Cannot install R packages on a mac

[Jeff Adler]

Whenever I try to install packages on R on a mac (note: macOS Sierra, Version 10.12), I get the following error message (this happens with any package I attempt to install):

> install.packages("dplyr", "XML", "xml2", "rChoiceDialogs", "stringi", "stringr", "gsubfn", "stringdist", dependencies=TRUE)

Warning in install.packages("dplyr", "XML", "xml2", "rChoiceDialogs", "stringi",  :

  'lib = "XML"' is not writable

Would you like to use a personal library instead?  (y/n) y

Error in available[p1, dependencies, drop = FALSE] : 

  incorrect number of dimensions

In addition: Warning message:

package ‘dplyr’ is not available (for R version 3.3.2) 

[Stefan Th. Gries]

Does that also happen when you start R with administrator rights? On Windows, you might want to right-click on R and choose "start R with administrator rights", on Linux, you might start R from the terminal with sudo R. Also, check the result of .libPaths() to see whether you have write access to those locations.

[Jeff Adler]

Yes, when I start with sudo R, I get the same error message.

When I run .libPaths(), I get:

[1] "/Users/jeffadler/Library/R/3.3/library"                        

[2] "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.3/Resources/library"

If I use the ls -l command with the former path, nothing happens: 

Macintosh-8:library jeffadler$ cd /Users/jeffadler/Library/R/3.3/library

Macintosh-8:library jeffadler$ ls -l

Macintosh-8:library jeffadler$ 

If I use the ls -l command with the latter, I get the following permissions table:

Macintosh-8:library jeffadler$ cd /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.3/Resources/library

Macintosh-8:library jeffadler$ ls -l

total 0

drwxrwxr-x  12 root  admin  408 Oct 31 07:38 KernSmooth

drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Oct 31 07:38 MASS

drwxrwxr-x  23 root  admin  782 Oct 31 07:38 Matrix

drwxrwxr-x  10 root  admin  340 Oct 31 07:38 base

drwxrwxr-x  14 root  admin  476 Oct 31 07:38 boot

drwxrwxr-x  13 root  admin  442 Oct 31 07:38 class

drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Oct 31 07:38 cluster

drwxrwxr-x  10 root  admin  340 Oct 31 07:38 codetools

drwxrwxr-x  10 root  admin  340 Oct 31 07:38 compiler

drwxrwxr-x   9 root  admin  306 Oct 31 07:38 datasets

drwxrwxr-x  14 root  admin  476 Oct 31 07:38 foreign

drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Oct 31 07:38 grDevices

drwxrwxr-x  11 root  admin  374 Oct 31 07:38 graphics

drwxrwxr-x  12 root  admin  408 Oct 31 07:38 grid

drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Oct 31 07:38 lattice

drwxrwxr-x  11 root  admin  374 Oct 31 07:38 methods

drwxrwxr-x  13 root  admin  442 Oct 31 07:38 mgcv

drwxrwxr-x  17 root  admin  578 Oct 31 07:38 nlme

drwxrwxr-x  13 root  admin  442 Oct 31 07:38 nnet

drwxrwxr-x  12 root  admin  408 Oct 31 07:38 parallel

drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Oct 31 07:38 rpart

drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Oct 31 07:38 spatial

drwxrwxr-x  11 root  admin  374 Oct 31 07:38 splines

drwxrwxr-x  14 root  admin  476 Oct 31 07:38 stats

drwxrwxr-x  10 root  admin  340 Oct 31 07:38 stats4

drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Oct 31 07:38 survival

drwxrwxr-x  12 root  admin  408 Oct 31 07:38 tcltk

drwxrwxr-x  11 root  admin  374 Oct 31 07:38 tools

drwxrwxr-x  21 root  admin  714 Oct 31 07:38 translations

drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Oct 31 07:38 utils

Using either of these paths allows me to install packages though. I get the same '(package) not writeable message', no matter which i specify in .libPaths()

[Alex Perrone]

You need to make it a vector. Try: 

install.packages(pkgs = c("dplyr", "XML", "xml2", "rChoiceDialogs", "stringi", "stringr", "gsubfn", “stringdist"), dependencies=TRUE)

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[Jeff Adler]

That did the trick. Thank you!

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