[R-SIG-Mac] XML packages source compilation on macOS 10.15.7

[Kemal Akat]

Hello all,

I have to compile the XML package from source for R 4.1 (development version) on a Mac with OS version 10.15.7. It works well on all machines that do not come with any significant ballast on developer tools. One machine, however, that I have used for some time returns a mismatch of header files and library. I looked into possible offenders and purged what I could (e.g. deleted Homebrew although the other machines have Homebrew and Miniconda installed as well) but to no avail.

install.packages(“XML”) fails and install.packages("XML", configure.args=c("LIBXML_INCDIR=/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/libxml2", "LIBXML_LIBDIR=/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib”)) also fails.

There are obviously differences I cannot track down so far but I am running out of ideas. Both machines have MacOSX10.14.sdk and MacOSX10.15.sdk installed with MacOSX.sdk linking to MacOSX10.15.sdk.

Here is part of the log of a successful compilation, and I was hoping someone could point me towards a solution.

libxml include directory: -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include
libxml library directory: -L/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib -lxml2 -lz -lpthread -licucore -lm -lz  -lxml2
libxml 2:                 -DLIBXML2=1

Compilation flags:         -DLIBXML -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -DUSE_EXTERNAL_SUBSET=1 -DROOT_HAS_DTD_NODE=1 -DDUMP_WITH_ENCODING=1 -DUSE_XML_VERSION_H=1 -DXML_ELEMENT_ETYPE=1 -DXML_ATTRIBUTE_ATYPE=1 -DNO_XML_HASH_SCANNER_RETURN=1 -DLIBXML_NAMESPACE_HAS_CONTEXT=1 -DHAVE_R_CETYPE_T=1 -DHAVE_XML_WITH_ZLIB=1 -DHAVE_XML_HAS_FEATURE=1 -DUSE_R=1 -D_R_=1  -DHAVE_VALIDITY=1 -DXML_REF_COUNT_NODES=1
Link flags:               -L/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib -lxml2 -lz -lpthread -licucore -lm -lz  -lxml2


Thanks,
Kemal