Cannot install V8 without internet access

[howff]

The installation of V8 fails on linux when you have no internet access. You can sudo apt-get install libv8-dev beforehand but it still fails. You can set DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8=0 and it still fails. You can manually download a package by trying to decode the get-v8-linux.sh script but it's not documented how to install it and it probably won't install due to #122.

[jeroen]

It should absolutely work if you have libv8-dev installed; that is how all the debian/ubuntu packages are built. Which linux distro and version are you using? Can you please include an install log.

[howff]

Thanks for the quick reply. This is what happened:

$ sudo apt install libv8-dev
Note, selecting 'libnode-dev' instead of 'libv8-dev'
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libnode-dev libnode64 libssl-dev libuv1-dev
...
$ R
R version 4.1.1 (2021-08-10) -- "Kick Things"
> install.packages('V8')
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 681018 bytes (665 KB)
* installing *source* package ‘V8’ ...
** package ‘V8’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** using staged installation
Found C++14 compiler: x86_64-conda-linux-gnu-c++
> curl::curl_download("http://jeroen.github.io/V8/get-v8-linux.sh","get-v8-linux.sh")
>
>
./configure: 2: ./get-v8-linux.sh: Syntax error: newline unexpected
ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘V8’

(the deb and CRAN packages come from local mirror, the curl download fails due to no internet, and the Syntax error is a red herring)

[jeroen]

OK I'll try this again myself, it should just fall through if the download script fails.
A workaround is to install while setting an envvvar DISABLE_STATIC_LIBV8=1.
But if you're using anaconda you should probably install r-v8 from anaconda: https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/r-v8

[howff]

Thanks. (I did test with that env var as well, same result)

[ARawles]

I've come across the same problem and found that setting the DISABLE_STATIC_LIBV8 environmental variable does work, but if you have the DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8 variable set to any value, then it will still try to use the get-v8-linux.sh approach.

In other words:
DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8=0
DISABLE_STATIC_LIBV8=1
OR
DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8=1
DISABLE_STATIC_LIBV8=1
will both try and download the .sh file.

Only DISABLE_STATIC_LIBV8=1 and DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8 being unset will properly install without internet connectivity.

I'm not sure if this is the desired behaviour (i.e., setting any value for the variables is treated essentially as TRUE) or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

[JohnHendrickx]

I'm also having trouble installing V8 without internet access. I'm working on "LSAF", a statistical computing environment by SAS. LSAF runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.10 and is designed to be a secure platform with no internet access. . An administrator has installed the nodejs-devel library and I have verified that /usr/include/node/v8.h exists. I've tried installing the V8 R package (R version 4.4.0) using the following script:

Sys.unsetenv("DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8")
Sys.setenv(DISABLE_STATIC_LIBV8=1)
usePath <- paste0(LSAF_WS,"/SAS/Files/00_miniCRAN/CRAN_offline/src/contrib/V8_4.4.2.tar.gz")
useLib <-  paste0(LSAF_WS,"/SAS/Files/00_miniCRAN/R_library")
install.packages(usePath, lib=useLib, repos = NULL, type="source")

This still doesn't work. I get the following output:

* installing *source* package ‘V8’ ...
** package ‘V8’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** using staged installation
Found C++17 compiler: g++
Using CXXCPP=g++ -std=gnu++17 -E
Using PKG_CFLAGS=-I/usr/include/v8
Using PKG_LIBS=-lv8 -lv8_libplatform
-----------------------------[ ANTICONF ]-------------------------------
Configuration failed to find the libv8 engine library. Try installing:
 * deb: libv8-dev or libnode-dev (Debian / Ubuntu)
 * rpm: v8-devel (Fedora, EPEL)
 * brew: v8 (OSX)
 * csw: libv8_dev (Solaris)
Alternatively, on Linux (x86_64) or MacOS you can set environment variable:
    DOWNLOAD_STATIC_LIBV8=1
to automatically download a static version of libv8.
To use a custom libv8, set INCLUDE_DIR and LIB_DIR manually via:
R CMD INSTALL --configure-vars='INCLUDE_DIR=... LIB_DIR=...'
---------------------------[ ERROR MESSAGE ]----------------------------
<stdin>:1:10: fatal error: v8.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘V8’
* removing ‘/lsafshared/SASWorkspaces/hendrijh/SAS/Files/00_miniCRAN/R_library/V8’
Warning message:
In install.packages(usePath, lib = useLib, repos = NULL, type = "source") :
  installation of package ‘/lsafshared/SASWorkspaces/hendrijh/SAS/Files/00_miniCRAN/CRAN_offline/src/contrib/V8_4.4.2.tar.gz’ had non-zero exit status

Apparently, the installation script isn't finding /usr/include/node/v8.h. I've tried using Sys.setenv(PKG_CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/node") but that has no impact. Can someone explain how I can get the V8 package to install?

[jeroen]

Can you try what is suggested here: #177 (comment)

[JohnHendrickx]

Hi Jeroen,

Thanks for your speedy reply! The link in #177 didn't work for me but I was able to download a binary version of the V8 package for Redhat version 8 at https://p3m.dev/client/#/repos/cran/packages/overview?search=v8&distribution=redhat-8. The binary package installed properly and I can run the test scripts from the V8 help, unless internet access is required.

Thanks very much for your help!