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https://github.com/thequackdaddy/r-openblas

64-bit R for Windows compiled with openblas
https://github.com/thequackdaddy/r-openblas

data-science mingw-w64 openblas r windows

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64-bit R for Windows compiled with openblas

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README 

        
|Appveyor Build Status|



Overview

========



This project is used to compile R_ on Windows using the fast openblas_

BLAS library as a fast alternative to R's native BLAS.



Acknowledgement

===============



First, I am grateful to Avraham Adler for his excellent `blog post`_ covering

this topic. If you want to read his script--which this package mostly follows--

please do so.



Procedure

=========



Prerequisites:



The key difficultly in getting this to work is R is built using the GNU tools

which have sometimes spotty and confusing windows support. However, the key

elemenets are that you need to download the following:



- Rtools_ Used for the actual ``gcc`` and ``gfortran`` compilers.

- `MiKTeX Portable`_ R builds a ton of documentation as HTML and PDF files.

- Appveyor_ Is an online continuous integration system that essentially runs Windows buils.

- openblas_ is needed. A version specfically compiled for R for Windows can be found here: https://github.com/thequackdaddy/OpenBLASR



Strategy:



The GNU make tools can be configured using environment variables. For the most

part, that's the approach I have taken. The environment variables are configured

using the ``appveyor.yml`` file. In addition, one file must be edited/copied

because it explicitly uses driver names which are not used for Windows R. This

file is:



``src/extra/blas/Makefile.win``



The name of the BLAS library file--something like

``openblas_haswellp-r0.2.20``--needs to replace the currently existing

references. Note that the ``lib`` that starts the file and the ``.a`` extension

are expected by the compiler and so the makefile should only need all the

characters after the ``lib`` and before the ``.a``



LaTeX is required for the build to complete. I've used `MiKTeX Portable`_ only

because its easy to download and install. The LaTeX bin directory needs to be

added to the PATH. MiKTeX also must download smörgåsbord of extra packages--

and must do so without user interaction. There's a ``initexmf`` command

which can help set that up.



Additionally, QPDF_ is needed for processing some of the completed PDFs. The

location of the install can be specified in the environment variables

as part of the installation. QPDF is auto-downloaded from its GitHub releases

page.



A compatible openblas_ library is required. You can make your own--and

compile for a processor other than Intel's Haswell family  using the openblasr_

project. A Haswell library is provided in this build for simpolicity. If you

want to download the openblasr file, you may do so here:



https://ci.appveyor.com/project/thequackdaddy/openblasr



Pick the most recent build that succeeded and select the Artifact tab to

download it.



Please note that it is important to set the ``PATH`` so that the Rtools_ ``gcc``

compiler and ``make`` will be found before any other installation on the system.

Additionally, ``pdflatex.exe`` needs to be in the path. ``MiKTeX`` needs

a few additional packages to install everything, so be sure to either download

them or configure ``MiKTeX`` so that dependencies are auto-downloaded and

installed.



Download

========



A compiled 64-bit R, with OpenBLAS compiled for Intel Core i7 processors is

available here:



https://github.com/thequackdaddy/R-OpenBLAS/releases



Select the most recent successful build and download the executable artifact.



.. code-block::



   cd r-source

   git checkout -t origin/tags/

   cd ..

   git add r-source

   git commit -m "Updated OpenBLAS"

   git push origin 



.. _openblas: http://www.openblas.net/

.. _R: https://www.r-project.org/

.. _Rtools: https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/

.. _MSYS2: http://www.msys2.org/

.. _QPDF: https://github.com/qpdf/qpdf

.. _`MiKTeX Portable`: https://miktex.org/

.. _Appveyor: http://appveyor.com/

.. _`blog post`: https://www.avrahamadler.com/r-tips/build-openblas-for-windows-r64/

.. _openblasr: https://github.com/thequackdaddy/openblasr

.. |Appveyor Build Status| image:: https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/fm8mj3hq6v053gul/branch/master?svg=true

   :target: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/thequackdaddy/r-openblas/