ERROR: a 'NAMESPACE' file is required - r

Question

I am trying to install some R packages on a Linux machine using
R CMD INSTALL -l <ourRlibrarylocation> <path where I saved the packagename.tar.gz file>
and I see an error message:
ERROR: a 'NAMESPACE' file is required
I am using R 3.0.1. Please help, I am new to R and just downloaded these packages for customers.
One example:
R CMD INSTALL -l /abcde/R/R-3.0.0/library /home/RFILES/PKG/UScensus2000tract_0.03.tar.gz
* installing *source* package âUScensus2000tractâ ...
ERROR: a 'NAMESPACE' file is required
* removing â/abcde/R/R-3.0.0/library/UScensus2000tractâ

Answer 1

According to the R documentation for writing extensions, all packages destined for version 3.0.0 and later must contain a NAMESPACE file. If you download an R package that gives you the above error, here's what you should try:
Untar the package:
tar -xvf the_package.tar.gz
Add a NAMESPACE file with the line exportPattern( "." ):
cd the_package
echo 'exportPattern( "." )' > NAMESPACE
cd ..
Re-tar the package:
tar -zcf the_package.tar.gz the_package
Try and install it again.
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

I actually just hit the same thing when compiling R-3.0.1. It looks to be that the package version that I was using was out of date. This was for proto:
# /var/local/R-3.0.1/bin/R CMD INSTALL -l /var/local/R-3.0.1/lib64/R/library proto_0.3-9.2.tar.gz
* installing *source* package ‘proto’ ...
ERROR: a 'NAMESPACE' file is required
* removing ‘/var/local/R-3.0.1/lib64/R/library/proto’
But there was a newer version for proto (0.3-10) which worked fine:
# ../var/local/R-3.0.1/bin/R CMD INSTALL -l ../var/local/R-3.0.1/lib64/R/library proto_0.3-10.tar.gz
* installing *source* package ‘proto’ ...
** package ‘proto’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** R
** demo
** inst
** preparing package for lazy loading
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** installing vignettes
‘proto.Rnw’
‘protoref.Rnw’
** testing if installed package can be loaded
* DONE (proto)
I had an older install of R (2.15), which the older proto package worked with:
# /var/local/R-2.15.0/bin/R CMD INSTALL -l /var/local/R-2.15.0/lib64/R/library proto_0.3-9.2.tar.gz
* installing *source* package 'proto' ...
** Creating default NAMESPACE file
** R
** demo
** inst
** preparing package for lazy loading
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** installing vignettes
'proto.Rnw'
'protoref.Rnw'
** testing if installed package can be loaded
It looks like the older version of R actually creates the missing NAMESPACE file, but the new version bails. Hope this helps you!

Answer 3

I found the following link more useful:
How should I deal with "package 'xxx' is not available (for R version x.y.z)" warning?
6. The package is out of date
It may have been archived (if it is no longer maintained and no longer passes R CMD check tests).
In this case, you can load an old version of the package using install_version()
library(devtools)
install_version("foobarbaz", "0.1.2")
An alternative is to install from the github CRAN mirror.
library(devtools)
install_github("cran/foobarbaz")

Answer 4

One can now use remotes::install_url() or remotes::install_local().
It installs dependencies and generates the NAMESPACE file automatically.