[R-sig-Geo] proj.db can't be found when rgdal is loaded (sometimes)

[Roger Bivand]

On Mon, 14 Sep 2020, Christian John via R-sig-Geo wrote:

> Hi there folks,
>
> I am running into problems using sf objects when rgdal has been loaded.
> When I run:

The following is not a reprex. What we need is the output of:

> sf::sf_extSoftVersion()
           GEOS           GDAL         proj.4 GDAL_with_GEOS     USE_PROJ_H
        "3.8.1"        "3.1.3"        "7.1.1"         "true"         "true"
> rgdal::rgdal_extSoftVersion()
           GDAL GDAL_with_GEOS           PROJ             sp
        "3.1.3"         "TRUE"        "7.1.1"        "1.4-4"

(in my case). In your case, the PROJ seen by sf is 7.1.1, by rgdal is 
5.2.0. Loading rgdal after sf resets PROJ_LIB to the pre-PROJ 6 version. 
You appear to have installed rgdal binary from CRAN, but installed sf 
(using homebrew ?) and local GEOS/GDAL/PROJ. Either re-install rgdal to 
match, or re-install sf from CRAN as a binary. Installing CRAM MacOS 
binaries should ensure coherence. If problems persist, report back (and 
perhaps on R-sig-Mac, I have no way to check which GDAL/PROJ versions are 
bundled with CAN MacOS binaries.

We are exploring a shared GDAL/PROJ metadata package, but are stuck on the 
same problem - users do not take steps to keep their R packages cleanly 
built on external software, and package maintainers must expect a 
reasonable amount of insight from users.

This list has been given plenty of information that PROJ < 6 and PROJ >= 6 
are different universes, so mixing packages using both is not supported. 
In this case, sf needs proj.db, but cannot find it once rgdal has been 
loaded, pointing PROJ_LIB to a directory without it.

Roger


>
> Sys.getenv("PROJ_LIB")
> library(sf); library(rnaturalearth); library(ggplot2)
> Sys.getenv("PROJ_LIB")
> ROI1 = ne_countries(returnclass = 'sf') %>%
>  st_combine() %>%
>  st_buffer(0.5)  %>%
>  st_wrap_dateline()
> ggplot() + geom_sf(data = ROI1)
> library(rgdal)
> Sys.getenv("PROJ_LIB")
> ROI2 = ne_countries(returnclass = 'sf') %>%
>  st_combine() %>%
>  st_buffer(0.5)  %>%
>  st_wrap_dateline()
> ggplot() + geom_sf(data = ROI2)
>
> everything plots fine. The sf startup message is:
>
> Linking to GEOS 3.8.1, GDAL 3.1.2, PROJ 7.1.1
>
> The PROJ_LIB changes upon loading rgdal from "" to
> "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.6/Resources/library/rgdal/proj".
> Loading rgdal generates the message:
>
> Loading required package: sp
> rgdal: version: 1.5-16, (SVN revision 1050)
> Geospatial Data Abstraction Library extensions to R successfully loaded
> Loaded GDAL runtime: GDAL 2.4.2, released 2019/06/28
> Path to GDAL shared files:
> /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.6/Resources/library/rgdal/gdal
> GDAL binary built with GEOS: FALSE
> Loaded PROJ runtime: Rel. 5.2.0, September 15th, 2018, [PJ_VERSION: 520]
> Path to PROJ shared files:
> /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.6/Resources/library/rgdal/proj
> Linking to sp version:1.4-2
> Overwritten PROJ_LIB was
> /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.6/Resources/library/rgdal/proj
> Warning message:
> package ‘rgdal’ was built under R version 3.6.2
>
> which explains the update in the PROJ_LIB. Notably, the gdal and proj
> runtime in the rgdal startup message are completely different from the sf
> versions. If I run:
>
> Sys.getenv("PROJ_LIB")
> library(sf); library(rnaturalearth); library(ggplot2)
> Sys.getenv("PROJ_LIB")
> library(rgdal)
> Sys.getenv("PROJ_LIB")
> ROI2 = ne_countries(returnclass = 'sf') %>%
>  st_combine() %>%
>  st_buffer(0.5)  %>%
>  st_wrap_dateline()
> ggplot() + geom_sf(data = ROI2)
>
> which is the same as above, but without the ROI1 generation and plotting, I
> get a stack overflow error upon plotting ROI2. All other messages are the
> same, except when I run the ggplot() line, I get:
>
> Error: node stack overflow
> In addition: There were 50 or more warnings (use warnings() to see the
> first 50)
> Error during wrapup: node stack overflow
>
> Warnings 1:50 are all
>
> 1: In CPL_crs_from_input(x) :
>  GDAL Error 1: PROJ: proj_create_from_database: Cannot find proj.db
>
> So, it seems like loading rgdal before doing anything sf:: related causes
> the issue. Any ideas for troubleshooting? Session info can be found below.
>
> Best,
> Christian
>
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 3.6.1 (2019-07-05)
> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin15.6.0 (64-bit)
> Running under: macOS Catalina 10.15.6
>
> Matrix products: default
> BLAS:
> /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libBLAS.dylib
> LAPACK:
> /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.6/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib
>
> locale:
> [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>
> other attached packages:
> [1] rgdal_1.5-16        sp_1.3-2            ggplot2_3.3.0
> rnaturalearth_0.1.0
> [5] sf_0.9-5
>
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] Rcpp_1.0.3         rstudioapi_0.10    magrittr_1.5       units_0.6-5
>
> [5] munsell_0.5.0      tidyselect_0.2.5   colorspace_1.4-1
> lattice_0.20-38
> [9] R6_2.4.1           rlang_0.4.2        dplyr_0.8.3        tools_3.6.1
>
> [13] grid_3.6.1         gtable_0.3.0       KernSmooth_2.23-15 e1071_1.7-3
>
> [17] DBI_1.0.0          withr_2.1.2        rgeos_0.5-5        class_7.3-15
>
> [21] assertthat_0.2.1   lifecycle_0.1.0    tibble_2.1.3       crayon_1.3.4
>
> [25] purrr_0.3.3        glue_1.3.1         compiler_3.6.1     pillar_1.4.3
>
> [29] scales_1.1.0       classInt_0.4-2     pkgconfig_2.0.3
>
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-- 
Roger Bivand
Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics,
Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway.
voice: +47 55 95 93 55; e-mail: Roger.Bivand using nhh.no
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2392-6140
https://scholar.google.no/citations?user=AWeghB0AAAAJ&hl=en