Linking in R packages

["Mike M. Volokhov" <mike.volokhov%gmail.com@localhost>]

Hi,

when installing certain R addons the R CMD INSTALL on some platforms
wants to link against libintl (IIUC where gettext is going to be
installed from the pkgsrc, for example, on Mac OS X).  This requires
explicit dependency on devel/gettext-lib.  Of course the dependency
can be added manually for each such package, but I'm looking for
possibility to do it automatically.

The easiest way is to add unconditional referral to gettext-lib to
math/R/Makefile.extension.  But number of packages are actually
require no linking (for example, they're written in plain R), and,
therefore, they loose from introducing the extra dependency.

Another approach may be to stick with USE_LANGUAGES and adjust it for
R packages appropriately.  Thus, an R package that wants to use
linking will essentially require a compiler and should set USE_LANGUAGES,
which, in turn, could trigger the gettext-lib dependency.

The latter could be achieved by adding the following snippet to
the Makefile.extentsion:

USE_LANGUAGES?= R       # capture the USE_LANGUAGES

.if !empty(USE_LANGUAGES:Mc) || !empty(USE_LANGUAGES:Mfortran*)
.include "../../devel/gettext-lib/buildlink3.mk"
.endif

But this hack will compel to include the Makefile.extension before
any other mk files.

Any ideas?

--
Mishka.