Error running devtools::install_github("omegahat/RCurl")

[ScientificProgrammer]

I have not been able to install the development version of RCurl. I haven't had any trouble installing other packages from Github repositories, and I had no problem installing the stable version using install.packages("RCurl"). I included three files with information about my system.

Sys.info.txt

RCurl Install Fail.txt

libcurlVersion.txt

[duncantl]

Thanks for all the details. Very helpful.
The last few lines of the RCurl Install Fail.txt are

installing to /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl/libs
** R
Error in .install_package_code_files(".", instdir) : 
  unable to write code files
ERROR: unable to collate and parse R files for package ‘RCurl’
* removing ‘/home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl’
Error: Command failed (1)

So the error is "unable to write code files". This strongly suggests a permission problem.
You might have installed the previous version as root or as another user.
But probably you cannot write into that directory - /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl

What is the output of
ls -als /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl

[ScientificProgrammer]

So the error is "unable to write code files". This strongly suggests a permission problem. You might have installed the previous version as root or as another user. But probably you cannot write into that directory - /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl

I had a similar thought. Since neither /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl or /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl/libs existed prior to trying to install the package. I made several attempts to install the package. After the initial install failed, I created ./RCurl. When that failed, I created ./RCurl/libs, which also failed.

What is the output of
ls -als /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl
Note that files were not placed in this directory until I manually created it.

ls -als /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl
total 68

4 drwxrwxr-x  14 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 .
4 drwxrwxr-x 118 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 ..
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 CurlSSL
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 data
4 -rw-rw-r--   1 eric eric 2312 Sep 13 23:59 DESCRIPTION
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 doc
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 enums
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 etc
4 drwxrwxr-x   3 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 examples
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 help
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 html
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 HTTPErrors
4 -rw-rw-r--   1 eric eric 3349 Sep 13 23:59 INDEX
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 libs
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 Meta
4 -rw-rw-r--   1 eric eric 2015 Sep 13 23:59 NAMESPACE
4 drwxrwxr-x   2 eric eric 4096 Sep 13 23:59 R

ls -als /home/eric/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.3/RCurl/libs
total 208

  4 drwxrwxr-x  2 eric eric   4096 Sep 13 23:59 .
  4 drwxrwxr-x 14 eric eric   4096 Sep 13 23:59 ..
200 -rwxrwxr-x  1 eric eric 202288 Sep 13 23:59 RCurl.so

Note that I also received an error on my Windows box when I tried to install the package there from Github earlier today.

devtools::install_github(repo = "omegahat/RCurl")

 * installing *source* package 'RCurl' ...
 cp: cannot stat 'C:/curl/curl-7.50.1/lib/.libs/ssl/bin/*.dll': No such file or directory
 cp: cannot stat 'C:/curl/curl-7.50.1/lib/.libs/bin/libcurl-4.dll': No such file or directory
 cp: cannot stat 'C:/curl/curl-7.50.1/lib/.libs/bin/libz.dll': No such file or directory
 Warning: running command 'sh ./configure.win' had status 1
 ERROR: configuration failed for package 'RCurl'
 * removing 'C:/Personal/40125458/Documents/R/win-library/3.3/RCurl'
 * restoring previous 'C:/Personal/40125458/Documents/R/win-library/3.3/RCurl'
 Error: Command failed (1)

I did try to install the libz.dll beforehand, but I'm not sure if I placed it in the correct directory.

[tp2750]

I have the same problem and perhaps a clue to a solution.

Download from git:

wget https://api.github.com/repos/omegahat/RCurl/zipball/master

Build package

R CMD build omegahat-RCurl-955200b

• checking for file ‘omegahat-RCurl-955200b/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
  cp: cannot stat ‘omegahat-RCurl-955200b/R/xbits.R’: No such file or directory
  cp: cannot stat ‘omegahat-RCurl-955200b/R/aclassesEnums.R’: No such file or directory

Check the files:

ls -l omegahat-RCurl-955200b/R/xbits.R
omegahat-RCurl-955200b/R/xbits.R -> ../../RAutoGenRunTime/R/xbits.R
ls -l omegahat-RCurl-955200b/R/aclassesEnums.R
omegahat-RCurl-955200b/R/aclassesEnums.R -> ../../RAutoGenRunTime/R/aclassesEnums.R

Seen from the "R" subdir ../.. is the download directory, so apparently it is looking for stuff outside of the repo.

Solution

If I also download RAutoGenRunTime it works:

wget https://api.github.com/repos/omegahat/RAutoGenRunTime/zipball/master
unzip master
ln -s omegahat-RAutoGenRunTime-b890ae5 RAutoGenRunTime

R CMD build omegahat-RCurl-955200b

• checking for file ‘omegahat-RCurl-955200b/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
• preparing ‘RCurl’:
• checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
• cleaning src
• running ‘cleanup’
• checking for LF line-endings in source and make files
• checking for empty or unneeded directories
• looking to see if a ‘data/datalist’ file should be added
• building ‘RCurl_1.98-0.tar.gz’

Apparently devtools::install_github cannot figure this out.

Hope this helps.
Thomas