install.packages(...) fails on Windows 10 - r

Question

I am trying to install the dplyr package from Visual Studio 2017. It has a dependency on pillar.
When I perform an install from the command line, I get:
> install.packages('pillar')
Installing package into ‘C:/Users/Jérôme Verstrynge/Documents/R/win-library/3.3’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
There is a binary version available but the source version is later:
binary source needs_compilation
pillar 1.2.1 1.2.2 FALSE
installing the source package ‘pillar’
trying URL 'http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/pillar_1.2.2.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 64185 bytes (62 KB)
downloaded 62 KB
* installing *source* package 'pillar' ...
** package 'pillar' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
Warning in file(file, if (append) "a" else "w") :
cannot open file 'C:/Users/Jirtme Verstrynge/Documents/R/win-library/3.3/pillar/DESCRIPTION': No such file or directory
Error in file(file, if (append) "a" else "w") :
cannot open the connection
ERROR: installing package DESCRIPTION failed for package 'pillar'
* removing 'C:/Users/Jérôme Verstrynge/Documents/R/win-library/3.3/pillar'
There is a bogus conversion of Jérôme Verstrynge into Jirtme Verstrynge.
How can I work around this?
More information
When I perform Get-WinSystemLocale from Windows 10 PowerShell, I get:
LCID Name DisplayName
---- ---- -----------
2057 en-GB English (United Kingdom)
Sys.getlocale() returns:
[1] "LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252;
LC_CTYPE=English_United Kingdom.1252;
LC_MONETARY=English_United Kingdom.1252;
LC_NUMERIC=C;
LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252"
Workaround
I have uninstalled Microsoft R client and reinstalled it from here. The client is now on version 3.4.3.0.
The issue has disappeared for the package pillar, but it is coming back with a package called dendextend while trying to install.packages('seriation').
The error is:
> install.packages('seriation')
Installing package into ‘C:/Users/Jérôme Verstrynge/Documents/R/win-library/3.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
also installing the dependency ‘dendextend’
There is a binary version available but the source version is later:
binary source needs_compilation
dendextend 1.7.0 1.8.0 FALSE
trying URL 'http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/3.4/seriation_1.2-3.zip'
Content type 'application/zip' length 1015954 bytes (992 KB)
downloaded 992 KB
package ‘seriation’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
The downloaded binary packages are in
C:\Temp\Rtmpi2lOd8\downloaded_packages
installing the source package ‘dendextend’
trying URL 'http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/dendextend_1.8.0.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 1758392 bytes (1.7 MB)
downloaded 1.7 MB
* installing *source* package 'dendextend' ...
** package 'dendextend' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
Warning in file(file, if (append) "a" else "w") :
cannot open file 'C:/Users/Jirtme Verstrynge/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/dendextend/DESCRIPTION': No such file or directory
Error in file(file, if (append) "a" else "w") :
cannot open the connection
ERROR: installing package DESCRIPTION failed for package 'dendextend'
* removing 'C:/Users/Jérôme Verstrynge/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/dendextend'
In R CMD INSTALL
The downloaded source packages are in
‘C:\Temp\Rtmpi2lOd8\downloaded_packages’
Warning messages:
1: running command '"C:/PROGRA~1/MIE74D~1/RCLIEN~1/R_SERVER/bin/x64/R" CMD INSTALL -l "C:\Users\Jérôme Verstrynge\Documents\R\win-library\3.4" C:\Temp\Rtmpi2lOd8/downloaded_packages/dendextend_1.8.0.tar.gz' had status 1
2: In utils::install.packages(...) :
installation of package ‘dendextend’ had non-zero exit status
>
It seems there is an issue in utils::install.packages(...)
Issue solved
Apparently, on top of re-installing Microsoft R Client, the remaining issue was related to missing binary packages not available on CRAN repositories yet.

Answer 1

I doubt this has anything to do with the pillar package, but perhaps with the fact that this package is installed from source (unlike the default which is to install from binary). This problem will eventually resolve itself as the binary version of pillar 1.2.2 becomes available on your CRAN mirror (it's already there on CRAN and on https://cloud.r-project.org/web/packages/pillar/index.html).
What's the value of getOption("repos") on your system?
The mis-encoding of non-ASCII characters in this particular scenario feels like a problem which is best avoided by choosing an ASCII-only and space-free directory name for your home (e.g. C:\Users\jverstry instead of your current setting). To rule out a problem with Visual Studio, you could try installing the package from RGui or from the R terminal, please double-check that the installation path for the package is the same.