gsl-config not found on linux/debian?

[swihart]

First off, thank you for all you do to provide and maintain the r-hub/rhub service! I do appreciate it. I have tinkered, researched, and submitted several times to try and answer my own question, and I'm hoping it is a quick answer so as to not take up too much of your time. If it does look like it will take up too much -- feel free to just point in another direction to try on my own.

I have an R-package right now that is being developed privately, otherwise, I'd include some reproducible examples. Here goes --

When I run rhub::check_on_windows(), the entire check is successful. My Makevars.win looks like

GSL_CFLAGS = -I$(LIB_GSL)/include

ifeq "$(WIN)" "64"
GSL_LIBS = -L$(LIB_GSL)/lib/x64 -lgsl -lgslcblas
else
GSL_LIBS = -L$(LIB_GSL)/lib/i386 -lgsl -lgslcblas
endif

# combine with standard arguments for R
PKG_CPPFLAGS = $(GSL_CFLAGS)
PKG_LIBS = $(GSL_LIBS)

With windows successful, I'll set it aside. Let's move onto Solaris. When I run rhub::check_on_solaris(), I get a successful check as well with this Makevars (let's call it for the sake of this trouble shooting "Makevars-form-1"):

• Makevars-form-1

PKG_CPPFLAGS=-I$(LIB_GSL)/include
PKG_LIBS=-L$(LIB_GSL)/lib -lgsl -lgslcblas

I also have a successful check with rhub::check_on_solaris() using the trick from Section 1.6 of R-exts that talks about backticks and gsl-configure -- the Makevars looks like this (we'll labels it Makevars-form-2):

• Makevars-form-2

PKG_CPPFLAGS=`gsl-config --cflags`
PKG_LIBS=`gsl-config --libs`

I have yet a third (!) style which uses a configure file that looks for gsl-config and then if found gets the information from its output. Let's call this Makevars-form-3:

• Makevars-form-3

GSL_CFLAGS = @GSL_CFLAGS@
GSL_LIBS = @GSL_LIBS@
PKG_LIBS=$(GSL_LIBS)
PKG_CFLAGS=$(GSL_CFLAGS)

with the configure.ac made into configure with a run of autoconf in Terminal that uses the pattern popularized by the RcppGSLExample approach. I put an echo statement to print out the values and this is the output:

#> --------------------------------------------------

 120#> GSL_CFLAGS: -I/opt/csw/include

 121#> GSL_LIBS: -L/opt/csw/lib -lgsl -lgslcblas -lm

#> --------------------------------------------------

Okay. So at this point I have 3 different forms for identifying the location of GSL which lead to successful checks on solaris. Moreover, as a bonus, all 3 forms of Makevar lead to successful checks with rhub::check(platform="macos-highsierra-release-cran"), and I include the echo statement for Makevar-form-3:

#> --------------------------------------------------

 110#> GSL_CFLAGS: -I/usr/local/include

 111#> GSL_LIBS: -L/usr/local/lib -lgsl -lgslcblas

 112#> --------------------------------------------------

So what's the problem? -- The problem is when I move to Debian or Ubuntu. For instance, I'll call rhub::check_on_linux() and apparently it can't find the gsl-config. The R console output seems to end prematurely:

> check_on_linux()
─  Building package
─  Uploading package
─  Preparing build, see status at
   https://builder.r-hub.io/status/[privatePackage].tar.gz-5c3cd76ba6cd44d292bee39666362244
─  Build started
─  Downloading and unpacking package file
─  Querying system requirements
─  Installing system requirements
─  Starting Docker container
─  Querying package dependencies
─  Installing package dependencies
>

And then I go and check the HTML sent to my email, and see the output for the PREPERROR:

#> ** using staged installation

 209#> checking for gsl-config... no

 210#> configure: error: gsl-config not found, is GSL installed?

 211#> ERROR: configuration failed for package 

Same story for the Debian and Ubuntu calls.

It is my impression from this file in https://github.com/r-hub/sysreqsdb/blob/master/sysreqs/libgsl.json that gsl is indeed installed for the debian, ubuntu, and etc -- given its contents:

{
  "libgsl": {
    "sysreqs": ["/Gnu Scientific Library/i", "/\\bgsl\\b/"],
    "platforms": {
      "DEB": [
        {
          "distribution": "Ubuntu",
          "releases": ["precise", "trusty", "vivid", "wily"],
          "runtime": "libgsl0ldbl",
          "buildtime": "libgsl0-dev"
        },
        {
          "distribution": "Ubuntu",
          "runtime": "libgsl2",
          "buildtime": "libgsl-dev"
        },
        {
          "distribution": "Debian",
          "releases": ["squeeze", "wheezy", "jessie"],
          "runtime": "libgsl0ldbl",
          "buildtime": "libgsl0-dev"
        },
        {
          "distribution": "Debian",
          "runtime": "libgsl2",
          "buildtime": "libgsl-dev"
        }
      ],
      "PKGBUILD": "gsl",
      "OSX/brew": "gsl",
      "RPM": {
        "runtime": "gsl",
        "buildtime": "gsl-devel"
      }
    }
  }
}

In closing, how do I structure the Makevars so that I can get successful checks on systems besides Windows, MacOS, and Solaris? Or am missing some other piece or setup entirely? Thank you for your time.