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unknown archive type error on macOS #915
Description
I saw this on GitHub actions in pola-rs/r-polars#1884:
https://github.com/pola-rs/r-polars/actions/runs/35546233480/job/106172535861?pr=1884#step:6:14584
ℹ Installing lockfile '.github/pkg.lock'
→ Package library at '/Users/runner/work/_temp/Library'.
→ Will install 10 packages.
→ Will download 10 packages with unknown size.
+ base64enc 0.1-6 🔧 ⬇
+ diffobj 0.3.9 🔧 ⬇
+ knitr 1.52 ⬇
+ pak 0.11.1 🔧 ⬇
+ tinytex 0.61 ⬇
+ usethis 3.2.2 ⬇
+ xfun 0.61 🔧 ⬇
ℹ Getting 7 pkgs with unknown sizes
✔ Cached copy of lattice 0.22-9 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) is the latest build
✔ Cached copy of Matrix 1.7-5 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) is the latest build
✔ Got base64enc 0.1-6 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (38.77 kB)
✔ Got tinytex 0.61 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (150.42 kB)
✔ Got xfun 0.61 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (656.51 kB)
✔ Got knitr 1.52 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (992.43 kB)
✔ Got diffobj 0.3.9 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (1.01 MB)
✔ Got usethis 3.2.2 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (954.92 kB)
✔ Got pak 0.11.1 (aarch64-apple-darwin23) (7.43 MB)
✔ Installed base64enc 0.1-6 (31ms)
Error:
! error in pak subprocess
Caused by error in `make_install_process(filename, lib = lib, metadata = metadata)`:
! Cannot extract
'/var/folders/36/tjdph2t965j8snz9_vkdnw0r0000gn/T//RtmpQTZorp/file52328a60a67/bin/macosx/sonoma-arm64/contrib/4.6/knitr_1.52.tgz',
unknown archive type.
Activity
setup-r-deps: take macOS binaries from Posit Package Manager (#64)
eliotmcintire commentedon Sep 21, 2026
We hit the same thing across several repos, and I think the cause is the compression of the file, not the download.
CRAN has started serving some newly built macOS binaries zstd-compressed. From
https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/sonoma-arm64/contrib/4.6/:knitr_1.52.tgzandterra_1.9-50.tgzstart with28 b5 2f fd(Zstandard;filesays "Zstandard compressed data").jsonlite_2.0.0.tgz, starts with1f 8b(gzip).detect_package_archive_type()in pkgdepends (R/install-tar.R) recognises gzip, bzip2 and xz, so these fall through to"unknown"andmake_install_process()stops with "unknown archive type". In a sample of 40 files from that directory'sPACKAGES, 1 was zstd, so it should spread as packages are rebuilt.Workaround that works for us on GitHub Actions:
use-public-rspm: alwaysinr-lib/actions/setup-r(withtrue, macOS only gets Package Manager for a few orgs). Posit Package Manager serves the same versions as gzip;terra 1.9-50then installs from it.gaborcsardi commentedon Sep 21, 2026
Apparently this is a CRAN bug:
https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2026-September/015389.html
Nevertheless I am going to switch over the default to PPM on macOS as well, as it seems to we working well and it also fixes this issue.
gaborcsardi commentedon Sep 21, 2026
First reported here, just to link things up: r-lib/pkgdepends#485
CI: install macOS dependencies without pak
ci: install macOS dependencies without pak
Replace the CI with a self-contained rcc workflow
Take the mac's package binaries from Posit Package Manager