Install Xcode Command Line Tools Catalina Free
Install Xcode Command Line Tools Catalina
Install Xcode Command Line Tools Catalina Version
Install Xcode Command Line Tools Catalina 2019

This guide is intended to be a complete guide to setting up R (free desktop version) on a clean macOS Catalina installation. It shows how to get R, the R App and R Studio to all use the same R packages, as well as how to ensure installation of pre-built binary packages from CRAN when possible, or to otherwise build from C/C++, and Fortran source with OpenMP support.

Motivation

If you’re not careful how you install R on macOS, when you try to install R packages, R may try to build those packages from source. We like our package managers. They usually make finding and installing software a cinch. On macOS, the two most popular ones are MacPorts and Homebrew (a.k.a. brew). In this post, I’ll be using brew – partially. If you’re already a brew fan and have had to install R, you most like did so with brew install r. This is probably the wrong choice for most people as this could prevent R from using pre-built binaries when installing packages.

In the past, writing command tools in Xcode has been relatively simple. There was no need for any Info.plist file or code signature, so all you concentrated on was your code. Those days have gone: to be hardened and signed, as required by Catalina, your tool needs an Info.plist file, a signature, and the hardening flag. Install Command Line Tools Open your terminal to begin the process of installing command-line tools on macOS Catalina. With your terminal opened, type the command below into the prompt and press the return key to execute it. After executing the command below a pop-up window should open with the option to install. Homebrew is a package managing tool. It’s more popular on Linux but is also used extensively on macOS. In fact, for apps that install as packages, Homebrew is the easiest way to remove them. Here’s how you can install Homebrew on macOS Catalina. In order to install Homebrew on macOS Catalina, you must have Xcode installed. Even though both Xcode and the Command Line Tools are installed, some build systems still have trouble locating the macOS SDK header files. They expect system header files to be located in /usr/include. However, both Xcode and the Command Line Tools install them elsewhere.

Installing R packages from source can take a long time and there’s usually no advantage to doing so. Even if you force the R package installer to install the binary package instead of building it from source, these binary packages may expect R itself to be installed in a specific location and won’t work if they can’t find and link to the R framework.

Moreover, unless you know what you’re doing, you’ll likely not build the package correctly for optimal speed and performance. If you’re building from source and require optimal performance, you’ll have to spend some time profiling your builds to ensure they are getting built optimally.

Background

R is built from C, Fortran and recursively from R source code itself. CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) is the main repository for R packages from which you will install most of the packages you need. Packages hosted on CRAN include pre-built binary packages targeted for Windows and macOS. If you use a version of R that was built by CRAN, it will be able to download and install the pre-built binaries “out of the box” without having to build them from source.

You may still need to build from source from time to time, so I’ll also cover how to set up LLVM and GNU Fortran with OpenMP support. Even though the macOS Command Line Tools from Apple includes an LLVM compiler, there is still no support for OpenMP, so we’ll need to install our own version (via brew).

Installing R

Visit cran.r-project.org
From the menu on the left panel, select Mirrors
Select the site closest to you
In the main section, select Download R for (Mac) OS X
Find the latest package. It will be named something similar to R-3.6.0.pkg according to the latest version available.

This package contains the following:

R Framework
R GUI
Tcl/Tk
Texinfo

You absolutely need R Framework. This will be installed in /Library/Frameworks where pre-built binaries will look for it, if needed. This is why you need to install this version of R in order to make use of pre-built packages.

R GUI is a terminal-like environment created specifically for R. If you will be using R Studio (highly recommended), you won’t use R GUI very much. If you want to access R from a terminal session instead of the R GUI, stay tuned; this will be covered too.

Kick off the installation process by opening the package you just downloaded. When you get to the Installation Type make sure you select Customize.

2020-05-02 UPDATE: If you need Tck/Tk and/or Texinfo support, it seems that you must install those options with this R installation software. As far as I can tell, the paths to these libraries are configured during the building of the software package and there doesn’t seem to be a feasible way to change these paths without rebuilding the software. If I find out otherwise, I’ll revise this update. If you don’t know what these libraries are for, you probably don’t need them in which case, feel free to not install them.

IMPORTANT:~~You should NOT install Tcl/Tk and Texinfo if you plan on using brew as your package manager.~~ These packages are installed to /usr/local and brew doctor (the diagnostics options that checks the validity of your brew installation) will complain about this. ~~We will install these two packages via brew instead.~~

R 3.6.0 binary for OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and higher, signed package. Contains R 3.6.0 framework, R.app GUI 1.70 in 64-bit for Intel Macs, Tcl/Tk 8.6.6 X11 libraries and Texinfo 5.2. The latter two components are optional and can be ommitted when choosing “custom install”, they are only needed if you want to use the tcltk R package or build package documentation from sources.

Install Xcode Command Line Tools Catalina

Set some defaults

Before you start installing packages, you should think about where you will be saving all these packages as well as which CRAN mirror site you’ll be downloading from.

Install Xcode Command Line Tools Catalina Free

Default Library Paths - By default, packages you install will be saved to /Library/Frameworks/R/... and down a few more subfolders that you’ll never remember! Also, if you ever have to do a clean reinstall of the R Framework, you’ll have to reinstall all your packages too. I recommend you change this default.
You should determine which CRAN mirror site is physically closest to you. This will improve your download times. If you don’t set a default site, R will ask you to select one every time you want to install a package. Alternatively, you can select 0-Cloud [https] which redirects you automatically to an appropriate site. Select [https] over [http] when you have a choice.

0-Cloud

https://cloud.r-project.org/

Automatic redirection to servers worldwide, currently sponsored by Rstudio

R App

Terminal

If accessing R from the terminal, the setup for these two options can be done in ~/.Rprofile. If this file doesn’t exist, create it and add the following lines:

NB:

I’ve set the CRAN mirror to be selected automatically but you can change the URL to a specific mirror if you wish
For the library path, replace <username> with your account username and <r-version> with the version of R you installed (I installed 3.6)
You can use any path you want for the default library path but since the R App forces you to use this one, you might want to stick with it if you’re using R via both the R app and the terminal.
Upon restarting the R app, this directory will be