Error when installing igraph on Debian: isfinite() not available

Installation
1

Hello,

I’d like to use igraph in R, on Debian, but I’ve not succeeded in installing it via install.packages(“igraph”). The following error is returned: “configure: error: isfinite() not available”. My R version is 3.3.3. I’ve also attempted to install the package using the tar.gz file directly, but with no success.

Thanks in advance.

2

Which Debian version are you using?

What is your compiler version?

3

Hello,

I’m not familiar with this OS (it’s a remote server that I’m using), but this is what I have:

Debian 4.9.189-3 (2019-09-02) x86_64
gcc (Debian 6.3.0-18+deb9u1) 6.3.0 20170516

I’m not sure if this is what you asked for. Thanks.

4

Hello,

The configuration script of R-igraph complains that your C compiler does not provide the isfinite() function, which is supposed to be provided if the compiler supports C99.

What happens if you try to compile the following piece of C code with gcc?

#include <math.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    double f = 0.0; isfinite(f);
    return 0;
}

This is exactly the piece of code that R-igraph is trying to compile to determine whether your compiler supports isfinite().

5

GCC 6.3 should default to C11, i.e. newer than C99. Perhaps your very old (5 yrs+) R version is passing options that prevents this? You can try this, but it’s best to install a recent R (or ask your sysadmin to do it).

6

Hello tamas, nothing is returned, strangely. I did this: gcc test.c (where test.c is that program’s source file). I also tried gcc test.c -o test.exe (and chmod +x a.out followed by ./a.out, something I found on the web).

7

I followed the advice of that link, with both C11 and C99. The same error occurred. This states that certain prerequisites for Debian are contained in the build-essential package, which I also have a difficulty installing (because of the R version).

8

I suggest you install a recent R version, and try with that. If it still does not work, post the full output from the installation attempt.

9

Hello,

Apologies for the late response. I solved this by installing an older version of igraph.

Thanks.

10

Many bugs have been fixed in newer versions of igraph. I strongly suggest not to use any old versions unless you are trying to reproduce results you obtained many years ago, using a specific version. You should upgrade your R installation instead.