Trouble with downloading certain packages from github in R - r

Question

I get an error when I try to download and install some packages from github on my Mac, e.g. lubripack. How do I locate what the error actually means? And how to solve it?
I run: install_github("Espanta/lubripack"). I have tried with different libpaths and with force=TRUE.
This is from the console:
checking for file
‘/private/var/folders/nc/vs1bpbqn095bbx84qcwwm4bm0000gn/T/RtmpMn5l2o/remotes8cb7b2460a1/Espanta-lubripack-b1dd9ee/DESCRIPTION’
... OK preparing ‘lubripack’: checking DESCRIPTION meta-information
... OK checking for LF line-endings in source and make files and shell
scripts checking for empty or unneeded directories building
‘lubripack_0.1.tar.gz’ Error: Failed to install 'lubripack' from
GitHub: (converted from warning) line 1 appears to contain an
embedded nul

Answer 1

You may not need to worry about installing the package from github - since the package only contains a single function, I'd simply copy the code for that function and use it (citing the author if/when appropriate).
lubripack <- function(...,silent=FALSE){
#check names and run 'require' function over if the given package is installed
requirePkg<- function(pkg){if(length(setdiff(pkg,rownames(installed.packages())))==0)
require(pkg, quietly = TRUE,character.only = TRUE)
}
# list of packages to install and load
packages <- as.vector(unlist(list(...)))
if(!is.character(packages))stop("No numeric allowed! Input must contain package names to install and load")
if (length(setdiff(packages,rownames(installed.packages()))) > 0 )
install.packages(setdiff(packages,rownames(installed.packages())),
repos = c("https://cran.revolutionanalytics.com/", "http://owi.usgs.gov/R/"))
res<- unlist(sapply(packages, requirePkg))
if(silent == FALSE && !is.null(res)) {cat("\nBellow Packages Successfully Installed:\n\n")
print(res)
}
}
It works for me even on R 4.0.2
lubripack(list("dplyr"))
Bellow Packages Successfully Installed:
dplyr
TRUE
And for reference
sessionInfo()
R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS 10.16
Matrix products: default
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.0/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib
locale:
[1] en_AU.UTF-8/en_AU.UTF-8/en_AU.UTF-8/C/en_AU.UTF-8/en_AU.UTF-8
attached base packages:
[1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base
other attached packages:
[1] dplyr_1.0.0 gtools_3.8.2
loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] crayon_1.3.4 R6_2.4.1 lifecycle_0.2.0 magrittr_1.5 pillar_1.4.6 rlang_0.4.7 rstudioapi_0.11 vctrs_0.3.2
[9] generics_0.0.2 ellipsis_0.3.1 tools_4.0.2 glue_1.4.1 purrr_0.3.4 compiler_4.0.2 pkgconfig_2.0.3 tidyselect_1.1.0
[17] tibble_3.0.3

Answer 2

Try this
First run
install.packages("remotes")
once done
Run this : -
remotes::install_github("Espanta/lubripack")
Ignore the warning
I am able to load the library
I am not sure if this library is up to date like Dirk Eddelbuettel mentioned
But its loading