Install {data.table} on Linux

February 06, 2021

I just had to install the {data.table} package for R in a Docker container. The way I resolved the bumps along the way are documented here.

I have installed {data.table} before on Linux and usually the installation is smooth.

{data.table} notes on its CRAN page/DESCRIPTION file that it has zlib as a SystemRequirements. However, {data.table} also use pkg-config to determine which system dependencies are present before compiling its C code.

The zlib library is a build requirement for R, so it is maybe available in a container with R.

Failed installation

Based on my Docker image r-base the installation will fail without pkg-config.

Consider this Dockerfile:

FROM robertdj/r-base:4.0.2

RUN apt-get update \
	&& apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
		zlib1g-dev \
	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

RUN Rscript -e 'install.packages("data.table")'

Building the image with docker build we see the following output when installing {data.table}:

Step 5/5 : RUN Rscript -e 'install.packages("data.table")'
 ---> Running in 2089853a5a33
Installing package into ‘/usr/local/lib/R/site-library’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://mran.microsoft.com/snapshot/2020-10-10/src/contrib/data.table_1.13.0.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/octet-stream' length 5273400 bytes (5.0 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 5.0 MB

* installing *source* package ‘data.table’ ...
** package ‘data.table’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** using staged installation
gcc 9.3.0
*** pkg-config is not installed.
*** Compilation will now be attempted and if it works you can ignore this message. However,
*** if compilation fails, try 'locate zlib.h zconf.h' and ensure the zlib development library
*** is installed :
***   deb: zlib1g-dev (Debian, Ubuntu, ...)
***   rpm: zlib-devel (Fedora, EPEL, ...)
***   brew: zlib (OSX)
*** Note that zlib is required to compile R itself so you may find the advice in the R-admin
*** guide helpful regarding zlib. On Debian/Ubuntu, zlib1g-dev is a dependency of r-base as
*** shown by 'apt-cache showsrc r-base | grep ^Build-Depends | grep zlib', and therefore
*** 'sudo apt-get build-dep r-base' should be sufficient too.
*** To silence this message, please ensure that :
***   1) 'pkg-config --exists zlib' succeeds (i.e. $? -eq 0)
***   2) 'pkg-config --libs zlib' contains -lz
*** Compilation will now be attempted ...
** libs
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c assign.c -o assign.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c between.c -o between.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c bmerge.c -o bmerge.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c chmatch.c -o chmatch.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c cj.c -o cj.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c coalesce.c -o coalesce.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c dogroups.c -o dogroups.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fastmean.c -o fastmean.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fcast.c -o fcast.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fifelse.c -o fifelse.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fmelt.c -o fmelt.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c forder.c -o forder.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c frank.c -o frank.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fread.c -o fread.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c freadR.c -o freadR.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c froll.c -o froll.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c frollR.c -o frollR.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c frolladaptive.c -o frolladaptive.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fsort.c -o fsort.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fwrite.c -o fwrite.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c fwriteR.c -o fwriteR.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c gsumm.c -o gsumm.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c ijoin.c -o ijoin.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c init.c -o init.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c inrange.c -o inrange.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c nafill.c -o nafill.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c nqrecreateindices.c -o nqrecreateindices.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c openmp-utils.c -o openmp-utils.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c quickselect.c -o quickselect.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c rbindlist.c -o rbindlist.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c reorder.c -o reorder.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c shift.c -o shift.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c snprintf.c -o snprintf.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c subset.c -o subset.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c transpose.c -o transpose.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c types.c -o types.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c uniqlist.c -o uniqlist.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c utils.c -o utils.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c vecseq.c -o vecseq.o
gcc -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG   -I/usr/local/include   -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c wrappers.c -o wrappers.o
gcc -shared -L/usr/local/lib/R/lib -L/usr/local/lib -o data.table.so assign.o between.o bmerge.o chmatch.o cj.o coalesce.o dogroups.o fastmean.o fcast.o fifelse.o fmelt.o forder.o frank.o fread.o freadR.o froll.o frollR.o frolladaptive.o fsort.o fwrite.o fwriteR.o gsumm.o ijoin.o init.o inrange.o nafill.o nqrecreateindices.o openmp-utils.o quickselect.o rbindlist.o reorder.o shift.o snprintf.o subset.o transpose.o types.o uniqlist.o utils.o vecseq.o wrappers.o -L/usr/local/lib/R/lib -lR
installing to /usr/local/lib/R/site-library/00LOCK-data.table/00new/data.table/libs
** R
** inst
** byte-compile and prepare package for lazy loading
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** installing vignettes
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘data.table’ in library.dynam(lib, package, package.lib):
 shared object ‘datatable.so’ not found
Error: loading failed
Execution halted
ERROR: loading failed
* removing ‘/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/data.table’

The downloaded source packages are in
        ‘/tmp/RtmpTsTQxP/downloaded_packages’
Warning message:
In install.packages("data.table") :
  installation of package ‘data.table’ had non-zero exit status
Removing intermediate container 2089853a5a33
 ---> 8079b1c11c04
Successfully built 8079b1c11c04
~/Documents/dahl-jacobsen/data | git:(master) ✗
$

In particular:

It is noted that pkg-config is not installed and that zlib is perhaps not installed.
The compilation succeeds (which it will not if zlib is not installed), but the shared object file datatable.so used in the installed package is not found when {data.table} is loaded.

Successful installation

All problems are fixed after installing pkg-config:

FROM robertdj/r-base:4.0.2

USER root

RUN apt-get update \
	&& apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        pkg-config \
		zlib1g-dev \
	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

USER shiny

RUN Rscript -e 'install.packages("data.table")'

Instead of writing

*** pkg-config is not installed.

we now see pkg-config concluding that all is well:

gcc 9.3.0
zlib 1.2.11 is available ok
OpenMP supported