Search code examples
rpathmnist

Error in system(cmd, input = filelist, intern = TRUE) : 'zip' not found

I tried to read the MNIST database using the package darch and the function readMNIST() It seems to work fine until I get the message:

Error in system(cmd, input = filelist, intern = TRUE) : 'zip' not found'

I looked on the internet and found out that was because I use Windows and that it needed to add a zip-software to the path : R_ZIPCMD. So I looked on the internet and downloaded and installed RTools, which looked like a suitable software, by using the installr package. R finds it , but the PATH remains unchanged when I enter:

Sys.getenv("R_ZIPCMD")

I still get "" It seems that I have to do it manually, could someone walk me through this for I am at a loss with all these deep manipulations !

Solution

  • To close this question, based on my comment: whether using the Rtools' zip executable and/oor if you have another one installed elsewhere (e.g., cygwin or msys2), you can force R to use a specific executable with Sys.setenv(R_ZIPCMD="c:/path/to/zip.exe"). The code relying on zip should work again.

    (If this is a recurring problem, you might want to put it in your ~/.Rprofile.)