r - error: --with-readline=yes (default) and headers/libs are not available

Question

I am installing R. I am getting this error when runing ./configure :

checking for history_truncate_file... no
configure: error: --with-readline=yes (default) and headers/libs are not available

Any hint, Thanks

Answer 1

Use the following command will solve this problem

./configure --with-readline=no --with-x=no

--with-x=no turns off the X Windows System . It is the GUI for the Linux and Unix-like OS. My computer has no X Windows installed, so I turn off.
But I highly recommand to install readline library before R installtion with '--with-readline=yes', as the command operation style is quitely unfriendly with '--with-readline=no' . See more libreadline installation in linux for more details

you can use the following command for more install configuration details

./configure --help