Linking problem with R package AsioHeaders - rcpp

I am using Asio in a Rcpp package, and am therefore using the package AsioHeaders.
I have added BH and AsioHeaders in the "LinkingTo" part of the DESCRIPTION file of my package. I have also added comments
// [[Rcpp::depends(BH)]]
// [[Rcpp::depends(AsioHeaders)]]
in my code. So normally, the linking should be fine when compiling the package.
And it is when I compile it on Linux. But when trying to compile it on Windows, I get linking errors that are solved by linking -lws2_32 and -lwsock32.
I am thus wondering, whether I should edit the Makevars file so that these are linked on Windows but ignored on Linux, or if I have done something wrong using AsioHeaders?

AsioHeaders maintainer here. Quick questions:
Which version of AsioHeaders? It just updated at CRAN. Is this a change from the new version (which would suprise me ...)?
Make sure you are not accidentally using Asio functionality from Boost which will require linking. See the three packages using AsioHeaders.
If your package is truly header-only then LinkingTo: is all you need. R will find the header directories for you. In particular, you do not need link instructions in src/Makevars* because, well, header-only.
Also, you probably meant // forward slashes for your C++ comments above...

Related

How to install the "FastAD" C++ library in Rcpp?

I am trying to install a C++ library called FastAD ( https://github.com/JamesYang007/FastAD#user-guide) in Rcpp but the installation instructions are generic (not specifically for Rcpp).
It would be greatly appreciated if someone coule give me some guidance for how to install and be able to #include the files?
FastAD is a header-only library which only depends on Eigen3. That makes for a pretty straightforward application for Rcpp and friends.
First, rely on the RcppEigen.package.skeleton() function to create the barebones RcppEigen-using package.
Second, we copy the FastAD library into inst/include. We add a PKG_CPPFLAGS variable in src/Makevars to let R know to source it from there. That is all the compiler needs with a header-only library. (Edit: We also set CXX_STD=CXX17 unless one has a new enough compiler or R (currently: r-devel) which already default to C++17.)
Third, we create a simple example in src/ based on an example in FastAD. We picked the Black-Scholes example.
Fourth, minor cleanups like removing the hello* stanza files.
That is pretty much it. In its embryonic form the package is now here on GitHub. An example is
> library(RcppFastAD)
> blackScholesExamples()
56.5136
0.773818
51.4109
-0.226182
>

Including libraries inside libraries

I've looked around (including StackOverflow), but the only question close to mine, as far as I can tell, is specific to Windows distributables, which doesn't apply to me.
I want to release a library: MyLibrary.lib
It uses some third-party libraries, for instance, ZMQ
I've included the third-party library into MyLibrary both with either #pragma or actually adding it to the project.
Either way, MyLibrary.lib compiles fine and creates a .lib file
HOWEVER.
An executable that is linked to MyLibrary complains at link time that it can't find the referenced ZMQ functions, as if ZMQ is not incorporated into MyLibrary.
Looking at MyLibrary with a hex editor it doesn't seem like ZMQ.LIB was incorporated. There are references to it but it seems "weak linked". I don't see the ZMQ code in there.
Alternatively, if I can get the application/executable to build and run it, it'll complain at runtime that it can't find zmq.dll.
Either way, it's obviously not in "MyLibrary".
How can I get a library to include other third-party libraries, so I don't have to distribute a bunch individually? What step am I missing?
Using MSVC2013
Thanks
Although I had the .lib I needed, it turns out it was an import lib, and the .dll was distributed elsewhere. I found the .dll and now it works. Thanks to all who responded.
What about the flags described in this article:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/2kzt1wy3%28v=vs.120%29.aspx
Can they help you?

Using library with different names within autoconf

I am trying to build an application with OpenSync 0.4 (0.3.9 indeed) dependency.
In the project's configure.ac the opensync library is written as libopensync1. However, this doesn't build on my Gentoo system. Changing libopensync1 to libopensync does fix the issue for me.
I searched with Google and found that libopensync1 is used in some distributions, while libopensync in others. So how to resolve this issue in configure.ac?
Thanks.
The macro AC_SEARCH_LIBS does what you need. (There is much heated debate about whether or not pkg-config should ever be used. If you choose to rely on it, ptomato gives a reasonable approach.) Simply add this to your configure.ac:
AC_SEARCH_LIBS([osync_mapping_new],[opensync1 opensync],[],
[AC_MSG_ERROR([can't find opensync])])
This will first look for a library named opensync1; if
it doesn't find that, it will look for opensync.
The primary drawback of using pkg-config is that most projects that
rely on it do not actually check if the data provided by the .pc
file is reliable, so configure may succeed but a subsequent build
will fail. It is always possible for a user to set PKG_CONFIG=true
when running configure and completely eliminate all of the data
provided by any associated .pc files, setting LIBS, CFLAGS, etc by
hand the 'old-fashioned' way.
The primary drawback of not using pkg-config is that the user
has to set LIBS, CFLAGS, etc. the old-fashioned way. In practice,
this is pretty trivial, and all pkg-config has done is move the
data from a single CONFIG_SITE file to separately maintained
.pc files for each package.
If you do use PKG_MODULE_CHECK, follow it up with a call to
AC_CHECK_LIB or AC_SEARCH_LIBS to validate the data in whatever
.pc file was located by PKG_CHECK_MODULES
I'm assuming that the place at which this occurs inside your configure.ac is inside a PKG_CHECK_MODULES call.
Looking at the libopensync sources, it seems that libopensync1 is the newer name, and libopensync is the old name. So, we'll use pkg-config macros to look for the newer name unless it doesn't exist.
Put this in your configure.ac:
# Check if libopensync1 is known to pkg-config, and if not, look for libopensync instead
PKG_CHECK_EXISTS([libopensync1], [OPENSYNC=libopensync1], [OPENSYNC=libopensync])
Then later in your PKG_CHECK_MODULES call, replace libopensync1 with $OPENSYNC.

VC++ 2010 wants to link boost libararies i didn't even specify

I'm trying to build my application with MSVC 2010 instead of GCC. With GCC everything works fine. My app uses boost_system and boost_thread libraries.
I built boost with VC2010 in "system" layout, that means the libraries are named just libboost_system.lib (and not libboost_system_compiler_threading_version_wtf_snafu.lib)
The libs reside in C:\Boost\lib,
the Makefile specifies
LFLAGS = /NOLOGO /INCREMENTAL:NO /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE
LIBS = /LIBPATH:C:/Boost/lib libboost_system.lib libboost_thread.lib Ws2_32.lib
when invoking nmake it compiles, but when trying to link it quits with
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libboost_date_time-vc100-mt-1_43.lib
I mean seriously, WTF? I told it to link libboost_systen.lib and libboost_thread.lib how come it tries to link libboost_data_time and why does it assume I built the libs in "tagged" layout??
How can I stop MSVC trying to be smart and guess what I might have wanted to link?
Thanks,
Philipp
This is a feature of the Boost libs with compatible compilers for automatic linking.
(Those convoluted library names cover the myriad of threading and linking options that are available on the platform; there are good reasons to use that convention on Windows...)
More information here:
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_33_1/more/getting_started.html#auto-link
I can't find a page for a more recent version, but I believe the BOOST_ALL_NO_LIB and related options are all still valid in 1.43.
Assuming you are auto-linking (i.e. you've defined BOOST_ALL_DYN_LINK or library specific equivalents).
For layout 'system' you have to define the preprocessor macro:
BOOST_AUTO_LINK_NOMANGLE
to link to the correct library names.
For layout 'tagged' you have to define the preprocessor macro:
BOOST_AUTO_LINK_TAGGED
to link to the correct library names.
I don't know if you could do this override for some libraries and keep the default for others. That would be a very cumbersome setup I'd imagine.

Linking with a different .so file in linux

I'm trying to compile a piece of software which has the standard build process e.g.
configure
make
make install
The software requires a library e.g. libreq.so which is installed in /usr/local/lib. However, my problem is I'd like to build the software and link it with a different version of the same library (i have the source for the library as well) that I've installed in /home/user/mylibs.
My question is, how do I compile and link the software against the library in /home/user/mylibs rather than the one in /usr/local/lib
I tried setting "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" to include /home/user/mylibs but that didn't work.
Thanks!
When you have an autoconf configure script, use:
CPPFLAGS=-I/home/user/include LDFLAGS=-L/home/user/mylibs ./configure ...
This adds the nominated directory to the list of directories searched for headers (usually necessary when you're using a library), and adds the other nominated directory to the list searched for actual libraries.
I use this all the time - on my work machine, /usr/local is 'maintained' by MIS and contains obsolete code 99.9% of the time (and is NFS-mounted, read-only), so I struggle to avoid using it at all and maintain my own, more nearly current, versions of the software under /usr/gnu. It works for me.
Try using LD_PRELOAD set to your actual file.
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is for finding the dynamic link libraries at runtime. At compiling you should add -L parameters to gcc/g++ to specify in which directory the *.so files are. You also need to add the library name with -l<NAME> (where the library is libNAME.so).
Important! For linking you not only need the libNAME.so file but a libNAME.a is needed too.
When you run the application, don't forget to add the dir to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
When you added the /home/user/mylibs to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH did you add it to the front or end of the existing paths? The tokens are searched in-order so you will want yours to appear first in the list.
Also, many standard build environments that use configure will allow you to specify an exact library for each required piece. You will have to run ./configure --help but you should see something like --using-BLAH-lib=/path/to/your/library or similar.

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