Error when installing data.table on MacOS

[Kinekenneth48]

I followed all the instructions on wiki but I cant get my data.table to install from source. I keep getting the following error

`

• installing source package ‘data.table’ ...
  ** package ‘data.table’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
  ** using staged installation
  zlib 1.2.11 is available ok
  ld: library not found for -lSystem
  collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
  *** OpenMP not supported! data.table uses OpenMP to automatically
  *** parallelize operations like sorting, grouping, file reading, etc.
  *** For details on how to install the necessary toolchains on your OS see:
  *** https://github.com/Rdatatable/data.table/wiki/Installation
  *** Continuing installation without OpenMP support...
  ** libs
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c assign.c -o assign.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c between.c -o between.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c bmerge.c -o bmerge.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c chmatch.c -o chmatch.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c cj.c -o cj.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c coalesce.c -o coalesce.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c dogroups.c -o dogroups.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fastmean.c -o fastmean.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fcast.c -o fcast.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fifelse.c -o fifelse.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fmelt.c -o fmelt.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c forder.c -o forder.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c frank.c -o frank.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fread.c -o fread.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c freadR.c -o freadR.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c froll.c -o froll.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c frollR.c -o frollR.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c frolladaptive.c -o frolladaptive.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fsort.c -o fsort.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fwrite.c -o fwrite.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c fwriteR.c -o fwriteR.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c gsumm.c -o gsumm.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c ijoin.c -o ijoin.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c init.c -o init.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c inrange.c -o inrange.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c nafill.c -o nafill.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c nqrecreateindices.c -o nqrecreateindices.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c openmp-utils.c -o openmp-utils.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c quickselect.c -o quickselect.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c rbindlist.c -o rbindlist.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c reorder.c -o reorder.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c shift.c -o shift.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c snprintf.c -o snprintf.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c subset.c -o subset.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c transpose.c -o transpose.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c types.c -o types.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c uniqlist.c -o uniqlist.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c utils.c -o utils.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c vecseq.c -o vecseq.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -I"/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/include" -DNDEBUG -I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/llvm/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include -fPIC -g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe -c wrappers.c -o wrappers.o
  /usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp -dynamiclib -Wl,-headerpad_max_install_names -undefined dynamic_lookup -single_module -multiply_defined suppress -L/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/lib -L/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib -L/usr/local/opt/llvm/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/opt/llvm/lib -o data.table.so assign.o between.o bmerge.o chmatch.o cj.o coalesce.o dogroups.o fastmean.o fcast.o fifelse.o fmelt.o forder.o frank.o fread.o freadR.o froll.o frollR.o frolladaptive.o fsort.o fwrite.o fwriteR.o gsumm.o ijoin.o init.o inrange.o nafill.o nqrecreateindices.o openmp-utils.o quickselect.o rbindlist.o reorder.o shift.o snprintf.o subset.o transpose.o types.o uniqlist.o utils.o vecseq.o wrappers.o -lz -F/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/.. -framework R -Wl,-framework -Wl,CoreFoundation
  ld: library not found for -lz
  collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
  make: *** [data.table.so] Error 1
  ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘data.table’
• removing ‘/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.1/Resources/library/data.table’
  Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘data.table’ had non-zero exit status

The downloaded source packages are in
‘/private/var/folders/90/yzmv772d3vvf8vcrr5w_ltlw0000gn/T/RtmpnenlHW/downloaded_packages’`

Below is my Makevars file

`
LDFLAGS= -L/usr/local/clang4/lib
FLIBS=-L/usr/local/gfortran/lib/gcc/x86_64-apple-darwin16/6.3.0 -L/usr/local/gfortran/lib -lgfortran -lquadmath -lm
CC=/usr/local/clang4/bin/clang
CXX=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++
CXX1X=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++
CXX98=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++
CXX11=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++
CXX14=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++
CXX17=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++

LLVM_LOC = /usr/local/opt/llvm
CC=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/gcc -fopenmp
CXX=/usr/local/gfortran/bin/g++ -fopenmp
CFLAGS=-g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe
CXXFLAGS=-g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=c++11 -mtune=native -pipe
LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib -L$(LLVM_LOC)/lib -Wl,-rpath,$(LLVM_LOC)/lib
CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I$(LLVM_LOC)/include -I/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include
`

# Minimal reproducible example

# Output of sessionInfo()

[antshevans]

I have also had problems installing from source since updating to Big Sur 11.6, presumably relating to the usual OpenMP issues on Macs.

To fix it, I have the following in my Makevars file:

# fortran compiler: https://mac.r-project.org/tools/
LOC = /usr/local/gfortran
CC=$(LOC)/bin/gcc -fopenmp
CXX=$(LOC)/bin/g++ -fopenmp
CXX11 = $(LOC)/bin/g++ -fopenmp # for fst package

CFLAGS=-g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=gnu99 -mtune=native -pipe
CXXFLAGS=-g -O3 -Wall -pedantic -std=c++11 -mtune=native -pipe
LDFLAGS=-L$(LOC)/lib -Wl,-rpath,$(LOC)/lib
CPPFLAGS=-I$(LOC)/include -I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include

Note that this uses gfortran, with all credit to #4899 (comment)

I had to adapt the CPPFLAGS= line to account for a new location for MacOSX.sdk, which I found by running xcrun -show-sdk-path in Terminal (credit here for this idea).

With the above Makevars I had no trouble installing data.table from source, and utilising multiple threads with it in R. I should say that I know very little about compilers and why any of this would work, but I'm posting in case it's helpful for others.

[Kinekenneth48]

Thanks @antshevans. It worked for me when I installed gfortran 8.2 and added your Makevars files.