update_source.md

The R Core Team commit changes to the development version of R sometimes multiple times a day. It's a good idea to update your local copy of the source code from time to time, especially before creating a patch. To do so, follow these steps:

1) Close R terminal

If you have an R terminal open, quit R or close the terminal.

2) Go to the source directory

In a bash terminal, change to the source directory

cd $TOP_SRCDIR

3) Review local changes

Use the Subversion diff command to review changes you have made to source code

svn diff

4) Revert changes (optional)

If you no longer want to keep your local changes, you can revert them.

Revert the changes made in specific file

svn revert src/library/utils/R/askYesNo.R

Revert changes in a directory

svn revert src/lib/utils

Revert all local changes

svn revert -R .

5) Rebuild and check with any local changes

If you have no local changes remaining, skip to the next step.

Otherwise, go to the build directory to build and check R with your local changes.

cd $BUILDDIR
make
make check

If the check fails with an error, you have broken something with your local changes. Fix this before proceeding. Otherwise go back to the source directory to continue

cd $TOP_SRCDIR

6) Update using svn

Use the Subversion command update to update your local copy with the latest changes by the R Core Team.

svn update

7) Rebuild and check with the updates

To rebuild R with the latest changes from the R Core Team and any local changes you have kept, go to the build directory to build and check R

cd $BUILDDIR
make
make check

If the check fails, this will be due to recent changes made by the R Core Team. See SVN Help for how to revert to a version that passes check.