install_github or install_bitbucket crashing R with segfault error - r

Question

I'm using R on the university HPC cluster and now they have upgraded to R/3.3.0 I'm looking to install my code and supporting packages to match my local setup. However I'm having problems with the commands install_github and install_bitbucket to install my code (and another package I use).
These are the commands and errors from the R session:
> library(devtools)
> install_github("config-i1/smooth")
Downloading GitHub repo config-i1/smooth#master
from URL https://api.github.com/repos/config-i1/smooth/zipball/master
Installing smooth
*** caught segfault ***
address 0x4000000079, cause 'memory not mapped'
Traceback:
1: .Call(digest_impl, object, as.integer(algoint), as.integer(length), as.integer(skip), as.integer(raw), as.integer(seed))
2: `_digest`(c(list(repos, type), lapply(`_additional`, function(x) eval(x[[2L]], environment(x)))), algo = "sha512")
3: available_packages(repos, type)
4: package_deps(deps, repos = repos, type = type)
5: dev_package_deps(pkg, repos = repos, dependencies = dependencies, type = type, force_deps = force_deps, quiet = quiet)
6: install_deps(pkg, dependencies = dependencies, upgrade = upgrade_dependencies, threads = threads, force_deps = force_deps, quiet = quiet, ...)
7: install(source, ..., quiet = quiet, metadata = metadata)
8: FUN(X[[i]], ...)
9: vapply(remotes, install_remote, ..., FUN.VALUE = logical(1))
10: install_remotes(remotes, quiet = quiet, ...)
11: install_github("config-i1/smooth")
Possible actions:
1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
2: normal R exit
3: exit R without saving workspace
4: exit R saving workspace
I receive a similar error with: install_bitbucket("wellermatt/forecastR"
> sessionInfo()
R version 3.3.0 (2016-05-03)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
Running under: Scientific Linux release 6.7 (Carbon)
locale:
[1] LC_CTYPE=C LC_NUMERIC=C
[3] LC_TIME=en_US.iso88591 LC_COLLATE=C
[5] LC_MONETARY=en_US.iso88591 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.iso88591
[7] LC_PAPER=en_US.iso88591 LC_NAME=C
[9] LC_ADDRESS=C LC_TELEPHONE=C
[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.iso88591 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
attached base packages:
[1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base
other attached packages:
[1] devtools_1.11.1
loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] withr_1.0.1 memoise_1.0.0 digest_0.6.9
I have tried to upgrade RCurl and devtools, but neither has helped. WOuld anybody be able to suggest a potential solution - I'm not able to find one on the web at the moment. I guess I can try to download the whole repository from github and then install from source that way but this doesn't help my workflow which currently pulls the latest version automatically.
---- EDIT -----
The cluster manager at Lancaster has tried the install also and has looked into the traceback. He reports as follows:
Let me know how that goes. I can replicate the crash myself (which may in itself be odd, as I expected your codebase to require authentication), but I’m none the wiser. Here’s the last few lines of strace (which logs systems calls only) leading up to the segfault:
read(3, "Package: forecastR\nType: Package"..., 16384) = 492
read(3, "", 12288) = 0
lseek(3, 0, SEEK_CUR) = 492
read(3, "", 4096) = 0
close(3) = 0
munmap(0x7f276cdfe000, 4096) = 0
stat("/tmp/RtmpjNlvQb/devtools2d0a1128ed80/wellermatt-forecastr-d5b58631b3a1/src", 0x7fff1a81bdb0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "Installing forecastR\n", 21) = 21
--- SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault) # 0 (0) ---
The failed stat() call may or may not be an issue – were you expecting your package to have src dir? If not, this may simply be an expected test.