Rcall cannot be installed on Stata 16

[Zhiyuan Ryan Chen]

Dear Statalists,

I am trying to install the rcall package onto Stata 16 using the recommended command "github install". What I did is to follow the instruction on "https://github.com/haghish/rcall" and type "github install haghish/rcall, stable" in the Stata command window. However the stata shows

unable to open rcall-3.0.6.zip for writing
r(603);

Could you help me figure out what's the problem?
Thank you in advance!

[Richard Williams]

Works for me. Sometimes problems like that reflect temporary Internet connection problems. Try again later.

Also, do you have read/write privileges on your machine? Are you able to install anything?

[Zhiyuan Ryan Chen]

Hi Richard, thanks for your reply!
I could install other packages, for example, I installed the github package before I install the rcall. The Stata shows that I can receive from the host, so it is probably not the internet connection issue. My operation system is windows 10, and I tried to run the stata as administrator, not helping.

[Richard Williams]

I just uninstalled and re-installed with no problem. Do you have another machine you can try it on?

Also, I assume you have R installed? It seems to install a lot of routines for R, which seems unusual to me.

If I type

github query haghish/rcall

I get a list where I can click on the version I want.

[Zhiyuan Ryan Chen]

I just uninstalled and re-installed with no problem. Do you have another machine you can try it on?

Also, I assume you have R installed? It seems to install a lot of routines for R, which seems unusual to me.

If I type

github query haghish/rcall

I get a list where I can click on the version I want.

I tried on Stata 16SE and Stata 16MP, both failed. Based on your suggestion, I typed github query haghish/rcall. I did obtain a list of versions for rcall, I clicked "Install" on the screen, still not working. Below is a screenshot of the situation.

[Richard Williams]

Weird. Do you have a different way of connecting to the internet? e.g. Could you connect using your phone as a personal hotspot? Sometimes places have these really annoying security settings on their Internet which can make it very hard to get stuff from the outside world.

You might also need to set up proxy server settings in Stata. If so, you would probably want to contact your IT support staff (if you have any).

[Zhiyuan Ryan Chen]

Weird. Do you have a different way of connecting to the internet? e.g. Could you connect using your phone as a personal hotspot? Sometimes places have these really annoying security settings on their Internet which can make it very hard to get stuff from the outside world.

You might also need to set up proxy server settings in Stata. If so, you would probably want to contact your IT support staff (if you have any).

Feel the same here. I tried VPN to use outside proxy, I guess the problem is probably not about the Internet, the error r(603) is related to the rights in writing in the directory, though I could install other packages. Maybe I will just give up using rcall ......

[Richard Williams]

You might be able to adapt these instructions. Basically you need to change a directory you can't write to into one you can.

https://www3.nd.edu/~rwilliam/statsi...a/ndstata.html

Also, rcall also installs these R files. Perhaps it is trying to install them in a directory you can't write to.

You can also do

github check haghish/rcall

which lets you know if the file is installable. I assume it is though, just not for you!

[Richard Williams]

One other idea: Go to

https://github.com/haghish/rcall/releases/tag/3.0.6

and see if you can download the zip file. What you do with it from there, I don't know.

[Zhiyuan Ryan Chen]

One other idea: Go to

https://github.com/haghish/rcall/releases/tag/3.0.6

and see if you can download the zip file. What you do with it from there, I don't know.

I changed the working directory and found that the r(603) disappears. However, I have got another error: I/O error r(691). Given that the disk still has around 100 GB memory, it is unlikely due to a short of hardware memory.

I noticed that there is a new folder called rcall-3.0.6 in the working directory now, but I cannot use the command of rcall at all. It seems that this is an deprecated installation.

[Justin Niakamal]

One alternative approach would be to try Roger Newson's rsource (SSC).

. ssc describe rsource

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
package rsource from http://fmwww.bc.edu/repec/bocode/r
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITLE
      'RSOURCE': module to run R from inside Stata using an R source file

DESCRIPTION/AUTHOR(S)
      
       The program rsource runs the Rterm command of R from inside
      Stata,      using an R source file, if R is installed on the
      user's system.      The output and/or the source file can be
      listed to the Stata log file     and/or to the Stata Results
      window in an interactive Stata session.      If the R directory
      on the user's system is not on the user's default  path, then
      the user must set the global macro Rterm_path to contain the
      path for the Rterm command, possibly in the profile.do file
      (see on-line help for details).
      
      KW: R
      KW: language
      KW: interface
      
      Requires: Stata version 10.0
      
      Distribution-Date: 20160509
      
      Author: Roger Newson,  King's College London
      Support: email [email protected]
      

INSTALLATION FILES                              (type net install rsource)
      rsource.ado
      rsource.sthlp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(type ssc install rsource to install)

[Richard Williams]

Here is my latest theory: Once you have an unzipped folder, try something like

net from C:\Users\rwilliam\Downloads\rcall-3.0.6

and install from there.

Or, give rsource a try. It seems a lot simpler to install if it meets your needs.

[Zhiyuan Ryan Chen]

[Issue resolved]

I solved the issue by doing following steps:

1. Change the working directory from "C:\Program Files\Stata" to "D:\Stata" （This may help solve the potential issue of not being able to write on the working directory)

2. Create a folder called "ado" in the new working directory by typing "adopath + "E:\Stata\ado\plus/" (This step is very important, without it you may encounter an I/O error; r(691)）

3. Make that your internet connection is proper and you can download for GitHub, then type "github install haghish/rcall, stable"

You are prepared to use rcall on stata after these steps, if the rcall_check reports "R was not found on your system. Setup R path manually", you may just type rcall setpath "path-to-R", where "path-to-R" is the path to R.exe on your machine.

Thanks to @Richard for encouraging me.

[Richard Williams]

Good. I never have problems with machines I control, but when I teach in a classroom I am at the mercy of others. Particularly annoying is when the version of Stata installed 2 years ago has never been updated! I taught via Zoom and one nice feature is I could use my own machine which was set up exactly the way I wanted it.

[Arup Das]

I also faced the problem and tried solving it following the recommended solution. However, it did not work for me and I continue obtaining the same error message. Hoping that there is some solution.

github install haghish/rcall, stable
unable to open rcall-3.0.7.zip for writing
r(603);