Homebrew-core: No jpeg, png, x11 and cairo capabilities

[brakkobain]

Please note we will close your issue without comment if you delete, do not read or do not fill out the issue checklist below and provide ALL the requested information. If you repeatedly fail to use the issue template, we will block you from ever submitting issues to Homebrew again.

Please always follow these steps:

• [x] Confirmed this is a problem with brew installing one, specific Homebrew/homebrew-core formula (not cask or tap) and not every time you run brew? If it's a general brew problem please file this issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/brew/issues/new. If it's a brew cask problem please file this issue at https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/issues/new. If it's a tap (e.g. Homebrew/homebrew-php) problem please file this issue at the tap.
• [x] Ran brew update and retried your prior step?
• [x] Ran brew doctor, fixed all issues and retried your prior step?
• [x] Ran brew gist-logs <formula> (where <formula> is the name of the formula that failed) and included the output link?
• [x] If brew gist-logs didn't work: ran brew config and brew doctor and included their output with your issue?

To help us debug your issue please explain:

• What you were trying to do (and why)
• What happened (include command output)
• What you expected to happen
• Step-by-step reproduction instructions (by running brew install commands)

Formula additions or changes

To get formulae added or changed in Homebrew please file a Pull Request
We will close issues requesting formulae changes.

[brakkobain]

When installing R with
brew install r
and checking capabilities() I get:
jpeg, png, x11 and cairo as FALSE
This is not the case when installing R with the CRAN package.

[ilovezfs]

See https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues/15925#issuecomment-317240808

[slhck]

@ilovezfs Seeing that this has come up several times now, and in the other thread Mike was saying that:

(X11) Seems to be used sometimes, but we probably do not want to have this as a default.

… why is X11 not available as --with-x11 anymore?

I don't necessarily want to create my own tap just for adding a flag that was already there at some point. Would you accept a PR that adds a --with-x11?

[ilovezfs]

Would you accept a PR that adds a --with-x11?

No, we have 10,898 installs in the last 30 days so I think the formula is proving sufficiently useful as-is without adding an X11 option, especially when we're trying to retire X11 options and deps wherever they still exist in formulae.

[slhck]

From the multiple issues related to missing Cairo / X11 capabilities raised in the last months (and I was just about to post another one), I would actually conclude that there is still a use case for it. (I'm not sure I understand how it is possible to judge the usefulness a formula from the number of installs, when it's about an option that is not there. Hard to prove in any case.)

So I think the argument is that you want to retire X11 support, but it's not a strict dependency, is it? Consider that the “normal” R version from CRAN does support X11 just fine.

[randy3k]

It is pretty unfortunate that homebrew R doesn't support cairo and x11. Without them, R can no longer create svg images. R users may not discover it when they first install/upgrade their homebrew R. Then later they will find it out when they need to save svg images.

[randy3k]

I am now hosting a tap containing a formula r-x11 with cairo and x11 supports.
https://github.com/randy3k/homebrew-r#installing-r-with-x11-support

[joe4dev]

X11 and Cairo is also required to embed fonts with ggplot using device=cairo_pdf (see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27542302/ggplot-embedded-fonts-in-pdf)

The r formula should at least provide this option. We have to resort to the workaround from @randy3k in the meantime. Thanks for that 👏

[ilovezfs]

Does that really require both x11 and cairo or just cairo?

[randy3k]

In principle these devices are independent of X11 (as is seen by their presence on Windows). But on a Unix-alike the cairo libraries may be distributed as part of the X11 system and hence that (on macOS, XQuartz) may need to be installed.

https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/grDevices/versions/3.4.3/topics/cairo

[ilovezfs]

So the fact that /opt/X11/lib/libcairo.dylib exists if XQuartz is installed means upstream doesn't look for any other cairo?

[randy3k]

R in fact uses pkg-config to discover libcairo.

[ilovezfs]

@randy3k OK. Yet https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/24094 needed to do string replacements to make it work without X11.