[R] Problem installing packages: cannot open file '/sw/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/etc/Makeconf'

[John Hillier]

Dear All,


I am a relative newbie to R, and am struggling to install packages on my laptop (although I have managed to on my desktop and a borrowed departmental laptop).


I have tried various packages with the same result. Illustration for

> install.packages("outliers")


.... leads to .....


Error in file(con, "r") : cannot open the connection
Calls: <Anonymous> -> sub -> grep -> readLines -> file
In addition: Warning message:
In file(con, "r") :
  cannot open file '/sw/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/etc/Makeconf': No such file or directory

I have tried in both the R environment on command line, and in RStudio, with the same result, and reinstalled and updated both r-base and rstudio-desktop via fink.  Both using a CRAN mirror and using a download (outliers_0.14.tar.gz) seem to produce the same result, and I think they're both working as the output says 'downloaded' (see below)


> install.packages("outliers")
Installing package into â
(as â is unspecified)
--- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
trying URL 'https://mirrors.ebi.ac.uk/CRAN/src/contrib/outliers_0.14.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 15090 bytes (14 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 14 KB


>From looking aroud on the web it seems that the message "In file(con, "r") : cannot open file" just means that R cannot find a file it thinks it needs. However, I've looked in /sw/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/etc/ both on this machine and the other laptop that is able to install packages, and 'Makeconf' is not in ether of them.


So, I'm thoroughly confused and have run out of ideas.


Please help.


I hope that this is something simple that I'm missing.  If so, a pointer to a manual page or instructions would be gratefully received.


John


p.s - Full output in sequence in case it's useful.


> install.packages("outliers")
Installing package into â
(as â is unspecified)
--- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
trying URL 'https://mirrors.ebi.ac.uk/CRAN/src/contrib/outliers_0.14.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 15090 bytes (14 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 14 KB

Error in file(con, "r") : cannot open the connection
Calls: <Anonymous> -> sub -> grep -> readLines -> file
In addition: Warning message:
In file(con, "r") :
  cannot open file '/sw/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/etc/Makeconf': No such file or directory

The downloaded source packages are in
        â
Warning message:
In install.packages("outliers") :
  installation of package â had non-zero exit status





-------------------------
Dr John Hillier
Senior Lecturer - Physical Geography
Loughborough University
01509 223727

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