Error message running RStan example using R 4.4.1, rstan 2.32.6

[evelynstrombom]

Summary

Complete documentation of verification of rstan using the RStan example.

Description:

For new stan users like myself, the below could use clarification:

1. In the section Verifying Installation, there is missing text after "You may also see the warning:"

"To verify your installation, you can run the RStan example/test model:
example(stan_model, package = "rstan", run.dontrun = TRUE)
The model should then compile and sample. You may also see the warning:"

The error message I get is:
Compilation ERROR, function(s)/method(s) not created!
Error in compileCode(f, code, language = language, verbose = verbose) :
Error in system(paste(MAKE, p1(paste("-f", shQuote(makefiles))), "compilers"), : 'make' not foundCalls: -> .shlib_internal -> systemExecution halted

I'm unclear if this is the expected error or already indicates a different issue in the installation that I need to address.

2. The full set of error messages I get after running library("rstan"):
   [Addressed in Getting Started]
   For execution on a local, multicore CPU with excess RAM we recommend calling
   options(mc.cores = parallel::detectCores()).

[Addressed in Getting Started]
To avoid recompilation of unchanged Stan programs, we recommend calling
rstan_options(auto_write = TRUE)

[Can you address this in the documentation?]
For within-chain threading using reduce_sum() or map_rect() Stan functions,
change threads_per_chain option:
rstan_options(threads_per_chain = 1)

[Unique to Windows, but not clear how to check "if your Makevars.win file does not contain this flag"]
Do not specify '-march=native' in 'LOCAL_CPPFLAGS' or a Makevars file

3. Under Example 1, File -> New File -> Stan File generates a simple stan model with a header (below). It would be helpful to mention whether this should be kept or not when copying over the specified code for schools.stan and make clear
   that schools_dat.. and fit... go in the console or a separate .R file.
   //
   // This Stan program defines a simple model, with a
   // vector of values 'y' modeled as normally distributed
   // with mean 'mu' and standard deviation 'sigma'.
   //
   // Learn more about model development with Stan at:
   //
   // http://mc-stan.org/users/interfaces/rstan.html
   // https://github.com/stan-dev/rstan/wiki/RStan-Getting-Started
   //

// The input data is a vector 'y' of length 'N'.
data {
int<lower=0> N;
vector[N] y;
}

// The parameters accepted by the model. Our model
// accepts two parameters 'mu' and 'sigma'.
parameters {
real mu;
real<lower=0> sigma;
}

// The model to be estimated. We model the output
// 'y' to be normally distributed with mean 'mu'
// and standard deviation 'sigma'.
model {
y ~ normal(mu, sigma);
}

RStan Version:

2.32.6

R Version:

"R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14 ucrt)"

Operating System:

Windows 10Pro v.22H2