Cannot install rJava on Big Sur

Question

In the following environment:

• Mac OS: Big Sur
• R: version 4.0.3
• Java: java version "1.8.0_271"

I am trying to run:

install.packages("rJava", type='source')

However, it fails with the following error:

clang -o libjri.jnilib Rengine.o jri.o Rcallbacks.o Rinit.o globals.o rjava.o  -dynamiclib -framework JavaVM -L/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib -L/usr/local/opt/readline/lib -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib -L/usr/local/opt/readline/lib -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/Cellar/r/4.0.3/lib/R/lib -lR -L/usr/local/Cellar/pcre2/10.35/lib -lpcre2-8 -llzma -lbz2 -lz -licucore -ldl -lm -liconv
ld: framework not found JavaVM
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
make[2]: *** [libjri.jnilib] Error 1
make[1]: *** [src/JRI.jar] Error 2
make: *** [jri] Error 2
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘rJava’
* removing ‘/usr/local/lib/R/4.0/site-library/rJava’
* restoring previous ‘/usr/local/lib/R/4.0/site-library/rJava’

I found this issue which seems to raise a similar problem, but I do not understand how to resolve it.

I would highly appreciate if you could help me understand why the installation fails.

Answer 1

JRI is currently not supported on Big Sur, because Apple has removed the last traces of Java support - here the JavaVM framework, so you have two options:

1. use --disable-jri when installing rJava from sources (eg via install.packages("rJava", configure.args="--disable-jri") )

2. use rJava from CRAN (ie, install the binary version of rJava - not source)

The issue tracking this is #248