Build R with cairo device on Mac OS

[andreyto]

R is currently not built with cairo support on Mac OS, as can be seen from the source (https://github.com/conda/conda-recipes/blob/a796713805ac8eceed191c0cb475b51f4d00718c/r-base/build.sh).
As a result, it is not possible to use svg() on Mac OS. Is there any specific reason why --with-cairo is not passed to configure script?
Thanks!

[mingwandroid]

The reason, to the best of my knowledge, is that on macOS, building R with Cairo requires enabling X11 and XQuartz is not something we've wanted to force people to install (and I do not know what issues it would cause me).

Personally, rather than requiring XQuartz, I would rather investigate removing this X11 dependency.

@csoja, just making you aware of this.

[andreyto]

If it can help, at least on Linux without X11 installed, this worked for me before:

configopts = "--with-lapack --with-blas --with-pic --enable-threads --with-x=no --enable-R-shlib"
configopts += " --with-cairo --with-libpng --with-libtiff --with-jpeglib"
configopts += " --with-recommended-packages=no"

and then:

$ less ~/.Rprofile 
options(bitmapType="cairo")

If I am reading it correctly, Homebrew can build R on MacOS with Cairo device and without X11
(https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-science/blob/master/r.rb)

    # Fix cairo detection with Quartz-only cairo
    inreplace ["configure", "m4/cairo.m4"], "cairo-xlib.h", "cairo.h"

where "Quarz-only Cairo" is built here: (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/cairo.rb)

Capabilities() from the default R build that I installed from Homebrew:

> capabilities()
       jpeg         png        tiff       tcltk         X11        aqua    http/ftp     sockets      libxml        fifo      cledit       iconv         NLS     profmem 
       TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE       FALSE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE 
      cairo         ICU long.double     libcurl 
       TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE 

[mingwandroid]

Interesting. Thanks for the pointers!

[asifzubair]

I am having this problem on CentOS as well. I upgraded my R version and now Rmarkdown doesn't work now

(1)> Rscript -e 'rmarkdown::render("temp.Rmd")'

processing file: temp.Rmd
  |................................                                 |  50%
   inline R code fragments

  |.................................................................| 100%
label: knitr (with options)
List of 4
 $ include: logi FALSE
 $ echo   : logi FALSE
 $ message: logi FALSE
 $ warning: logi FALSE

Quitting from lines 9-11 (temp.Rmd)
Error in .External2(C_X11, paste("png::", filename, sep = ""), g$width,  :
  unable to start device PNG
Calls: <Anonymous> ... block_exec -> chunk_device -> dev_new -> do.call -> <Anonymous>
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In grDevices::png(tempfile()) :
  unable to open connection to X11 display ''
2: In (function (filename = "Rplot%03d.png", width = 480, height = 480,  :
  unable to open connection to X11 display ''

Execution halted

This thread confirms the reason for the above error:

From my experience, that is often an indication that you built R from
source but didn't pay attention to the cairo/pango dependencies

also, this is the capabilities:

> capabilities()
       jpeg         png        tiff       tcltk         X11        aqua 
      FALSE       FALSE       FALSE        TRUE       FALSE       FALSE 
   http/ftp     sockets      libxml        fifo      cledit       iconv 
       TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE 
        NLS     profmem       cairo         ICU long.double     libcurl 
       TRUE        TRUE       FALSE        TRUE        TRUE        TRUE 

It will be great if a new build can be pushed with the cairo dependency

[andreyto]

I have created the modified Cairo and R recipes, following equivalent
solutions from the Homebrew. The main thing was that the configure script
in R 3.3.1 had to be patched because in that version of R it hard-wired a
check for cairo-xlib.h, which was failing and Cairo was getting disabled in
the build. I now have R recipe that can be built and used with svg()
devices on a headless server that does not have any X11 libs installed. I will
polish the recipe a bit to make it somewhat more general (maybe using a
"feature" tag?), and submit a pull request. I do not want to simply make a
clone of the existing recipe.

On Sat, Oct 29, 2016 at 2:37 AM, Asif Zubair notifications@github.com
wrote:

I am having this problem on CentOS as well. I upgraded my R version and
now Rmarkdown doesn't work now

(1)> Rscript -e 'rmarkdown::render("temp.Rmd")'

processing file: temp.Rmd
|................................ | 50%
inline R code fragments

|.................................................................| 100%
label: knitr (with options)
List of 4
$ include: logi FALSE
$ echo : logi FALSE
$ message: logi FALSE
$ warning: logi FALSE

Quitting from lines 9-11 (temp.Rmd)
Error in .External2(C_X11, paste("png::", filename, sep = ""), g$width, :
unable to start device PNG
Calls: ... block_exec -> chunk_device -> dev_new -> do.call ->
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In grDevices::png(tempfile()) :
unable to open connection to X11 display ''
2: In (function (filename = "Rplot%03d.png", width = 480, height = 480, :
unable to open connection to X11 display ''

Execution halted

This thread
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Error-in-External2-C-X11-paste-quot-png-quot-filename-sep-quot-quot-g-width-unable-to-start-device-PG-td4710983.html
confirms the reason for the above error:

From my experience, that is often an indication that you built R from
source but didn't pay attention to the cairo/pango dependencies

also, this is the capabilities:

capabilities()
jpeg png tiff tcltk X11 aqua
FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE
http/ftp sockets libxml fifo cledit iconv
TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE
NLS profmem cairo ICU long.double libcurl
TRUE TRUE FALSE TRUE TRUE TRUE

It will be great if a new build can be pushed with the cairo dependency

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[mingwandroid]

Great.

[mingwandroid]

Following the homebrew approach for macOS failed miserably for me. To build a cairo enabled R for macOS apart from a newer cairo I also needed to build fontconfig, gettext, glib, harfbuzz, libffi, pango and pixman.

If you are on macOS, you can try a cairo-enabled r-base now if you wish *:

conda install -c rdonnellyr r-base

Testing and feedback would be appreciated. Linux to follow but it may not be ready until Monday. While you're at it, testing rstudio (from the normal r channel) would also be helpful.

* I would recommend doing this in a throwaway installation of Miniconda or Anaconda for now and not in something mission critical (so you should create another installation then install `r-essentials from the normal r channel into that first).

[andreyto]

Sorry, I forgot to share my own fix. This is the code that gets me svg() device in R 3.3.1 on Linux (CentOS 6) that does not have X11 libs installed. I never tried on Mac OS.
andreyto/conda-recipes@80f982e

[mingwandroid]

This is fixed now, closing.

[github-actions]

Hi there, thank you for your contribution to Conda!

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Please open a new issue if needed.