I want to expose a C++ class and a function that takes objects of that class as a parameter to R. I have to following simplified example. I created a package using
Rscript -e 'Rcpp::Rcpp.package.skeleton("soq")'
and put the following code in soq_types.h
#include <RcppCommon.h>
#include <string>
class Echo {
private:
std::string message;
public:
Echo(std::string message) : message(message) {}
Echo(SEXP);
std::string get() { return message; }
};
#include <Rcpp.h>
using namespace Rcpp;
RCPP_MODULE(echo_module) {
class_<Echo>("Echo")
.constructor<std::string>()
.method("get", &Echo::get)
;
};
//// [[Rcpp::export]]
void shout(Echo e) {
Rcout << e.get() << "!" << std::endl;
}
Note that the last comment has extra slashes and doesn't cause the function to be exported. When I now run:
$> Rscript -e 'Rcpp::compileAttributes()'
$> R CMD INSTALL .
R> library(Rcpp)
R> suppressMessages(library(inline))
R> library(soq)
R> echo_module <- Module("echo_module", getDynLib("soq"))
R> Echo <- echo_module$Echo
R> e <- new(Echo, "Hello World")
R> print(e$get())
everything is fine. Unfortunately, if I enable the Rcpp::export
, do compileAttributes()
and re-install I get:
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘soq’ in dyn.load(file, DLLpath = DLLpath, ...):
unable to load shared object '/home/brj/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.6/00LOCK-soq/00new/soq/libs/soq.so':
/home/brj/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.6/00LOCK-soq/00new/soq/libs/soq.so: undefined symbol: _ZN4EchoC1EP7SEXPREC
Error: loading failed
Execution halted
ERROR: loading failed
My question is: how do I get both to work?
I'm on R.3.6.3 and
R> sessionInfo()
....
other attached packages:
[1] inline_0.3.15 Rcpp_1.0.4.6
....
For those trying to follow the example above: it's very important that the source file is exactly named <package_name>_types.h
. Otherwise, the auto-generated RcppExports.cpp
will not #include
it and thus the Echo
class will not be defined there. This will cause a compilation error.
The error message is complaining about the declared but not defined Echo(SEXP)
, which is meant to extend Rcpp::as<>
. For classes handled by Rcpp modules it is easier to use the RCPP_EXPOSED_*
macros:
#include <Rcpp.h>
class Echo {
private:
std::string message;
public:
Echo(std::string message) : message(message) {}
std::string get() { return message; }
};
RCPP_EXPOSED_AS(Echo);
using namespace Rcpp;
RCPP_MODULE(echo_module) {
class_<Echo>("Echo")
.constructor<std::string>()
.method("get", &Echo::get)
;
};
// [[Rcpp::export]]
void shout(Echo e) {
Rcout << e.get() << "!" << std::endl;
}
/***R
e <- new(Echo, "Hello World")
print(e$get())
shout(e)
*/
Output:
> Rcpp::sourceCpp('62228538.cpp')
> e <- new(Echo, "Hello World")
> print(e$get())
[1] "Hello World"
> shout(e)
Hello World!
All this was not inside a package but using Rcpp::sourceCpp
. I would expect it to work in a package as well, though.