zlib-devel dependency is listed on Posit Package Manager but is not available on Red Hat 8

[cstawitz]

install.packages("httpuv") doesn't work on our Red Hat 8 server, and I looked up the system level dependencies on Posit Package Manager. It lists zlib-devel as a depency if I select Red hat 8, but this package is no longer available and looks like it should be updated within the package's system requirements information.

[gadenbuie]

We only list zlib broadly as a dependency here. I'll see if I can raise this with the Package Manager team.

httpuv/DESCRIPTION

Line 80 in c8757a7

SystemRequirements: GNU make, zlib

[jonyoder]

@cstawitz can you provide more information about what happens when you try to install zlib-devel? Terminal output would be helpful.

[cstawitz]

Sure - here is the output I get if I try to install zlib-devel before installing httpuv:

$ apt-get update -qq
$ DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt install -y npm libx11-xcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxss1 libgbm1 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libxrandr2 make zlib-devel libxdamage1 libxi6 libxtst6 libnss3 libcups2 libatk1.0-0 libcurl4-openssl-dev libssl-dev libxml2-dev curl nodejs npm
WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
E: Unable to locate package zlib-devel

and here is what I get if I don't try to install zlib-devel and just try to install httpuv:

Error: Error installing package 'httpuv':
==================================
* installing *source* package ‘httpuv’ ...
** this is package ‘httpuv’ version ‘1.6.15’
** package ‘httpuv’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** using staged installation
./configure: 20: pkg-config: not found
** Using bundled copy of libuv
** PKG_CFLAGS=-Ilibuv/include
** PKG_LIBS=./libuv/.libs/libuv.a
** libs
using C compiler: ‘gcc (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04) 13.3.0’
using C++ compiler: ‘g++ (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04) 13.3.0’
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c RcppExports.cpp -o RcppExports.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c callback.cpp -o callback.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c callbackqueue.cpp -o callbackqueue.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c filedatasource-unix.cpp -o filedatasource-unix.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c filedatasource-win.cpp -o filedatasource-win.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c fs.cpp -o fs.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/local/lib/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Ilibuv/include -pthread -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/later/include' -I'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/Rcpp/include' -I/usr/local/include   -fvisibility=hidden -DSTRICT_R_HEADERS -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g   -c gzipdatasource.cpp -o gzipdatasource.o
In file included from gzipdatasource.cpp:1:
gzipdatasource.h:4:10: fatal error: zlib.h: No such file or directory
    4 | #include <zlib.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make: *** [/usr/local/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:211: gzipdatasource.o] Error 1
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘httpuv’
* removing ‘/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/.renv/1/httpuv’
install of package 'httpuv' failed [error code 1]
Traceback (most recent calls last):
13: renv::restore()
12: renv_restore_run_actions(project, diff, current, lockfile, rebuild)
11: renv_install_impl(records)
10: renv_install_staged(records)
 9: renv_install_default(records)
 8: handler(package, renv_install_package(record))
 7: renv_install_package(record)
 6: withCallingHandlers(renv_install_package_impl(record), error = function(e) writef("FAILED"))
 5: renv_install_package_impl(record)
 4: r_cmd_install(package, path)
 3: r_exec_error(package, output, "install", status)
 2: abort(all)
 1: stop(fallback)
Execution halted

I can successfully install httpuv using apt install -y r-cran-httpuv

[jonyoder]

@cstawitz Thanks for that output. I noticed you're using apt-get, which is a Debian util you typically see used on debian-based or Ubuntu systems.

Can you check your OS with cat /etc/os-release?

I've tried installing the httpuv dependencies on RHEL8 today, and it worked for me. Here's the command and output:

sudo dnf update
# ...trimmed output

sudo dnf install -y make zlib-devel

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream from RHUI (RPMs)                                                                                      100 kB/s | 4.5 kB     00:00
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                  Architecture                         Version                                      Repository                                             Size
========================================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 make                                     x86_64                               1:4.2.1-11.el8                               rhel-8-baseos-rhui-rpms                               498 k
 zlib-devel                               x86_64                               1.2.11-25.el8                                rhel-8-baseos-rhui-rpms                                59 k

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================================================================================
Install  2 Packages

Total download size: 556 k
Installed size: 1.5 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): zlib-devel-1.2.11-25.el8.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                              1.3 MB/s |  59 kB     00:00
(2/2): make-4.2.1-11.el8.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                     9.5 MB/s | 498 kB     00:00
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                                                                   7.4 MB/s | 556 kB     00:00
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                                                                                1/1
  Installing       : zlib-devel-1.2.11-25.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                1/2
  Installing       : make-1:4.2.1-11.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                     2/2
  Running scriptlet: make-1:4.2.1-11.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                     2/2
  Verifying        : make-1:4.2.1-11.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                     1/2
  Verifying        : zlib-devel-1.2.11-25.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                2/2
Installed products updated.

Installed:
  make-1:4.2.1-11.el8.x86_64                                                               zlib-devel-1.2.11-25.el8.x86_64

Complete!

This is the OS info for my system:

$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
VERSION="8.10 (Ootpa)"
ID="rhel"
ID_LIKE="fedora"
VERSION_ID="8.10"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10 (Ootpa)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos"
HOME_URL="https://www.redhat.com/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://issues.redhat.com/"

REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=8.10
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="8.10"