install packages error

Question

Here is my annoying problem.When I am trying to install packages by: install.packages("multicore")

I get the error:

error at if (nzchar(SHLIB_LIBADD)) SHLIB_LIBADD else character() : the length of parameter is zero

Here multicore is not the only package that I can not install.I have the same error for many other packages(but not all of the packages) such as Rcpp etc.

I am using debian jessie with R version 3.0.3 (2014-03-06) -- "Warm Puppy" .I have run into this problem for a while.And it is really annoying.Even if I use the R which compiled from the source code it still has the same problem.

Appreciate any suggestion!

Answer 1

Mixing package management is tricky and Debian tends to ignore it.

try instead

sudo apt-get install r-cran-multicore

which I found by going to Debian Packages and searching descriptions for multicore "GNU R"

You can check it is the package you want here.