[R-SIG-Mac] R/compilers can't find libintl.h on MacOS X

[peter dalgaard]

Looks like you'd be better off with libintl from Simon's gettext binaries on mac.r-project.org. The compiler is looking for include files in /opt/R/arm64/include and not /opt/homebrew/include.

-pd

> On 19 Apr 2025, at 14.45, Gavin Simpson <ucfagls using gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear list
> 
> I seem to be running into a new issue after upgrading to R 4.5.0 that
> seems related to this
> 
> * configure is now able to find an external libintl on macOS (the code
> from an older GNU gettext distribution failed to try linking with the
> macOS Core Foundation framework).
> 
> I'm pretty new to MacOS and I have installed R from homebrew, and
> typically use the MacOS X binaries kindly provided by CRAN. However,
> for a couple of packages I make extensive use of, I want to make use
> of openMP, and so I have been following the excellent instructions on
> the mac.r-project.org pages to install the relevant fortran compiler
> and libomp.
> 
> Specifically, I am trying to in compile the latest mgcv sources with
> openMP support. I have been doing this successfully for some time for
> the 4.3 and 4.4 releases of R. But after upgrading to R 4.5.0,
> compiling mgcv now throws an compilation error
> 
> In file included from magic.c:27:
> ./general.h:4:10: fatal error: 'libintl.h' file not found
>    4 | #include <libintl.h>
>      |          ^~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> (The full compile log is included below if neccessary.)
> 
> I do have gettext installed and I do have libintl.h on my system
> 
> % find /opt -name "libintl.*" -print
> /opt/homebrew/include/libintl.h
> /opt/homebrew/lib/libintl.dylib
> /opt/homebrew/lib/libintl.8.dylib
> /opt/homebrew/lib/libintl.a
> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gettext/0.24/include/libintl.h
> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gettext/0.24/lib/libintl.dylib
> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gettext/0.24/lib/libintl.8.dylib
> /opt/homebrew/Cellar/gettext/0.24/lib/libintl.a
> 
> My $PATH is
> 
> % print $PATH
> /opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/local/bin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/bin:/var/run/com.apple.security.cryptexd/codex.system/bootstrap/usr/appleinternal/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/laps:/usr/local/munki:/usr/local/munkireport:/Applications/quarto/bin:/Users/au690221/.local/bin:/Users/au690221/.local/bin
> 
> I have edited ./src/Makevars in mgcv's sources  such that it reads
> 
> % cat ./repo/src/Makevars
> PKG_LIBS =  $(LAPACK_LIBS) $(BLAS_LIBS) $(FLIBS) $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS)
> PKG_CFLAGS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS)
> 
> PKG_LIBS += -lomp
> PKG_CPPFLAGS = -Xclang -fopenmp
> ## *Both* the above must be *uncommented* for release
> 
> #PKG_CFLAGS = -g -O0 -Wall -pedantic $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CFLAGS)
> ## Actually it now seems that you need to reset optimization flag in
> ## cd /usr/local/lib/R/etc/
> ## sudo pico Makeconf
> ## This file can add flags but not modify what's in the above!
> ## `#' out previous line for release (but not without uncommenting openMP)
> 
> But I have tried it with the final pair of PKG_LIBS definitions that
> add omp support commented out also.
> 
> My system details are
> 
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 4.5.0 (2025-04-11)
> Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20
> Running under: macOS Sequoia 15.4.1
> 
> Matrix products: default
> BLAS:   /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
> LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.5-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib;
> LAPACK version 3.12.1
> 
> locale:
> [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8
> 
> time zone: Europe/Copenhagen
> tzcode source: internal
> 
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
> 
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] compiler_4.5.0
> 
> and
> 
> % clang -v
> Apple clang version 17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.3)
> Target: arm64-apple-darwin24.4.0
> Thread model: posix
> InstalledDir: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/bin
> 
> (So I have installed LLVM 18.1.8 from https://mac.r-project.org/openmp/ )
> 
> I suspect I will need to solve this by adding the homebrew lib
> location to my LD_PATH or similar, but I'm not very familiar with this
> process in general and especially so on MacOS X.
> 
> I'd appreciate any help with resolving this issue.
> 
> TIA
> 
> Gavin
> 
> % R CMD INSTALL mgcv_1.9-3.tar.gz
> * installing to library ‘/Users/au690221/Library/R/arm64/4.5/library’
> * installing *source* package ‘mgcv’ ...
> ** this is package ‘mgcv’ version ‘1.9-3’
> ** using staged installation
> ** libs
> using C compiler: ‘Apple clang version 17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.3)’
> using SDK: ‘MacOSX15.4.sdk’
> clang -arch arm64
> -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG
> -I/opt/R/arm64/include    -fPIC  -falign-functions=64 -Wall -g -O2  -c
> coxph.c -o coxph.o
> clang -arch arm64
> -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG
> -I/opt/R/arm64/include    -fPIC  -falign-functions=64 -Wall -g -O2  -c
> davies.c -o davies.o
> clang -arch arm64
> -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG
> -I/opt/R/arm64/include    -fPIC  -falign-functions=64 -Wall -g -O2  -c
> discrete.c -o discrete.o
> clang -arch arm64
> -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG
> -I/opt/R/arm64/include    -fPIC  -falign-functions=64 -Wall -g -O2  -c
> gdi.c -o gdi.o
> clang -arch arm64
> -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG
> -I/opt/R/arm64/include    -fPIC  -falign-functions=64 -Wall -g -O2  -c
> init.c -o init.o
> clang -arch arm64
> -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG
> -I/opt/R/arm64/include    -fPIC  -falign-functions=64 -Wall -g -O2  -c
> magic.c -o magic.o
> In file included from magic.c:27:
> ./general.h:4:10: fatal error: 'libintl.h' file not found
>    4 | #include <libintl.h>
>      |          ^~~~~~~~~~~
> 1 error generated.
> make: *** [magic.o] Error 1
> ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘mgcv’
> * removing ‘/Users/au690221/Library/R/arm64/4.5/library/mgcv’
> * restoring previous ‘/Users/au690221/Library/R/arm64/4.5/library/mgcv’
> -- 
> Gavin Simpson, PhD [he/him/his]
> [tw] @ucfagls [OrciD] 0000-0002-9084-8413
> [web] fromthebottomoftheheap.net
> • Assistant Professor
> • Department of Animal & Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University
> • Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, University of Regina.
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> R-SIG-Mac using r-project.org
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac

-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business SchoolSolbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Office: A 4.23
Email: pd.mes using cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd using gmail.com