unable to pass R CMD check in windows due to i386 build - r

Question

I wish to submit my R package to CRAN that uses Rcpp and RcppGSL.My problem is that I am unable to build a package that pass R CMD check in win-builder. My understanding is that because the i386 package is built,but not installed and checked during R CMD check. The x64 package builds and passes the checks (when I run check with --no--multiarch). My understanding is a bit flawed, since I had limited time to get this windows build working at all for 64-bit.
This is the Makevars.win.gen
PKG_CPPFLAGS = $(GSL_CFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)/include" -I"$(LIB_GSL)/include/gsl" -I../inst/include -I../inst -Wall -Wno-unused-but-set-variable -Wno-long-long -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-deprecated -pedantic -pthread -fPIC -O2 -g
ARCH=x64
ifeq "$(WIN)" "64"
ARCH= i386
else
ARCH= x64
endif
RCPPGSL_LDFLAGS = `$(R_HOME)/bin/$(R_ARCH_BIN)/Rscript -e "RcppGSL:::LdFlags()"`
GRAPHM_OBJ = ./algorithm_ca.o ./algorithm_ext.o ./algorithm_fsol.o ./algorithm_iden.o ./algorithm_lp.o ./algorithm.o ./algorithm_path.o ./algorithm_qcv.o ./algorithm_rand.o ./algorithm_rank.o ./algorithm_umeyama.o ./algorithm_unif.o ./experiment.o ./graph.o ./hungarian.o ./rpc.o
GRAPHM_OBJ_REL = $(addprefix ./graphm/,$(GRAPHM_OBJ) )
PKG_LIBS = $(LDFLAGS) -L"$(LIB_GSL)\lib"$(R_ARCH_BIN) $(RCPPGSL_LDFLAGS) $(GSL_LIBS) -lgsl -lgslcblas
CXX ?= g++
SHVER= 1
VPATH= ./graphm:./graphm-0.52
SOURCES= graphmatch_rcpp.cpp RcppExports.cpp
OBJECTS= $(SOURCES:.cpp=.o) $(GRAPHM_OBJ_REL)
#all: $(SHLIB) $(OBJECTS)
$(SHLIB): $(OBJECTS)
#all: $(ALLFILES) ../inst/libgraphm.a
# cd graphm && $(MAKE)
# $(CXX) $(CXXFLAGS) $(OBJECTS) ../inst/libgraphm.a $(PKG_LIBS)
./experiment.o: experiment.cpp experiment.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c experiment.cpp -o ./experiment.o
./rpc.o: rpc.cpp rpc.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c rpc.cpp -o ./rpc.o
./graph.o: graph.cpp graph.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c graph.cpp -o ./graph.o
./hungarian.o: hungarian.cpp hungarian.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c hungarian.cpp -o ./hungarian.o
./algorithm.o: algorithm.cpp algorithm.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm.cpp -o ./algorithm.o
#graph matching algorithms
./algorithm_ca.o: algorithm_ca.cpp algorithm_ca.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_ca.cpp -o ./algorithm_ca.o
./algorithm_path.o: algorithm_path.cpp algorithm_path.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_path.cpp -o ./algorithm_path.o
./algorithm_ext.o: algorithm_ext.cpp algorithm_ext.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_ext.cpp -o ./algorithm_ext.o
./algorithm_fsol.o: algorithm_fsol.cpp algorithm_fsol.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_fsol.cpp -o ./algorithm_fsol.o
./algorithm_iden.o: algorithm_iden.cpp algorithm_iden.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_iden.cpp -o ./algorithm_iden.o
./algorithm_lp.o: algorithm_lp.cpp algorithm_lp.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_lp.cpp -o ./algorithm_lp.o
./algorithm_qcv.o: algorithm_qcv.cpp algorithm_qcv.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_qcv.cpp -o ./algorithm_qcv.o
./algorithm_rand.o: algorithm_rand.cpp algorithm_rand.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_rand.cpp -o ./algorithm_rand.o
./algorithm_rank.o: algorithm_rank.cpp algorithm_rank.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_rank.cpp -o ./algorithm_rank.o
./algorithm_umeyama.o: algorithm_umeyama.cpp algorithm_umeyama.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_umeyama.cpp -o ./algorithm_umeyama.o
./algorithm_unif.o: algorithm_unif.cpp algorithm_unif.h
cd graphm && $(CXX) $(PKG_CPPFLAGS) -I"$(LIB_GSL)\include" -c algorithm_unif.cpp -o ./algorithm_unif.o
ALLOBJ: $(OBJECTS) $(GRAPHM_OBJ)
ALLFILES: $(OBJECTS) $(GRAPHM_OBJ_REL) ../inst/libgraphm.a
../inst/libgraphm.a: RcppExports.o $(GRAPHM_OBJ)
ar -rvs ../inst/libgraphm.a $(GRAPHM_OBJ_REL)
clean: cleana cleanb
cleana:
rm $(OBJECTS)
cleanb:
rm $(GRAPHM_OBJ_REL)
#.PHONY: all test clean
Incidentally, I am using this configure.win to pass the right flags to Makevars.win. But this is really unnecessary ,since I removed #GSL_LIBS# from Makevars.win.gen. Is this the reason i386 build is not installed during R CMD check?
ifeq "$(WIN)" "64"
R_ARCH_BIN="/x64"
else
R_ARCH_BIN="/i386"
endif
GSL_CFLAGS=`"${R_HOME}/bin$(R_ARCH_BIN)/Rscript.exe" -e "require(RcppGSL);RcppGSL:::CFlags()"`
GSL_LIBS=`"${R_HOME}/bin$(R_ARCH_BIN)/Rscript.exe" -e "require(RcppGSL);RcppGSL:::LdFlags()"`
sed -e "s|#GSL_LIBS#|${GSL_LIBS}|" \
-e "s|#GSL_CFLAGS#|${GSL_CFLAGS}|" \
src/Makevars.win.gen > src/Makevars.win
Any auxiliary information that is relevant for building a multi-arch R package that is dependent on pre-built windows libraries would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Your starting assumptions are wrong, methinks, and you may be making this too hard. I think it is worth stepping back:
In order to locally build multi-arch, you actually need a proper multi-arch setup locally. That would imply 32 and 64 bit builds of the GSL.
But you don't have to build locally -- you can submit your sources to both
win-builder
R Hub
both of which can run one or several Windows builds for you! I use them before every upload.
Also note that you don't necessarily need a Makevars.win all that complicated. My RcppZiggurat package (on CRAN) just has these two instructions:
PKG_CPPFLAGS = -I. -I../inst/include
## Use the R_HOME indirection to support installations of multiple R version
PKG_LIBS = $(shell "${R_HOME}/bin${R_ARCH_BIN}/Rscript.exe" \
-e "RcppGSL:::LdFlags()")
(and I added the linebreak by hand).
Lastly, RcppGSL has four reverse Depends so you have four working examples to study. Eg mvabund does
## This assumes that the LIB_GSL variable points to working GSL libraries
PKG_CPPFLAGS=-std=c++0x -Wall -pedantic -I$(LIB_GSL)/include -I. -I../inst/include
PKG_LIBS=-L$(LIB_GSL)/lib -lgsl -lgslcblas

Answer 2

The existence of configure.win in the package source tree forces only the main architecture to be built, R CMD check fails with a message like
<package> is not installed for architecture -- i386
unless --no-multi-arch is present. Since CRAN building process for windows checks both architectures (i386, and x64) , R CMD checks fail during CRAN submission process, even though local R CMD checks with -no-multi-arch may be successful.