Install xlsx and rJava on macOS Mavericks 10.9.5

Question

Its being a real nightmare to install rjava on my Mac.

My setup:

MacOS 10.9.5
Java: 7u71 (64 bits dowloaded from Oracle site)
R: R version 3.1.1 (2014-07-10)

First, in the command line I ran the

sudo R CMD javareconf

Then, I ran inside R:

install.packages('rJava')

The error in the end of the compiling is this:

JavaVM -F/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/.. -framework R -llzma -lm -liconv -licuuc -licui18n
ld: library not found for -licuuc
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 ‘/Users/costa/Library/R/3.1/library/rJava’

I tried Java 8 and the Mac default java and also got the same error.

Ideias?

Answer 1

What I did (using macports R) as root (sudo bash):

• edit /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/etc/Makeconf and change the line

  LIBS =  -llzma -lm -liconv -licuuc -licui18n
  

  to

  LIBS =  -llzma -lm -liconv
  

• install the original 1.6 Mac Java

• export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

• run R CMD javareconf

Now you can start R and do a install.packages("rJava"). Using the 1.6 version of Java made sure that also RStudio can load the rJava package.

If you do not plan using RStudio, you can also use Java 1.8