[R-SIG-Mac] loading tcltk fails in R 4.2.1 on macOS

[John Fox]

Hi Simon,

My apologies for muddying the waters. Yes, it's been so long that I've 
worked on a Mac without XQuartz that I forgot to install it -- even 
though the most common problem with the Rcmdr on Macs is failure to 
install XQuartz!

But there's still a problem: With XQuartz installed and without the 
developer tools, loading the Rcmdr or just the tcltk package produces 
the warning

Warning message:
In system2("/usr/bin/otool", c("-L", shQuote(DSO)), stdout = TRUE) :
   running command ''/usr/bin/otool' -L 
'/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/tcltk/libs//tcltk.so'' 
had status 1
xcode-select: note: no developer tools were found at 
'/Applications/Xcode.app', requesting install. Choose an option in the 
dialog to download the command line developer tools.

and, as this warning states, a dialog box pops up offering to install 
the developer tools.

I suspect that most users will respond positively and have to wait 
through a potentially long download, even though tcltk and the Rcmdr 
load properly if the offer to install the development tools is declined.

Best,
  John

On 2022-09-02 3:25 p.m., Simon Urbanek wrote:
> John,
> 
> Please note that the error is missing X11: tcktk requires XQuartz.
> 
> Dev tools are optional and help giving a better error if installed, but they are not required.
> 
> Cheers,
> Simon
> 
> 
>> On 3/09/2022, at 05:00, John Fox <jfox using mcmaster.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Dear R-SIG-MAC list members,
>>
>> Unless developer tools are installed, loading the standard tcltk package fails in R 4.2.1 on macOS because of the absence of otool:
>>
>> ------- snip -------
>>
>>> library(tcltk)
>> Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘tcltk’:
>> .onLoad failed in loadNamespace() for 'tcltk', details:
>>   call: dyn.load(file, DLLpath = DLLpath, ...)
>>   error: unable to load shared object '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/library/tcltk/libs/tcltk.so':
>> dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/library/tcltk/libs/tcltk.so, 0x000A): Library not loaded: /opt/X11/lib/libX11.6.dylib
>>   Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/library/tcltk/libs/tcltk.so
>>   Reason: tried: '/opt/X11/lib/libX11.6.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/local/lib/libX11.6.dylib' (no such file), '/usr/lib/libX11.6.dylib' (no such file)
>> In addition: Warning message:
>> In system2("/usr/bin/otool", c("-L", shQuote(DSO)), stdout = TRUE) :
>>   running command ''/usr/bin/otool' -L '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/tcltk/libs//tcltk.so'' had status 1
>> xcode-select: note: no developer tools were found at '/Applications/Xcode.app', requesting install. Choose an option in the dialog to download the command line developer tools.
>>
>>> sessionInfo()
>> R version 4.2.1 (2022-06-23)
>> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)
>> Running under: macOS Monterey 12.4
>>
>> Matrix products: default
>> BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
>> LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib
>>
>> locale:
>> [1] en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8/C/en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8
>>
>> attached base packages:
>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>
>> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
>> [1] compiler_4.2.1
>>
>>
>> ------- snip -------
>>
>> I discovered this issue when a user (cc'd above) wrote to me about having to install the macOS developer tools in order to use the Rcmdr package. I didn't encounter the problem myself because (of course) I have the developer tools installed. I was able to reproduce the problem by dusting off an old Mac without R installed and starting from scratch.
>>
>> I believe that this issue has arisen before, e.g., on R 3.1.2; see <https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2014-December/011260.html>.
>>
>> Can this be fixed again in R-patched?
>>
>> Thank you,
>> John
>>
>> -- 
>> John Fox, Professor Emeritus
>> McMaster University
>> Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
>> web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
>>
-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/