Error building vignettes for R package - r

Question

On a new installation of R on Windows 10, I'm having a problem building vignettes for any package. I can manually use knitr to build my vignettes, but when running any of these commands:
devtools::install_github("hadley/devtools", build_vignettes = TRUE, force = TRUE)
devtools::check(document = FALSE)
devtools::install(build_vignettes = TRUE)
While my example URL had devtools, I get identical error from other packages - e.g.
devtools::install_github("CUD2V/pccc", build_vignettes = TRUE, force = TRUE)
I get output like the following:
devtools::install_github("hadley/devtools", build_vignettes = TRUE, force = TRUE)
Downloading GitHub repo hadley/devtools#master
from URL https://api.github.com/repos/hadley/devtools/zipball/master
Installing devtools
Downloading GitHub repo r-hub/rhub#master
from URL https://api.github.com/repos/r-hub/rhub/zipball/master
Installing rhub
Installation failed: install_packages(package_name, repos = remote$repos, type = remote$pkg_type, dependencies = NA, ..., quiet = quiet, out_dir = out_dir, skip_if_log_exists = skip_if_log_exists) : formal argument "repos" matched by multiple actual arguments
Installation failed: install_packages(package_name, repos = remote$repos, type = remote$pkg_type, dependencies = NA, ..., quiet = quiet, out_dir = out_dir, skip_if_log_exists = skip_if_log_exists) : formal argument "repos" matched by multiple actual arguments
Installation failed: install_packages(package_name, repos = remote$repos, type = remote$pkg_type, dependencies = NA, ..., quiet = quiet, out_dir = out_dir, skip_if_log_exists = skip_if_log_exists) : formal argument "repos" matched by multiple actual arguments
Installation failed: install_packages(package_name, repos = remote$repos, type = remote$pkg_type, dependencies = NA, ..., quiet = quiet, out_dir = out_dir, skip_if_log_exists = skip_if_log_exists) : formal argument "repos" matched by multiple actual arguments
Running command C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/bin/x64/Rcmd.exe
Arguments:
INSTALL
C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpIJj3Sj/devtools33e84f791ef2/r-hub-rhub-352458b
--library=C:/Users/username/Documents/R/win-library/3.4
--install-tests
ERROR: dependencies 'parsedate', 'prettyunits', 'rappdirs', 'whoami' are not available for package 'rhub'
* removing 'C:/Users/username/Documents/R/win-library/3.4/rhub'
In R CMD INSTALL
Installation failed: run(bin, args = real_cmdargs, stdout_line_callback = real_callback(stdout), stderr_line_callback = real_callback(stderr), stdout_callback = real_block_callback, stderr_callback = real_block_callback, echo_cmd = echo, echo = show, spinner = spinner, error_on_status = fail_on_status, timeout = timeout) : System command error
Running command C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/bin/x64/Rcmd.exe
Arguments:
build
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpIJj3Sj\devtools33e814393089\hadley-devtools-7f5a683
--no-resave-data
--no-manual
* checking for file 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpIJj3Sj\devtools33e814393089\hadley-devtools-7f5a683/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
* preparing 'devtools':
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* installing the package to build vignettes
* creating vignettes ...Warning: running command '"C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/bin/x64/Rscript" --vanilla --default-packages= -e "tools::buildVignettes(dir = '.', tangle = TRUE)"' had status 1
ERROR
Error: file 'C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpU3YzGM/Rbuild2b8017d6415/devtools/DESCRIPTION' is not in valid DCF format
In addition: Warning message:
In read.dcf(dfile, keep.white = .keep_white_description_fields) :
cannot open compressed file 'C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpU3YzGM/Rbuild2b8017d6415/devtools/DESCRIPTION', probable reason 'Permission denied'
Execution halted
Installation failed: run(bin, args = real_cmdargs, stdout_line_callback = real_callback(stdout), stderr_line_callback = real_callback(stderr), stdout_callback = real_block_callback, stderr_callback = real_block_callback, echo_cmd = echo, echo = show, spinner = spinner, error_on_status = fail_on_status, timeout = timeout) : System command error
It appears that although the DESCRIPTION file specifies to use knitr, devtools::install_github and devtools::check is using tools::buildVignettes.
Also, if just running
devtools::build_vignettes
No error is received and vignettes are built.
I also have a macOS machine running current version of R and a Windows 2012 Server running R 3.3.x and both can build vignettes and install packages without getting a similar error.
How do I work around these build errors?
#alistaire noticed the dependency errors - after resolving those, I'm still getting the same problem building packages with vignettes, checking packages, etc.:
> devtools::install_github("hadley/devtools", build_vignettes = TRUE, force = TRUE)
Downloading GitHub repo hadley/devtools#master
from URL https://api.github.com/repos/hadley/devtools/zipball/master
Installing devtools
Running command C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/bin/x64/Rcmd.exe
Arguments:
build
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpQpK5Yi\devtools25f4138c52c3\hadley-devtools-7f5a683
--no-resave-data
--no-manual
* checking for file 'C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\RtmpQpK5Yi\devtools25f4138c52c3\hadley-devtools-7f5a683/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
* preparing 'devtools':
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* installing the package to build vignettes
* creating vignettes ...Warning: running command '"C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-34~1.3/bin/x64/Rscript" --vanilla --default-packages= -e "tools::buildVignettes(dir = '.', tangle = TRUE)"' had status 1
ERROR
Error: file 'C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpKe9Atv/Rbuild24501e281f1c/devtools/DESCRIPTION' is not in valid DCF format
In addition: Warning message:
In read.dcf(dfile, keep.white = .keep_white_description_fields) :
cannot open compressed file 'C:/Users/username/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpKe9Atv/Rbuild24501e281f1c/devtools/DESCRIPTION', probable reason 'Permission denied'
Execution halted
Installation failed: run(bin, args = real_cmdargs, stdout_line_callback = real_callback(stdout), stderr_line_callback = real_callback(stderr), stdout_callback = real_block_callback, stderr_callback = real_block_callback, echo_cmd = echo, echo = show, spinner = spinner, error_on_status = fail_on_status, timeout = timeout) : System command error
Although the message references permission denied, these errors appear to occur regardless of user permissions. I've run as my regular user and as Administrator.