Knitr error when running R Markdown from batch - r

Question

I was following this SO answer to create a batch file that runs an R script, which in turn runs a Markdown file.
In short. The test version has three parts.
I. R Script - knits and renders the markdown:
library(knitr)
library(rmarkdown)
setwd("~/r_directory")
knit("test_markdown.Rmd")
render("test_markdown.Rmd")
Sys.sleep(3)
II. R Markdown file
---
title: "Test"
output: html_document
---
## R Markdown
This is an R Markdown document. Markdown is a simple formatting syntax for authoring HTML, PDF, and MS Word documents. For more details on using R Markdown see <http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com>.
```{r cars}
summary(cars)
```
III. Batch file:
"C:\Program Files\R\R-3.4.3\bin\R.exe" CMD BATCH --vanilla --slave "C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\r_directory\script.R" "C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\r_directory\script.Rout"
Now I'm getting two types of errors in the script.Rout file.
With the correct R.Script version the error I'm getting is:
Error in library(knitr) : there is no package called 'knitr'
Execution halted
So, ok. Obviouslly I should install knitr.
But when I change the script to include - install.packages("knitr"), I get:
Installing package into 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4'
(as 'lib' is unspecified)
Error in contrib.url(repos, "source") :
trying to use CRAN without setting a mirror
Calls: install.packages -> contrib.url
Execution halted
Any idea where I'm missing something?
Edit: I provided multiple repos for the knitr package.
install.packages('knitr', repos = c('http://cran.rstudio.org', 'http://cran.us.r-project.org', 'http://rforge.net'),
type = 'source')
What I get as an error now is:
Installing package into 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4'
(as 'lib' is unspecified)
also installing the dependencies 'mime', 'stringi', 'evaluate', 'markdown', 'stringr', 'yaml'
trying URL 'http://rforge.net/src/contrib/mime_0.5.1.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 11695 bytes (11 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 11 KB
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.org/src/contrib/stringi_1.1.6.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 3647049 bytes (3.5 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 3.5 MB
trying URL 'http://rforge.net/src/contrib/evaluate_0.10.3.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 19612 bytes (19 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 19 KB
trying URL 'http://rforge.net/src/contrib/markdown_0.8.1.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 88252 bytes (86 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 86 KB
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.org/src/contrib/stringr_1.2.0.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 94095 bytes (91 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 91 KB
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.org/src/contrib/yaml_2.1.16.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 85275 bytes (83 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 83 KB
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.org/src/contrib/knitr_1.19.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 649805 bytes (634 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 634 KB
* installing *source* package 'mime' ...
** libs
*** arch - i386
Warning: running command 'make -f "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/etc/i386/Makeconf" -f "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/share/make/winshlib.mk" SHLIB="mime.dll" OBJECTS="init.o rawmatch.o"' had status 127
ERROR: compilation failed for package 'mime'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/mime'
In R CMD INSTALL
* installing *source* package 'stringi' ...
** package 'stringi' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
Warning: running command 'sh ./configure.win' had status 127
ERROR: configuration failed for package 'stringi'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/stringi'
In R CMD INSTALL
* installing *source* package 'yaml' ...
** package 'yaml' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** libs
*** arch - i386
Warning: running command 'make -f "Makevars" -f "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/etc/i386/Makeconf" -f "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/share/make/winshlib.mk" SHLIB="yaml.dll" OBJECTS="api.o dumper.o emitter.o implicit.o loader.o parser.o r_emit.o r_ext.o r_parse.o reader.o scanner.o writer.o"' had status 127
ERROR: compilation failed for package 'yaml'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/yaml'
In R CMD INSTALL
ERROR: dependency 'mime' is not available for package 'markdown'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/markdown'
In R CMD INSTALL
ERROR: dependency 'stringi' is not available for package 'stringr'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/stringr'
In R CMD INSTALL
ERROR: dependency 'stringr' is not available for package 'evaluate'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/evaluate'
In R CMD INSTALL
ERROR: dependencies 'evaluate', 'markdown', 'stringr', 'yaml' are not available for package 'knitr'
* removing 'C:/Users/Stefan/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/knitr'
In R CMD INSTALL
The downloaded source packages are in
'C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpaiQed8\downloaded_packages'
There were 14 warnings (use warnings() to see them)
Error in library(knitr) : there is no package called 'knitr'
Execution halted