SHLIB: Build Shared Object/DLL for Dynamic Loading

SHLIBR Documentation

Build Shared Object/DLL for Dynamic Loading

Description

Compile the given source files and then link all specified object files into a shared object aka DLL which can be loaded into R using dyn.load or library.dynam.

Usage

R CMD SHLIB [options] [-o dllname] files

Arguments

files

a list specifying the object files to be included in the shared object/DLL. You can also include the name of source files (for which the object files are automagically made from their sources) and library linking commands.

dllname

the full name of the shared object/DLL to be built, including the extension (typically ‘.so’ on Unix systems, and ‘.dll’ on Windows). If not given, the basename of the object/DLL is taken from the basename of the first file.

options

Further options to control the processing. Use R CMD SHLIB --help for a current list.

Details

R CMD SHLIB is the mechanism used by INSTALL to compile source code in packages. It will generate suitable compilation commands for C, C++, Objective C(++) and Fortran sources: Fortran 90/95 sources can also be used but it may not be possible to mix these with other languages (on most platforms it is possible to mix with C, but mixing with C++ rarely works).

Please consult section ‘Creating shared objects’ in the manual ‘Writing R Extensions’ for how to customize it (for example to add cpp flags and to add libraries to the link step) and for details of some of its quirks.

Items in files with extensions ‘.c’, ‘.cpp’, ‘.cc’, ‘.C’, ‘.f’, ‘.f90’, ‘.f95’, ‘.m’ (ObjC), ‘.M’ and ‘.mm’ (ObjC++) are regarded as source files, and those with extension ‘.o’ as object files. All other items are passed to the linker.

Objective C(++) support is optional when R was configured: their main usage is on macOS.

Note that the appropriate run-time libraries will be used when linking if C++, Fortran or Objective C(++) sources are supplied, but not for compiled object files from these languages.

Option -n (also known as --dry-run) will show the commands that would be run without actually executing them.

Note

Some binary distributions of R have SHLIB in a separate bundle, e.g., an R-devel RPM.

See Also

COMPILE, dyn.load, library.dynam.

The ‘R Installation and Administration’ and ‘Writing R Extensions’ manuals, including the section on ‘Customizing compilation’ in the former.

Examples

## Not run: 
# To link against a library not on the system library paths:
R CMD SHLIB -o mylib.so a.f b.f -L/opt/acml3.5.0/gnu64/lib -lacml

## End(Not run)