Tools for building R

Steps for building a release version

1. Remove /opt/R/release

sudo rm -rf /opt/R/release

2. run the buildr script

./buildrelase -a <version>

3. Install your new build

sudo ./buildrelase -i <version>

4. As root, copy the install tree into the src-release directory

5. Apply R4Pi patches

6. Package

Steps for building a standalone version

1. run the buildr script

./buildr -a <version>

2. Install your new build

sudo ./buildr -i <version>

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR 32BIT RASBIAN

As of some time around May 2023 32bit Rasbian started using a 64bit kernel.

This means uname -m and arch return 'aarch64' instead of 'armv7l'.

You can check which version of the OS you're using with:

getconf LONG_BIT

This change breaks a ton of the build process so it's important to force the use of the 32 bit kernel to ensure successful builds.

Add the following to /boot/config.txt:

# Fix to prevent loading the (now default) 64 bit kernel
arm_64bit=0

and then reboot.

Installing fpm

The project uses fpm to package the build for release.

Building fpm for debian bullseye requires a very specific set of packages so there's an install script in install_fpm.sh.