R devel - Apr 2025 - R does not build with conda libcurl

Hi all,
I'm not sure if this is an issue with conda or R.
I expected that I should be able to build R from source, with a conda
environment active.
However, I observe that with conda 23.9.0, in an environment with libcurl
package installed, I get a link error.
The configure works fine:

(base) hoct2726 at dinf-thock-02i:~/R/R-4.5.0$ ./configure --prefix=$HOME
--with-cairo --with-blas --with-lapack --enable-R-shlib
--with-valgrind-instrumentation=2 --enable-memory-profiling
...
R is now configured for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

  Source directory:            .
  Installation directory:      /home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726

  C compiler:                  gcc -std=gnu2x  -g -O2
  Fortran fixed-form compiler: gfortran  -g -O2

  Default C++ compiler:        g++ -std=gnu++17  -g -O2
  Fortran free-form compiler:  gfortran  -g -O2
  Obj-C compiler:

  Interfaces supported:        X11, tcltk
  External libraries:          pcre2, readline, BLAS(generic),
LAPACK(generic), curl, libdeflate
  Additional capabilities:     PNG, JPEG, TIFF, NLS, cairo, ICU
  Options enabled:             shared R library, R profiling, memory
profiling, libdeflate for lazyload

  Capabilities skipped:
  Options not enabled:         shared BLAS

  Recommended packages:        yes



but I got an error from "make" --

(base) hoct2726 at dinf-thock-02i:~/R/R-4.5.0$ make
...
make[3] : on entre dans le r?pertoire
? /home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/R/R-4.5.0/src/main ?
gcc -std=gnu2x -I../../src/extra -I../../src/extra/xdr -I.
-I../../src/include -I../../src/include
-I/home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/miniconda3/include -I/usr/local/include
-I../../src/nmath -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -fopenmp -fpic  -g -O2  -c Rmain.c -o
Rmain.o
gcc -std=gnu2x -Wl,--export-dynamic -fopenmp  -L"../../lib"
-L/usr/local/lib -o R.bin Rmain.o  -lR
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? ucol_setAttribute_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers ? ucol_close_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers ? ucol_open_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? uiter_setUTF8_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? ucol_getLocaleByType_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? ucol_setStrength_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? u_versionToString_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? ucol_strcollIter_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? uloc_setDefault_73 ?
/usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
? u_getVersion_73 ?
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[3]: *** [Makefile:150 : R.bin] Erreur 1
make[3] : on quitte le r?pertoire
? /home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/R/R-4.5.0/src/main ?
make[2]: *** [Makefile:141 : R] Erreur 2
make[2] : on quitte le r?pertoire
? /home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/R/R-4.5.0/src/main ?
make[1]: *** [Makefile:28 : R] Erreur 1
make[1] : on quitte le r?pertoire
? /home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/R/R-4.5.0/src ?
make: *** [Makefile:61 : R] Erreur 1


It seems that the libcurl package in conda provides the curl-config command
line program, which R is using to get this flag:
-I/home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/miniconda3/include
(it goes into CURL_CPPFLAGS variable in config.status)
To fix the build, I did "conda remove libcurl" and then "make
clean" and
then "configure" and "make" worked.

It would be more user-friendly if the R build could "just work" even
when
the user has activated a conda environment with libcurl package installed.
Is this an issue that R could fix?

Thanks
Toby

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

On Mon, 14 Apr 2025 14:10:56 +0200
Toby Hocking <tdhock5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> /usr/bin/ld : ../../lib/libR.so : r?f?rence ind?finie vers
> ? u_getVersion_73 ?
Strange that it's complaining about symbols from libicu when the
problem is due to libcurl-related flags. What was the command line used
to link libR.so somewhere above in the log? I think it's not being
correctly linked with libicu, but since shared libraries are allowed to
have undefined imports in them, this is only found out later, when
linking the R.bin executable.
> It seems that the libcurl package in conda provides the curl-config
> command line program, which R is using to get this flag:
> -I/home/local/USHERBROOKE/hoct2726/miniconda3/include
With libcurl installed from conda, what do the following commands print?

curl-config --built-shared
curl-config --static-libs
curl-config --libs
> To fix the build, I did "conda remove libcurl" and then
"make clean"
> and then "configure" and "make" worked.
It should also be possible to override the path to curl-config using
the CURL_CONFIG environment variable.

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan