How to install packages in R or Rstudio - r

Question

when trying to install a package:
> install.packages("mlr")
Installing package into ‘/home/kisco/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.0’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
Warning in install.packages :
dependencies ‘plyr’, ‘dplyr’, ‘lazyeval’ are not available
also installing the dependencies ‘scales’, ‘ggplot2’, ‘ggvis’, ‘reshape2’
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/scales_0.2.5.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 56346 bytes (55 Kb)
opened URL
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downloaded 55 Kb
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/ggplot2_1.0.1.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 2351203 bytes (2.2 Mb)
opened URL
==================================================
downloaded 2.2 Mb
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/ggvis_0.4.2.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 728345 bytes (711 Kb)
opened URL
==================================================
downloaded 711 Kb
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/reshape2_1.4.1.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 34693 bytes (33 Kb)
opened URL
==================================================
downloaded 33 Kb
trying URL 'http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/mlr_2.4.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 440988 bytes (430 Kb)
opened URL
==================================================
downloaded 430 Kb
ERROR: dependency ‘plyr’ is not available for package ‘scales’
* removing ‘/home/kisco/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.0/scales’
Warning in install.packages :
installation of package ‘scales’ had non-zero exit status
ERROR: dependencies ‘dplyr’, ‘lazyeval’ are not available for package ‘ggvis’
* removing ‘/home/kisco/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.0/ggvis’
Warning in install.packages :
installation of package ‘ggvis’ had non-zero exit status
ERROR: dependency ‘plyr’ is not available for package ‘reshape2’
* removing ‘/home/kisco/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.0/reshape2’
Warning in install.packages :
installation of package ‘reshape2’ had non-zero exit status
ERROR: dependencies ‘plyr’, ‘reshape2’, ‘scales’ are not available for package ‘ggplot2’
* removing ‘/home/kisco/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.0/ggplot2’
Warning in install.packages :
installation of package ‘ggplot2’ had non-zero exit status
ERROR: dependencies ‘ggplot2’, ‘ggvis’, ‘plyr’, ‘reshape2’ are not available for package ‘mlr’
removing ‘/home/kisco/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.0/mlr’
Warning in install.packages :
installation of package ‘mlr’ had non-zero exit status
The downloaded source packages are in
‘/tmp/Rtmp3AjleG/downloaded_packages’
I keep getting th eerror" warning in install.packages insallation of package ... had non zero exit status.
What am I doing wrong? How do I Install MLR?

Answer 1

You have an outdated version of R. Normally dplyr and your other dependencies would be automatically installed, but in this case they are labelled as not working with older versions of R, so throw an error.
You have version 3.0.2, which is out of date. As of now the current version is 3.2.1. You should upgrade (you don't have the most up to date version of r-base, repos are often behind - try getting the binary from here).
If you don't want to update you can use the methods described in answers to this question to install older versions of the packages which may be compatible with your version - install older version of R package.