[R-sig-Fedora] problems compiling packages | 3.3.0 | Linux

[Evan Cooch]

Updated my R install on my GNU/Linux boxes (running CentOS 6.8) from 
3.2.x -> 3.3.0, using latest from epel (i.e., not compiling from 
source), and while said upgrade seemed to go fine, am now (post-upgrade) 
having all sorts of problems with getting some (but not all) packages to 
compile (either during an initial install attempt, or upgrade to 
existing packages).

For example, if I try to update nlme, I get the following errors, which 
are pretty well fatal:

gcc: error: 
/builddir/build/BUILD/R-3.3.0/zlib-1.2.8/target/usr/lib64/libz.a: No 
such file or directory
gcc: error: 
/builddir/build/BUILD/R-3.3.0/bzip2-1.0.6/target/usr/lib64/libbz2.a: No 
such file or directory
gcc: error: 
/builddir/build/BUILD/R-3.3.0/xz-5.2.2/target/usr/lib64/liblzma.a: No 
such file or directory
gcc: error: 
/builddir/build/BUILD/R-3.3.0/pcre-8.38/target/usr/lib64/libpcre.a: No 
such file or directory
gcc: error: 
/builddir/build/BUILD/R-3.3.0/curl-7.48.0/target/usr/lib64/libcurl.a: No 
such file or directory

Even I try this using devtools-4 (which gives me gcc/gfortran 5.2.1), 
same problem.

I think the clue is the version of the libs the installer seems to be 
looking for. For example, zlib-1.2.8. RHEL only supports zlib-1.2.3-29. 
[Interesting, all of the static .a libs aren't on the system, by all the 
.so lib files for each of those listed above are installed].

Serious pain in the butt. R 3.2.5 was working perfectly -- upgrade 
pretty much gummed things up, as far as compiling some packages. What I 
don't understand is -- wouldn't packages like nmle (which are core 
packages in R) be configured for your specific RHEL distribution to have 
dependencies that are compatible? Either that, or I'm missing something 
completely.

Thanks in advance.