doc/rtools_tbb_notes.md

In RcppCore/RcppParallel: Parallel Programming Tools for 'Rcpp'

Differences MinGW / Rtools

cmd

MinGW

cmd is an sh wrapper which invokes the 32bit version of Windows' shell:

$ where cmd
C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin\cmd
c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
$ cat /c/MinGW/msys/1.0/bin/cmd
#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (C) 2002, Earnie Boyd
#   mailto:[e-mail]
# This file is part of Minimal SYStem.
#   http://www.mingw.org/msys.shtml
# File: cmd

"$COMSPEC" "$@"
$ echo $COMSPEC
C:\windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe

Rtools

No wrapper; cmd is the default Windows shell (64bit on a 64bit OS):

$ where cmd
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe

paths

MinGW

• 3 styles supported: /drive/path, drive:/path, drive:\path (properly escaped).
• The actual path (returned when querying) is /drive/path.

  $ cd f:/tmp/testpath
  $ pwd
  /f/tmp/testpath
  $ cd f:\\tmp\\testpath
  $ pwd
  /f/tmp/testpath
  $ cd /f/tmp/testpath
  $ pwd
  /f/tmp/testpath
  

Rtools

• 3 styles supported: /cygdrive/drive/path, drive:/path, drive:\path (properly escaped).
• The actual path (returned when querying) is /cygdrive/drive/path.
• /drive/path is not supported.

  $ cd f:/tmp/testpath
  $ pwd
  /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
  $ cd f:\\tmp\\testpath
  $ pwd
  /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
  $ cd /f/tmp/testpath
  cd: can't cd to /f/tmp/testpath
  $ cd /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
  $ pwd
  /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
  

parameters

MinGW

Shell will sometimes automatically replace parameters starting with forward slashes using the rules described here. Since forward slashes are often used to mark option parameters in Windows command line applications (/o is the Windows equivalent of -o and --option for Unix), this can cause very subtle and hard to debug issues. The fix is to double the forward slashes, or to quote (when possible)

$ ls /d
$RECYCLE.BIN  System Volume Information  pagefile.sys

$ cmd /c "echo hi"
hi

$ cmd /C "echo hi"
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

f:\tmp\testpath>exit

$ cmd /C "echo hi /runtime"
'untime"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

$ cmd //C "echo hi /runtime"
hi /runtime

Rtools

No parameter replacements. What you type is what you get.

$ ls /d
ls: cannot access /d: No such file or directory
$ cmd /c "echo hi"
hi
$ cmd /C "echo hi"
hi
$ cmd /C "echo hi /runtime"
hi /runtime

uname

Only present in MinGW

g++

MinGW

default full paths supported

$ g++ /f/tmp/testpath/test.cpp
$ echo $?
0

Rtools

default full paths are not supported

$ ls /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.cpp
/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.cpp
$ cat /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.cpp
int main() {return 0;}  
$ g++ /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.cpp
g++.exe: error: /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.cpp: No such file or directory
g++.exe: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.

This means that great care must be taken to ensure paths are never queried and instead always manually constructed. Examples of queried paths that end up being g++ incompatible in the context of a Makefile:

• don't use $(shell pwd)
• don't use $(CURDIR)
• only use relative paths in VPATH

  $ cat Makefile
  .PHONY: all
  all: test.o foo.o
      @echo DIR=$(CURDIR)
  
  %.o: %.cpp
      @echo $<
  
  $  make VPATH=f:/tmp/testpath/subdir
  test.cpp
  /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/subdir/foo.cpp
  DIR=/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
  
  $ make VPATH=subdir
  test.cpp
  subdir/foo.cpp
  DIR=/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
  

Bugs and tips

Modal dialog asking to insert disk in drive

This bug is in MinGW only (not Rtools). This is due to hard-coded paths pointing to I: drive in g++

$ strings c:/MinGW/bin/g++.exe | grep i: | grep mingw
i:/p/giaw/mingw/share/locale
i:/p/giaw/mingw/share/locale

If no I: drive exists, or the path does not exist, then g++ silently ignores it. However, if I: happens to point to a removable drive, then you get a modal dialog.

Fix: go in "Disk Management" and rename the drive.

Full paths

g++ is not the only tool affected by full paths in the context of Rtools. Since Rtools doesn't perform any auto-conversion and / is used as a option marker for many Windows command line applications, some of them end up being confused. For example:

$ cat test.js
WScript.Echo( "Hi" );
$ cscript /nologo test.js
Hi
$ pwd
/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
$ cscript /nologo /cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.js
Input Error: Unknown option "/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/test.js" specified.
$ cscript /nologo f:/tmp/testpath/test.js
Hi
$

Recommendation is to always use relative paths.

Changing the shell in make

The .SHELLFLAGS variable doesn't work in the context of Rtools (silently ignored), making it impossible to change default shell to cmd: the default for SHELLFLAGS is -c, which is suitable for sh and not cmd:

$ cmd /c dir /b notfound
File Not Found
$ cmd -c dir /b notfound
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

F:\tmp\testpath>exit

$ cat Makefile
SHELL=cmd
.SHELLFLAGS=/c
TEST=$(shell dir /b notfound)

.PHONY: all
all:
    @echo hi

$ make
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

F:\tmp\testpath>exit

The Rtools-only --win32 command line option for make didn't properly work for me (but I was dealing with complex Makefiles).

Hangs in make

There does not appear to be a built-in tracing or time-out mechanism in make regarding sub-processes. One effective way to figure out what's hanging is "Task Manager", "Details", then add column "Command Line". In my case, most hangs were due to some variation of cmd -c something or cmd c: something (both variations end up leaving cmd.exe running) instead of cmd /c something. The first one is due to SHELLFLAGS not working, the second to auto param replacement.

Rule not found errors

i.e. "no rule to make target" errors. In some cases, the VPATH parser gets confused, and then all paths specified are silently ignored. This can even happen for simple (no spaces, etc.), valid (exist) paths.

$ cat Makefile
.PHONY: all
all: test.o foo.o
    @echo hi

%.o: %.cpp
    @echo $<
$ pwd
/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath
$ make "VPATH=f:/tmp/testpath/subdir"
test.cpp
/cygdrive/f/tmp/testpath/subdir/foo.cpp
hi
$ make "VPATH=f:/tmp/testpath subdir"
test.cpp
subdir/foo.cpp
hi
$ make "VPATH=subdir f:/tmp/testpath"
test.cpp
subdir/foo.cpp
hi
$ make "VPATH=f:/tmp/testpath f:/tmp/testpath/subdir"
test.cpp
make: *** No rule to make target `foo.o', needed by `all'.  Stop.

Incorrect rule firing

These can be caused by the previous issue: VPATH not working, therefore target file not found, therefore other rule firing.

This can also be caused by MinGW and RTools using a different version of make. A quick way to test it is to manually/explicitly create the rule, and see if it is firing.

RcppCore/RcppParallel documentation built on Aug. 29, 2024, 5:46 a.m.