R version 3.0.2 cannot find RCurl package

Question

I'm using R version 3.0.2 on my Windows 7 (32-bit) system and am stumped trying to install rCharts. I've had no problem installing other packages from github (e.g., slidify), but R seems unable to find the dependent RCurl package I installed.

I can submit the following basic lines of code without error:

require(devtools) 
library(bitops,lib.loc='c:/R/packages/')
library(RCurl,lib.loc='c:/R/packages/')
require(RCurl)    # have also tried the library function without luck*

But, when I submit the command to install rCharts with

install_github('rCharts', 'ramnathv')

I get the following :

Installing github repo(s) rCharts/master from ramnathv
Downloading rCharts.zip from https://github.com/ramnathv/rCharts/archive/master.zip
Installing package from C:\Users\nakamura\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpwzYzaG/rCharts.zip
Installing rCharts
"C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-30~1.2/bin/i386/R" --vanilla CMD INSTALL  \
  "C:\Users\nakamura\AppData\Local\temp\RtmpwzYzaG\rCharts-master"  \
  --library="C:/Program Files/R/R-3.0.2/library" --with-keep.source  \
  --install-tests 

**ERROR: dependency 'RCurl' is not available for package 'rCharts'**
*** removing 'C:/Program Files/R/R-3.0.2/library/rCharts'
Error: Command failed (1)**

I've tried installing libcurl, but am not sure I've unzipped it to the correct folder. (From what I've been able to gather from bits and pieces of other questions about rCurl, it seems having an improper/no installation of libcurl could be a contributing factor?)

Any help would be very much appreciated. I feel like I'm going around in circles.

Ann

Answer 1

Adding the directory "C:/R/packages" to the front of the .libPaths variable will help R find RCurl if it's been installed to a non-standard directory.