvents(void)
{
while (peekevent()) doevent(); /* Windows events for GraphApp */
if (UserBreak) { UserBreak = FALSE; onintr(); }
R_CallBackHook();
if(R_tcldo) R_tcldo();
}

The mainloop can be split up to allow the calling application to take some action after each line of input
has been dealt with: see the alternative code below #ifdef SIMPLE_CASE.
It may be that no R GraphApp windows need to be considered, although these include pagers, the windows()
graphics device, the R data and script editors and various popups such as choose.file() and select.list(). It
would be possible to replace all of these, but it seems easier to allow GraphApp to handle most of them.
It is possible to run R in a GUI in a single thread (as RGui.exe shows) but it will normally be easier166 to use
multiple threads.
Note that R’s own front ends use a stack size of 10Mb, whereas MinGW executables default to 2Mb, and Visual
C++ ones to 1Mb. The latter stack sizes are too small for a number of R applications, so general-purpose front-
ends should use a larger stack size.
Applications embedding R 4.2.0 and newer should use UCRT as the C runtime and opt in for UTF-8 as the
active code page in their manifest, as all frontends shipped with R do. This will allow the embedded R to use
UTF-8 as its native encoding on recent Windows systems.

Previous: Calling R.dll directly, Up: Embedding R under Windows [Contents][Index]

8.2.3 Finding R_HOME

Both applications which embed R and those which use a system call to invoke R (as Rscript.exe, Rterm.exe or
R.exe) need to be able to find the R bin directory. The simplest way to do so is the ask the user to set an
environment variable R_HOME and use that, but naive users may be flummoxed as to how to do so or what value
to use.
The R for Windows installers have for a long time allowed the value of R_HOME to be recorded in the Windows
Registry: this is optional but selected by default. Where it is recorded has changed over the years to allow for
multiple versions of R to be installed at once, and to allow 32- and 64-bit versions of R to be installed on the
same machine.
The basic Registry location is Software\R-core\R. For an administrative install this is under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
and on a 64-bit OS HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R is by default redirected for a 32-bit application, so a
32-bit application will see the information for the last 32-bit install, and a 64-bit application that for the last 64-
bit install. For a personal install, the information is under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\R-core\R which is seen
by both 32-bit and 64-bit applications and so records the last install of either architecture. To circumvent this,
there are locations Software\R-core\R32 and Software\R-core\R64 which always refer to one architecture.
When R is installed and recording is not disabled then two string values are written at that location for keys
InstallPath and Current Version, and these keys are removed when R is uninstalled. To allow information
about other installed versions to be retained, there is also a key named something like 3.0.0 or 3.0.0 patched or
3.1.0 Pre-release with a value for InstallPath.

So a comprehensive algorithm to search for R_HOME is something like

Decide which of personal or administrative installs should have precedence. There are arguments both
ways: we find that with roaming profiles that HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software often gets reverted to an earlier
version. Do the following for one or both of HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
If the desired architecture is known, look in Software\R-core\R32 or Software\R-core\R64, and if that does
not exist or the architecture is immaterial, in Software\R-core\R.
If key InstallPath exists then this is R_HOME (recorded using backslashes). If it does not, look for version-
specific keys like 2.11.0 alpha, pick the latest (which is of itself a complicated algorithm as 2.11.0
patched > 2.11.0 > 2.11.0 alpha > 2.8.1) and use its value for InstallPath.

Next: Concept index, Previous: Linking GUIs and other front-ends to R, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents]
[Index]

Function and variable index

Jump to: . \
A B C D E F G I L M N O P Q R S T U V W
Index Entry Section

.
.C: Interface functions .C and .Fortran
.Call: Handling R objects in C
.Call: Calling .Call
.External: Handling R objects in C
.External: Calling .External
.Fortran: Interface functions .C and .Fortran
.Last.lib: Load hooks
.onAttach: Load hooks
.onDetach: Load hooks
.onLoad: Load hooks
.onUnload: Load hooks
.Random.seed: Random numbers

\
\acronym: Marking text
\alias: Documenting functions
\arguments: Documenting functions
\author: Documenting functions
\bold: Marking text
\cite: Marking text
\code: Marking text
\command: Marking text
\concept: Indices
\cr: Sectioning
\CRANpkg{pkg}: User-defined macros
\deqn: Mathematics
\describe: Lists and tables
\description: Documenting functions
\details: Documenting functions
\dfn: Marking text
\doi{numbers}: User-defined macros
\dontrun: Documenting functions
\dontshow: Documenting functions
\dots: Insertions
\dQuote: Marking text
\email: Marking text
\emph: Marking text
\enc: Insertions
\enumerate: Lists and tables
\env: Marking text
\eqn: Mathematics
\examples: Documenting functions
\figure: Figures
\file: Marking text
\format: Documenting data sets
\href: Marking text
\if: Conditional text
\ifelse: Conditional text
\itemize: Lists and tables
\kbd: Marking text
\keyword: Documenting functions
\ldots: Insertions
\link: Cross-references
\method: Documenting functions
\name: Documenting functions
\newcommand: User-defined macros
\note: Documenting functions
\option: Marking text
\out: Conditional text
\packageAuthor: User-defined macros
\packageDescription: User-defined macros
\packageDESCRIPTION: User-defined macros
\packageIndices: User-defined macros
\packageMaintainer: User-defined macros
\packageTitle: User-defined macros
\pkg: Marking text
\preformatted: Marking text
 \R: Insertions
\RdOpts: Dynamic pages
\references: Documenting functions
\renewcommand: User-defined macros
\S3method: Documenting functions
\samp: Marking text
\section: Sectioning
\seealso: Documenting functions
\Sexpr: Dynamic pages
\source: Documenting data sets
\sQuote: Marking text
\sspace: User-defined macros
\strong: Marking text
\tabular: Lists and tables
\title: Documenting functions
\url: Marking text
\usage: Documenting functions
\value: Documenting functions
\var: Marking text
\verb: Marking text

A
allocList: Evaluating R expressions from C
allocMatrix: Calculating numerical derivatives
allocVector: Allocating storage
any_duplicated: Semi-internal convenience functions
any_duplicated3: Semi-internal convenience functions
asChar: Some convenience functions
asComplex: Some convenience functions
asInteger: Some convenience functions
asLogical: Some convenience functions
asReal: Some convenience functions
AUTHORS: Package subdirectories

B
bessel_i: Mathematical functions
bessel_j: Mathematical functions
bessel_k: Mathematical functions
bessel_y: Mathematical functions
beta: Mathematical functions
BLAS_LIBS: Using Makevars
browser: Browsing

C
CAAR: Calling .External
CAD4R: Calling .External
CADDDR: Calling .External
CADDR: Calling .External
 CADR: Calling .External
Calloc: User-controlled memory
CallocCharBuf: User-controlled memory
CAR: Calling .External
CDAR: Calling .External
CDDDR: Calling .External
CDDR: Calling .External
CDR: Calling .External
cgmin: Optimization
choose: Mathematical functions
CITATION: Package subdirectories
CITATION: Preparing translations
classgets: Classes
CleanEd: Setting R callbacks
coerceVector: Details of R types
COMPLEX: Vector accessor functions
CONS: Some convenience functions
cons: Some convenience functions
COPYRIGHTS: The DESCRIPTION file
COPYRIGHTS: Package subdirectories
cospi: Numerical Utilities
cPsort: Utility functions

D
dblepr: Printing from Fortran
dblepr1: Printing from Fortran
debug: Debugging R code
debugger: Debugging R code
defineVar: Finding and setting variables
digamma: Mathematical functions
dimgets: Attributes
dimnamesgets: Attributes
dpsifn: Mathematical functions
dump.frames: Debugging R code
duplicate: Named objects and copying
dyn.load: dyn.load and dyn.unload
dyn.unload: dyn.load and dyn.unload

E
elt: Some convenience functions
error: Error signaling
errorcall: Error signaling
eval: Evaluating R expressions from C
expm1: Numerical Utilities
export: Specifying imports and exports
exportClasses: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
exportClassPattern: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
exportMethods: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
 exportPattern: Specifying imports and exports
exportPattern: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
exp_rand: Random numbers

F
FALSE: Mathematical constants
findFun: Evaluating R expressions from C
findInterval: Utility functions
findInterval2(double*: Utility functions
findVar: Finding and setting variables
FLIBS: Using Makevars
fmax2: Numerical Utilities
fmin2: Numerical Utilities
fprec: Numerical Utilities
fpu_setup: Setting R callbacks
Free: User-controlled memory
fround: Numerical Utilities
fsign: Numerical Utilities
ftrunc: Numerical Utilities

G
gammafn: Mathematical functions
gctorture: Using gctorture
GetArrayDimnames: Attributes
getAttrib: Attributes
getCharCE: Character encoding issues
GetColNames: Attributes
GetMatrixDimnames: Attributes
GetRNGstate: Random numbers
GetRowNames: Attributes

I
imax2: Numerical Utilities
imin2: Numerical Utilities
import: Specifying imports and exports
importClassesFrom: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
importFrom: Specifying imports and exports
importMethodsFrom: Namespaces with S4 classes and methods
install: Attributes
installChar: Finding and setting variables
INTEGER: Vector accessor functions
integr_fn: Integration
intpr: Printing from Fortran
intpr1: Printing from Fortran
iPsort: Utility functions
isArray: Some convenience functions
isComplex: Details of R types
isEnvironment: Details of R types
 isExpression: Details of R types
isFactor: Some convenience functions
isFunction: Some convenience functions
isInteger: Details of R types
isLanguage: Some convenience functions
isList: Some convenience functions
isLogical: Details of R types
isMatrix: Some convenience functions
ISNA: Missing and special values
ISNA: Missing and IEEE values
ISNAN: Missing and special values
ISNAN: Missing and IEEE values
isNewList: Some convenience functions
isNull: Details of R types
isNumeric: Some convenience functions
isObject: Some convenience functions
isOrdered: Some convenience functions
isPairList: Some convenience functions
isPrimitive: Some convenience functions
isReal: Details of R types
isString: Details of R types
isSymbol: Details of R types
isTs: Some convenience functions
isUnordered: Some convenience functions
isVector: Some convenience functions
isVectorAtomic: Some convenience functions
isVectorList: Some convenience functions

L
labelpr: Printing from Fortran
lang1: Some convenience functions
lang2: Some convenience functions
lang3: Some convenience functions
lang4: Some convenience functions
lang5: Some convenience functions
lang6: Some convenience functions
LAPACK_LIBS: Using Makevars
lastElt: Some convenience functions
lbeta: Mathematical functions
lbfgsb: Optimization
lchoose: Mathematical functions
LCONS: Some convenience functions
lcons: Some convenience functions
lgamma1p: Numerical Utilities
lgammafn: Mathematical functions
library.dynam: Package subdirectories
library.dynam: dyn.load and dyn.unload
list1: Some convenience functions
 list2: Some convenience functions
list3: Some convenience functions
list4: Some convenience functions
list5: Some convenience functions
list6: Some convenience functions
log1mexp: Numerical Utilities
log1p: Numerical Utilities
log1pexp: Numerical Utilities
log1pmx: Numerical Utilities
LOGICAL: Vector accessor functions
logspace_add: Numerical Utilities
logspace_sub: Numerical Utilities
logspace_sum: Numerical Utilities

M
MARK_NOT_MUTABLE: Named objects and copying
MAYBE_REFERENCED: Named objects and copying
MAYBE_SHARED: Named objects and copying
Memcpy: User-controlled memory
Memzero: User-controlled memory
mkChar: Handling character data
mkCharCE: Character encoding issues
mkCharLen: Handling character data
mkCharLenCE: Character encoding issues
mkString: Some convenience functions
M_E: Mathematical constants
M_PI: Mathematical constants

N
namesgets: Attributes
NA_REAL: Missing and IEEE values
NEWS.Rd: Package subdirectories
nmmin: Optimization
norm_rand: Random numbers
nrows: Transient storage allocation
nthcdr: Some convenience functions

O
OBJECTS: Using Makevars
OBJECTS: Creating shared objects
onintr: Calling R.dll directly
optimfn: Optimization
optimgr: Optimization

P
pentagamma: Mathematical functions
PKG_CFLAGS: Creating shared objects
PKG_CPPFLAGS: Creating shared objects
 PKG_CXXFLAGS: Creating shared objects
PKG_FCFLAGS: Using F9x code
PKG_FFLAGS: Creating shared objects
PKG_LIBS: Creating shared objects
PKG_OBJCFLAGS: Creating shared objects
PKG_OBJCXXFLAGS: Creating shared objects
PRINTNAME: Calling .External
PrintValue: Inspecting R objects
prompt: Rd format
PROTECT: Garbage Collection
protect: Garbage Collection
PROTECT_WITH_INDEX: Garbage Collection
psigamma: Mathematical functions
PutRNGstate: Random numbers

Q
qsort3: Utility functions
qsort4: Utility functions

R
R CMD build: Building package tarballs
R CMD check: Checking packages
R CMD config: Configure and cleanup
R CMD Rd2pdf: Processing documentation files
R CMD Rdconv: Processing documentation files
R CMD SHLIB: Creating shared objects
R CMD Stangle: Processing documentation files
R CMD Sweave: Processing documentation files
RAW: Vector accessor functions
rchkusr: Allowing interrupts
Rdqagi: Integration
Rdqags: Integration
REAL: Vector accessor functions
Realloc: User-controlled memory
realpr: Printing from Fortran
realpr1: Printing from Fortran
recover: Debugging R code
reEnc: Character encoding issues
REprintf: Printing
REPROTECT: Garbage Collection
REvprintf: Printing
revsort: Utility functions
Rf_endEmbeddedR: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
Rf_initEmbeddedR: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
Rf_initialize_R: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
Rf_KillAllDevices: Setting R callbacks
Rf_mainloop: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
Riconv: Re-encoding
Riconv_close: Re-encoding
Riconv_open: Re-encoding
Rprintf: Printing
Rprof: Profiling R code for speed
Rprof: Memory statistics from Rprof
Rprofmem: Tracking memory allocations
rPsort: Utility functions
rsort_with_index: Utility functions
Rtanpi: Numerical Utilities
run_Rmainloop: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
Rvprintf: Printing
R_addhistory: Setting R callbacks
R_alloc: Transient storage allocation
R_allocLD: Transient storage allocation
R_Busy: Setting R callbacks
R_Calloc: User-controlled memory
R_CheckUserInterrupt: Allowing interrupts
R_ChooseFile: Setting R callbacks
R_CleanTempDir: Setting R callbacks
R_CleanUp: Setting R callbacks
R_ClearerrConsole: Setting R callbacks
R_ClearExternalPtr: External pointers and weak references
R_compute_identical: Semi-internal convenience functions
R_ContinueUnwind: Condition handling and cleanup code
R_csort: Utility functions
R_dataentry: Setting R callbacks
R_dataviewer: Setting R callbacks
R_DefParams: Calling R.dll directly
R_DefParamsEx: Calling R.dll directly
R_dot_Last: Setting R callbacks
R_EditFile: Setting R callbacks
R_EditFiles: Setting R callbacks
R_ExpandFileName: Utility functions
R_ExternalPtrAddr: External pointers and weak references
R_ExternalPtrAddrFn: External pointers and weak references
R_ExternalPtrProtected: External pointers and weak references
R_ExternalPtrTag: External pointers and weak references
R_FINITE: Missing and IEEE values
R_FlushConsole: Setting R callbacks
R_forceSymbols: Registering native routines
R_Free: User-controlled memory
R_free_tmpnam: Utility functions
R_GetCCallable: Linking to native routines in other packages
R_GetCurrentEnv: Evaluating R expressions from C
R_GetCurrentSrcref: Accessing source references
R_getEmbeddingDllInfo: Registering symbols
R_GetSrcFilename: Accessing source references
R_INLINE: Inlining C functions
R_IsNaN: Missing and IEEE values
R_isort: Utility functions
R_LIBRARY_DIR: Configure and cleanup
R_loadhistory: Setting R callbacks
R_MakeExternalPtr: External pointers and weak references
R_MakeExternalPtrFn: External pointers and weak references
R_MakeUnwindCont: Condition handling and cleanup code
R_MakeWeakRef: External pointers and weak references
R_MakeWeakRefC: External pointers and weak references
R_max_col: Utility functions
R_NegInf: Missing and IEEE values
R_NewEnv: Finding and setting variables
R_NewPreciousMSet: Garbage Collection
R_orderVector: Utility functions
R_orderVector1: Utility functions
R_PACKAGE_DIR: Configure and cleanup
R_PACKAGE_DIR: Configure and cleanup
R_PACKAGE_NAME: Configure and cleanup
R_PACKAGE_NAME: Configure and cleanup
R_ParseVector: Parsing R code from C
R_PolledEvents: Meshing event loops
R_PosInf: Missing and IEEE values
R_pow: Numerical Utilities
R_pow_di: Numerical Utilities
R_PreserveInMSet: Garbage Collection
R_PreserveObject: Garbage Collection
R_ProcessEvents: Calling R.dll directly
R_ProtectWithIndex: Garbage Collection
R_PV: Inspecting R objects
R_qsort: Utility functions
R_qsort_I: Utility functions
R_qsort_int: Utility functions
R_qsort_int_I: Utility functions
R_ReadConsole: Setting R callbacks
R_Realloc: User-controlled memory
R_RegisterCCallable: Linking to native routines in other packages
R_RegisterCFinalizer: External pointers and weak references
R_RegisterCFinalizerEx: External pointers and weak references
R_RegisterFinalizer: External pointers and weak references
R_RegisterFinalizerEx: External pointers and weak references
R_registerRoutines: Registering native routines
R_ReleaseFromMSet: Garbage Collection
R_ReleaseObject: Garbage Collection
R_ReplDLLdo1: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
R_ReplDLLinit: Embedding R under Unix-alikes
R_Reprotect: Garbage Collection
R_ResetConsole: Setting R callbacks
R_rsort: Utility functions
 R_RunExitFinalizers: Setting R callbacks
R_RunWeakRefFinalizer: External pointers and weak references
R_SaveGlobalEnv: Setting R callbacks
R_savehistory: Setting R callbacks
R_selectlist: Setting R callbacks
R_SetExternalPtrAddr: External pointers and weak references
R_SetExternalPtrProtected: External pointers and weak references
R_SetExternalPtrTag: External pointers and weak references
R_SetParams: Calling R.dll directly
R_setStartTime: Calling R.dll directly
R_set_command_line_arguments: Calling R.dll directly
R_ShowFiles: Setting R callbacks
R_ShowMessage: Setting R callbacks
R_Srcref: Accessing source references
R_Suicide: Setting R callbacks
R_tmpnam: Utility functions
R_tmpnam2: Utility functions
R_tryCatch: Condition handling and cleanup code
R_tryCatchError: Condition handling and cleanup code
R_unif_index: Random numbers
R_UnwindProtect: Condition handling and cleanup code
R_useDynamicSymbols: Registering native routines
R_Version: Platform and version information
R_wait_usec: Meshing event loops
R_WeakRefKey: External pointers and weak references
R_WeakRefValue: External pointers and weak references
R_withCallingErrorHandler: Condition handling and cleanup code
R_WriteConsole: Setting R callbacks
R_WriteConsoleEx: Setting R callbacks

S
S3method: Registering S3 methods
SAFE_FFLAGS: Using Makevars
samin: Optimization
ScalarComplex: Some convenience functions
ScalarInteger: Some convenience functions
ScalarLogical: Some convenience functions
ScalarRaw: Some convenience functions
ScalarReal: Some convenience functions
ScalarString: Some convenience functions
setAttrib: Attributes
SETCAD4R: Calling .External
SETCADDDR: Calling .External
SETCADDR: Calling .External
SETCADR: Calling .External
SETCAR: Calling .External
SETCDR: Calling .External
setup_Rmainloop: Calling R.dll directly
 setVar: Finding and setting variables
SET_STRING_ELT: Handling character data
SET_TAG: Evaluating R expressions from C
SET_VECTOR_ELT: Vector accessor functions
sign: Numerical Utilities
signrank_free: Distribution functions
sinpi: Numerical Utilities
str2type: Some convenience functions
STRING_ELT: Handling character data
summaryRprof: Memory statistics from Rprof
system: Operating system access
system.time: Operating system access
system2: Operating system access
S_alloc: Transient storage allocation
S_realloc: Transient storage allocation

T
TAG: Calling .External
tanpi: Numerical Utilities
tetragamma: Mathematical functions
trace: Debugging R code
traceback: Debugging R code
tracemem: Tracing copies of an object
translateChar: Character encoding issues
translateCharUTF8: Character encoding issues
trigamma: Mathematical functions
TRUE: Mathematical constants
type2char: Some convenience functions
type2str: Some convenience functions
TYPEOF: Calling .External

U
undebug: Debugging R code
unif_rand: Random numbers
UNPROTECT: Garbage Collection
unprotect: Garbage Collection
UNPROTECT_PTR: Garbage Collection
unprotect_ptr: Garbage Collection
untracemem: Tracing copies of an object
useDynLib: useDynLib

V
VECTOR_ELT: Vector accessor functions
vmaxget: Transient storage allocation
vmaxset: Transient storage allocation
vmmin: Optimization

W
 warning: Error signaling
warningcall: Error signaling
warningcall_immediate: Error signaling
wilcox_free: Distribution functions

Jump to: . \
A B C D E F G I L M N O P Q R S T U V W

Previous: Function and variable index, Up: Writing R Extensions [Contents][Index]

Concept index
Jump to: . \
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U V W Z
Index Entry Section

.
.install_extras file: Writing package vignettes
.Rbuildignore file: Building package tarballs
.Rinstignore file: Package subdirectories

\
\linkS4class: Cross-references

A
Allocating storage: Allocating storage
Attributes: Attributes

B
Bessel functions: Mathematical functions
Beta function: Mathematical functions
Building binary packages: Building binary packages
Building source packages: Building package tarballs

C
C++ code, interfacing: Interfacing C++ code
Calling C from Fortran and vice versa: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa
Checking packages: Checking packages
citation: Package subdirectories
citation: Preparing translations
Classes: Classes
Cleanup code: Condition handling and cleanup code
cleanup file: Package structure
Condition handling: Condition handling and cleanup code
conditionals: Conditional text
configure file: Package structure
Copying objects: Named objects and copying
CRAN: Creating R packages
Creating packages: Creating R packages
 Creating shared objects: Creating shared objects
Cross-references in documentation: Cross-references
cumulative hazard: Distribution functions

D
Debugging: Debugging compiled code
DESCRIPTION file: The DESCRIPTION file
Details of R types: Details of R types
Distribution functions from C: Distribution functions
Documentation, writing: Writing R documentation files
Dynamic loading: dyn.load and dyn.unload
dynamic pages: Dynamic pages

E
Editing Rd files: Editing Rd files
encoding: Encoding
Error handling: Condition handling and cleanup code
Error signaling from C: Error signaling
Error signaling from Fortran: Error signaling from Fortran
Evaluating R expressions from C: Evaluating R expressions from C
external pointer: External pointers and weak references

F
Figures in documentation: Figures
finalizer: External pointers and weak references
Finding variables: Finding and setting variables

G
Gamma function: Mathematical functions
Garbage collection: Garbage Collection
Generic functions: Generic functions and methods

H
handling character data: Handling character data
Handling lists: Handling lists
Handling R objects in C: Handling R objects in C

I
IEEE special values: Missing and special values
IEEE special values: Missing and IEEE values
INDEX file: The INDEX file
Indices: Indices
Inspecting R objects when debugging: Inspecting R objects
integration: Integration
Interfaces to compiled code: Interface functions .C and .Fortran
Interfaces to compiled code: Interface functions .Call and .External
Interfacing C++ code: Interfacing C++ code
Interrupts: Allowing interrupts
L
LICENCE file: Licensing
LICENSE file: Licensing
Lists and tables in documentation: Lists and tables

M
Marking text in documentation: Marking text
Mathematics in documentation: Mathematics
Memory allocation from C: Memory allocation
Memory use: Profiling R code for memory use
Method functions: Generic functions and methods
Missing values: Missing and special values
Missing values: Missing and IEEE values

N
namespaces: Package namespaces
news: Package subdirectories
Numerical analysis subroutines from C: Numerical analysis subroutines
Numerical derivatives: Calculating numerical derivatives

O
OpenMP: OpenMP support
OpenMP: Platform and version information
Operating system access: Operating system access
optimization: Optimization

P
Package builder: Building package tarballs
Package structure: Package structure
Package subdirectories: Package subdirectories
Packages: Creating R packages
Parsing R code from C: Parsing R code from C
Platform-specific documentation: Platform-specific sections
Polygamma functions: Mathematical functions
Printing from C: Printing
Printing from Fortran: Printing from Fortran
Processing Rd format: Processing documentation files
Profiling: Profiling R code for speed
Profiling: Profiling R code for memory use
Profiling: Profiling compiled code

R
Random numbers in C: Random numbers
Random numbers in C: Distribution functions
Random numbers in Fortran: Calling C from Fortran and vice versa
Registering native routines: Registering native routines
 S
Setting variables: Finding and setting variables
Sort functions from C: Utility functions
Sweave: Writing package vignettes

T
tarballs: Building package tarballs
Tidying R code: Tidying R code

U
user-defined macros: User-defined macros

V
Version information from C: Platform and version information
vignettes: Writing package vignettes
Visibility: Controlling visibility

W
weak reference: External pointers and weak references

Z
Zero-finding: Zero-finding

Jump to: . \
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U V W Z

Footnotes

(1)

although this is a persistent mis-usage. It seems to stem from S, whose analogues of R’s packages were officially
known as library sections and later as chapters, but almost always referred to as libraries.

(2)

This seems to be commonly used for a file in ‘markdown’ format. Be aware that most users of R will not know
that, nor know how to view such a file: platforms such as macOS and Windows do not have a default viewer set
in their file associations. The CRAN package web pages render such files in HTML: the converter used expects
the file to be encoded in UTF-8.

(3)

currently, top-level files .Rbuildignore and .Rinstignore, and vignettes/.install_extras.

(4)

false positives are possible, but only a handful have been seen so far.

(5)

at least if this is done in a locale which matches the package encoding.

(6)

and required by CRAN, so checked by R CMD check --as-cran.

(7)

But it is checked for Open Source packages by R CMD check --as-cran.

(8)

Duplicate definitions may trigger a warning: see User-defined macros.

(9)

bug.report will try to extract an email address from a Contact field if there is no BugReports field.

(10)

CRAN expands them to e.g. GPL-2 | GPL-3.

(11)

even one wrapped in \donttest.

(12)

This includes all packages directly called by library and require calls, as well as data obtained via
data(theirdata, package = "somepkg") calls: R CMD check will warn about all of these. But there are subtler
uses which it may not detect: e.g. if package A uses package B and makes use of functionality in package B
which uses package C which package B suggests or enhances, then package C needs to be in the ‘Suggests’ list
for package A. Nor will undeclared uses in included files be reported, nor unconditional uses of packages listed
under ‘Enhances’. R CMD check --as-cran will detect more of the subtler uses.

(13)

Extensions .S and .s arise from code originally written for S(-PLUS), but are commonly used for assembler
code. Extension .q was used for S, which at one time was tentatively called QPE.

(14)

but they should be in the encoding declared in the DESCRIPTION file.

(15)

This is true for OSes which implement the ‘C’ locale: Windows’ idea of the ‘C’ locale uses the WinAnsi charset.

(16)

More precisely, they can contain the English alphanumeric characters and the symbols ‘$ - _ . + ! ' ( ) , ;
= &’.

(17)

either or both of which may not be supported on particular platforms. Their main use is on macOS, but
unfortunately recent versions of the macOS SDK have removed much of the support for Objective C v1.0 and
Objective C++.

(18)

Using .hpp is not guaranteed to be portable.

(19)

There is also ‘__APPLE_CC__’, but that indicates a compiler with Apple-specific features not the OS, although for
historical reasons is is defined by LLVM clang. It is used in Rinlinedfuns.h.

(20)

the POSIX terminology, called ‘make variables’ by GNU make.

(21)

The best way to generate such a file is to copy the .Rout from a successful run of R CMD check. If you want to
generate it separately, do run R with options --vanilla --no-echo and with environment variable LANGUAGE=en
set to get messages in English. Be careful not to use output with the option --timings (and note that --as-cran
sets it).

(22)

e.g. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180.

(23)

People who have trouble with case are advised to use .rda as a common error is to refer to abc.RData as
abc.Rdata!

(24)

For all the CRAN packages tested, either gz or bzip2 provided a very substantial reduction in installed size.

(25)

‘BWidget’ still is on Windows but ‘Tktable’ was not in R 4.0.0.

(26)

The script should only assume a POSIX-compliant /bin/sh – see

https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html. In particular bash extensions must
not be used, and not all R platforms have a bash command, let alone one at /bin/bash. All known shells used
with R support the use of backticks, but not all support ‘$(cmd)’. However, real-world shells are not fully
POSIX-compliant and omissions and idiosyncrasies need to be worked around—which Autoconf will do for
you. Arithmetic expansion is a known issue: see
https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf.html#Portable-Shell for this and others. Some checks
can be done by the checkbashisms Perl script at https://sourceforge.net/projects/checkbaskisms/files, also
available in most Linux distributions in a package named either ‘devscripts’ or ‘devscripts-checkbashisms’: a
later version can be extracted from Debian sources such as the most recent tar.xz in
https://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/devscripts/ and has been needed for recent versions of Perl.

(27)
https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf-archive/ax_blas.html. If you include macros from that archive you need
to arrange for them to be included in the package sources for use by autoreconf.

(28)

but it is available on the machines used to produce the CRAN binary packages: however as Apple does not ship
.pc files for its system libraries such as expat, libcurl, libxml2, sqlite3 and ‘zlib’, it may well not find
information on these. Some substitutes are available from https://github.com/R-
macos/recipes/tree/master/stubs/pkgconfig-darwin and are installed on the CRAN package builders.

(29)

It is not wise to check the version of pkg-config as it is sometimes a link to pkgconf, a separate project with a
different version series.

(30)

but not all projects get this right when only a static library is installed, so it is often necessary to try in turn pkg-
config --libs and pkg-config --static --libs.

(31)

a decade ago Autoconf used configure.in: this is still accepted but should be renamed and autoreconf as used
by R CMD check --as-cran will report as such.

(32)

For those using autoconf 2.70 or later there is also AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS which allows multiple directories to be
specified.

(33)

in POSIX parlance: GNU make calls these ‘make variables’.

(34)

at least on Unix-alikes: the Windows build currently resolves such dependencies to a static Fortran library when
Rblas.dll is built. Also, not if USE_FC_TO_LINK is used.

(35)

https://www.openmp.org/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenMP, https://hpc.llnl.gov/training/tutorials/openmp-

tutorial

(36)

Default builds of clang 3.8.0 and later have support for OpenMP, but the libomp run-time library may not be
installed.

(37)

In most implementations the _OPENMP macro has value a date which can be mapped to an OpenMP version: for
example, value 201307 is the date of version 4.0 (July 2013). However this may be used to denote the latest
version which is partially supported, not that which is fully implemented.
(38)

Windows default, not MinGW-w64 default.

(39)

Which it was at the time of writing with GCC, Oracle, Intel and Clang compilers. The count may include the
thread running the main process.

(40)

Be careful not to declare nthreads as const int: the Oracle compiler requires it to be ‘an lvalue’.

(41)

some Windows toolchains had the typo ‘_REENTRANCE’ instead.

(42)

A few OSes (AIX, Windows) do not need special flags for such code, but most do—although compilers will
often generate PIC code when not asked to do so.

(43)

for versions of R since 3.6.0.

(44)

Some changes are linked from https://isocpp.org/std/standing-documents/sd-6-sg10-feature-test-

recommendations: there were also additional deprecations.

(45)

Values 201103L, 201402L and 201703L are most commonly used for C++11, C++14 and C++17 respectively, but
some compilers set 1L. At the time of writing there was no official value for C++20, but some compilers are
using 202002L, others 201703L.

(46)

See https://isocpp.org/std/standing-documents/sd-6-sg10-feature-test-recommendations or
https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/experimental/feature_test. It seems a reasonable assumption that any
compiler promising some C++14 conformance will provide these—e.g. g++ 4.9.x did but 4.8.5 did not.

(47)

On systems which use sub-architectures, architecture-specific versions such as ~/.R/check.Renviron.i386 take

precedence.

(48)

A suitable file.exe is part of the Windows toolset: it checks for gfile if a suitable file is not found: the latter is
available in the OpenCSW collection for Solaris at https://www.opencsw.org/. The source repository is
http://ftp.astron.com/pub/file/.

(49)
An exception is made for subdirectories with names starting ‘win’ or ‘Win’.

(50)

on most other platforms such runtime libraries are dynamic, but static libraries are currently used on Windows
because the toolchain is not a standard part of the OS.

(51)

or if option --use-valgrind is used or environment variable _R_CHECK_ALWAYS_LOG_VIGNETTE_OUTPUT_ is set to a

true value or if there are differences from a target output file

(52)

For example, in early 2014 gdata declared ‘Imports: gtools’ and gtools declared ‘Imports: gdata’.

(53)

loading, examples, tests, running vignette code

(54)

called CVS or .svn or .arch-ids or .bzr or .git (but not files called .git) or .hg.

(55)

called .metadata.

(56)

which is an error: GNU make uses GNUmakefile.

(57)

see tools:::.hidden_file_exclusions and tools:::get_exclude_patterns() for further excluded files and file
patterns, respectively.

(58)

and to avoid problems with case-insensitive file systems, lower-case versions of all these extensions.

(59)

unless inhibited by using ‘BuildVignettes: no’ in the DESCRIPTION file.

(60)

provided the conditions of the package’s license are met: many, including CRAN, see the omission of source
components as incompatible with an Open Source license.

(61)

R_HOME/bin is prepended to the PATH so that references to R or Rscript in the Makefile do make use of the
currently running version of R.
(62)

Note that lazy-loaded datasets are not in the package’s namespace so need to be accessed via ::, e.g.
survival::survexp.us.

(63)

they will be called with two unnamed arguments, in that order.

(64)

NB: this will only be read in all versions of R if the package contains R code in a R directory.

(65)

Note that this is the basename of the shared object, and the appropriate extension (.so or .dll) will be added.

(66)

This defaults to the same pattern as exportPattern: use something like exportClassPattern("^$") to override
this.

(67)

if it does, there will be opaque warnings about replacing imports if the classes/methods are also imported.

(68)

People use dev.new() to open a device at a particular size: that is not portable but using dev.new(noRStudioGD =
TRUE) helps.

(69)

Solaris make does not accept CRLF-terminated Makefiles; Solaris warns about and some other makes ignore
incomplete final lines.

(70)

This was apparently introduced in SunOS 4, and is available elsewhere provided it is surrounded by spaces.

(71)

GNU make, BSD make and other variants of pmake in FreeBSD, NetBSD and formerly in macOS, AT&T make
as implemented on Solaris and ‘Distributed Make’ (dmake), part of Oracle Developer Studio and available in
other versions including from Apache OpenOffice.

(72)

For example, test options -a and -e are not portable, and not supported in the AT&T Bourne shell used on
Solaris 10/11, even though they are in the POSIX standard. Nor does Solaris support ‘$(cmd)’.

(73)

as from R 4.0.0 the default is bash.

(74)

it was not in the Bourne shell, and is not supported by Solaris 10.

(75)

http://fortranwiki.org/fortran/show/Modernizing+Old+Fortran may help explain some of the warnings from

gfortran -Wall -pedantic.

(76)

These are optional because the corresponding types are, but must be provided if the types are.

(77)

or where supported the variants _Exit and _exit.

(78)

This and srandom are in any case not portable. They are in POSIX but not in the C99 standard, and not available
on Windows.

(79)

in libselinux.

(80)

At least Linux and Windows, but not macOS.

(81)

except perhaps the simplest kind as used by download.file() in non-interactive use.

(82)

Whereas the GNU linker reorders so -L options are processed first, the Solaris one does not.

(83)

some versions of macOS did not.

(84)

which is /usr/ccs/bin/strip, not /usr/bin/strip.

(85)

If a Java interpreter is required directly (not via rJava) this must be declared and its presence tested like any
other external command.

(86)

For example, the ability to handle ‘https://’ URLs.

(87)

Not doing so is the default on Windows, overridden for the R executables. It is also the default on some Solaris
compilers.

(88)

These are not needed for the default compiler settings on ‘x86_64’ but are likely to be needed on ‘ix86’.

(89)

Select ‘Save as’, and select ‘Reduce file size’ from the ‘Quartz filter’ menu’: this can be accessed in other ways,
for example by Automator.

(90)

except perhaps some special characters such as backslash and hash which may be taken over for currency
symbols.

(91)

Typically on a Unix-alike this is done by telling fontconfig where to find suitable fonts to select glyphs from.

(92)

which it is on all known platforms, and is required as from R 4.0.0

(93)

Ubuntu provides 5 years of support (but people were running 14.04 after 7 years) and RHEL provides 10 years
full support and up to 14 with extended support.

(94)

This is seen on Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD, although each has other ways to turn on all extensions, e.g.
defining _GNU_SOURCE, __EXTENSIONS__ or _BSD_SOURCE: the GCC compilers by default define _GNU_SOURCE unless
a strict standard such as -std=c99 is used. On macOS extensions are declared unless one of these macros is
given too small a value.

(95)

Solaris 10 does not recognize this value of _POSIX_C_SOURCE, nor values of _XOPEN_SOURCE beyond 600 (700
corresponds to POSIX 2008). Further, the value of 500 is not allowed in C99 mode, R’s default for C code.

(96)

‘SunOS 5.10’ is the most current for Solaris.

(97)

often taken from the toolchain’s headers.

(98)

also part of C++11 and later.

(99)

There is a portable way to do this in Fortran 2003 (ieee_is_nan() in module ieee_arithmetic), but ironically
that is not supported in the versions 4.x of GNU Fortran. A pretty robust alternative is to test if(my_var /=
my_var).

(100)

which often is the same as the header included by the C compiler, but some compilers have wrappers for some
of the C headers.

(101)

including EAX, EBP, EBX, ECX, EDI,EDX, EFL, EIP, ESI and ESP .

(102)

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32739018/a-replacement-for-stdbind2nd

(103)

it is allowed but ignored in system headers.

(104)

see https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-10/porting_to.html.

(105)

See https://prereleases.llvm.org/11.0.0/rc2/tools/clang/docs/ReleaseNotes.html#modified-compiler-flags.

(106)

In principle this could depend on the OS, but has been checked on Linux and macOS.

(107)

e.g. \alias, \keyword and \note sections.

(108)

There can be exceptions: for example Rd files are not allowed to start with a dot, and have to be uniquely named
on a case-insensitive file system.

(109)

in the current locale, and with special treatment for LaTeX special characters and with any ‘pkgname-package’
topic moved to the top of the list.

(110)

Text between or after list items is discouraged.

(111)
as defined by the R function trimws.

(112)

Currently it is rendered differently only in HTML conversions, and LaTeX conversion outside ‘\usage’ and
‘\examples’ environments.

(113)

There is only a fine distinction between \dots and \ldots. It is technically incorrect to use \ldots in code blocks
and tools::checkRd will warn about this—on the other hand the current converters treat them the same way in
code blocks, and elsewhere apart from the small distinction between the two in LaTeX.

(114)

See the examples section in the file Paren.Rd for an example.

(115)

R 2.9.0 added support for UTF-8 Cyrillic characters in LaTeX, but on some OSes this will need Cyrillic support
added to LaTeX, so environment variable _R_CYRILLIC_TEX_ may need to be set to a non-empty value to enable
this.

(116)

R has to be built to enable this, but the option --enable-R-profiling is the default.

(117)

For Unix-alikes these are intervals of CPU time, and for Windows of elapsed time.

(118)

With the exceptions of the commands listed below: an object of such a name can be printed via an explicit call
to print.

(119)

The macOS support is for long-obsolete versions.

(120)

Those in some numeric, logical, integer, raw, complex vectors and in memory allocated by R_alloc.

(121)

including using the data sections of R vectors after they are freed.

(122)

small fixed-size arrays by default in gfortran, for example.

(123)
currently on ‘x86_64’/‘ix86’ Linux and FreeBSD, with some support for Intel macOS but not with the toolchain
normally used with R. (There is a faster variant, HWASAN, for ‘aarch64’ only.) On some platforms the runtime
library, libasan, needs to be installed separately, and for checking C++ you may also need libubsan.

(124)

see https://llvm.org/devmtg/2014-04/PDFs/LightningTalks/EuroLLVM%202014%20--
%20container%20overflow.pdf.

(125)

part of the LLVM project and distributed in llvm RPMs and .debs on Linux. It is not currently shipped by Apple.

(126)

as Ubuntu has been said to do.

(127)

installed on some Linux systems as asan_symbolize, and obtainable from https://github.com/llvm/llvm-

project/blob/main/compiler-rt/lib/asan/scripts/asan_symbolize.py: it makes use of llvm-symbolizer if available.

(128)

including gcc 7.1 and clang 4.0.0: for gcc it is implied by -fsanitize=address.

(129)

for example, X11/GL libraries on Linux, seen when checking package rgl and some others using it—a
workaround is to set environment variable RGL_USE_NULL=true.

(130)

On some platforms the runtime library, libubsan, needs to be installed separately.

(131)

but works better if inlining and frame pointer optimizations are disabled.

(132)

By default as a security measure: see man dyld.

(133)

See https://svn.r-project.org/R-dev-web/trunk/CRAN/QA/Simon/R-build/fixpathR: ‘@executable_path’ could be

used rather than absolute paths.

(134)

possibly after some platform-specific translation, e.g. adding leading or trailing underscores.

(135)
Note that this is then not checked for over-runs by option CBoundsCheck = TRUE.

(136)

Strictly this is OS-specific, but no exceptions have been seen for many years.

(137)

For calls from within a namespace the search is confined to the DLL loaded for that package.

(138)

For unregistered entry points the OS’s dlsym routine is used to find addresses. Its performance varies
considerably by OS and even in the best case it will need to search a much larger symbol table than, say, the
table of .Call entry points.

(139)

Because it is a standard package, one would need to rename it before attempting to reproduce the account here.

(140)

whether or not ‘LinkingTo’ is used.

(141)

so there needs to be a corresponding import or importFrom entry in the NAMESPACE file.

(142)

Even including C system headers in such a block has caused compilation errors.

(143)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_binary_interface.

(144)

For example, ‘_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI’ in g++ 5.1 and later:

https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/manual/using_dual_abi.html.

(145)

dyld on macOS, and DYLD_LIBRARY_PATHS below.

(146)

That is, similar to those defined in S version 4 from the 1990s: these are not kept up to date and are not
recommended for new projects.

(147)

see The R API: entry points for C code: note that these are not all part of the API.
(148)

SEXP is an acronym for Simple EXPression, common in LISP-like language syntaxes.

(149)

If no coercion was required, coerceVector would have passed the old object through unchanged.

(150)

You can assign a copy of the object in the environment frame rho using defineVar(symbol, duplicate(value),
rho)).

(151)

see Character encoding issues for why this might not be what is required.

(152)

This is only guaranteed to show the current interface: it is liable to change.

(153)

Known problems have been defining LENGTH, error, length, vector and warning: whether these matter depends
on the OS and toolchain, with many problem reports involving clang++. As from clang 13.0.0, the remapping of
match breaks the subsequent inclusion of omp.h.

(154)

That was not the case on Windows prior to R 4.2.0.

(155)

also part of C++11.

(156)

The ‘F77_’ in the names is historical and dates back to usage in S.

(157)

It is an optional C11 extension.

(158)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness.

(159)

It is defined by the Intel compilers, but also hides unsatisfied references and so cannot be used with R. It is not
supported by the AIX nor Solaris compilers.

(160)
This applies to the compiler for the default C++ dialect (currently C++11) and not necessarily to other dialects.

(161)

In some cases Fortran compilers accept the flag but do not actually hide their symbols.

(162)

In the parlance of macOS this is a dynamic library, and is the normal way to build R on that platform.

(163)

but these are not part of the automated test procedures and so little tested.

(164)

At least according to POSIX 2004 and later. Earlier standards prescribed sys/time.h: R_ext/eventloop.h will
include it if HAVE_SYS_TIME_H is defined.

(165)

at least on platforms where the values are available, that is having getrlimit and on Linux or having sysctl
supporting KERN_USRSTACK, including FreeBSD and macOS.

(166)

An attempt to use only threads in the late 1990s failed to work correctly under Windows 95, the predominant
version of Windows at that time.