BLAS setup in R on macOS

Question

I am quite new to BLAS and Lapack setup. Executing

sessioninfo()

always returns

Matrix products: default
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.0/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

I was wondering how BLAS can be called? Because I see many forks' default matrix products have both BLAS and LAPACK.

Also, how Intel MKI can be called? I have installed it on my macOS, but still wonder how to use it.

Also, my R is 4.0.5 and macOS is macOS Big Sur 11.2.3

user_15765672 · Answer

Please follow the below instructions, to build R with default BLAS, LAPACK using gnu compiler chain.

$ tar -xzvf R-4.0.5.tar.gz

$ cd R-4.0.5

$ ./configure

(or $./configure --with-readline=no --with-x=no if package readline and X11 is not installed)

$make

(not $ make install, so, we do not pollute system directory)

$ ldd bin/exec/R

(To make sure it will link libRblas.so although it may show that libRblas.so => not found)

For developers who have installed R, please locate the path of libRblas.so and libRlapack.so (or libR.so), for example, $cd /usr/local/lib64/R

$ cd lib

$ mv libRblas.so libRblas.so.keep

$ln –s $(MKLROOT)/mkl/lib/intel64/libmkl_rt.so libRblas.so

The same way, you can replace the LAPACK libRlapack.so library too

($mv libRlapack.so libRlapack.so.keep $ln –s $(MKLROOT)/mkl/lib/intel64/libmkl_rt.so libRlapack.so)

If you have prebuilt R with libR.so, replace it with $(MKLROOT)/mkl/lib/intel64/libmkl_rt.so

Also you can go through the below links