title: Strange C compiler error when installing R package on a cluster
body: <p>-- I was able to solve this problem, see last edit below ---</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to use R on the computing cluster of my institute. For parallel computing issues, I would like to install the snow and the Rmpi package. So I downloaded the tar.gz files and tried to install the pacakges, for snow it worked fine, but for Rmpi something strange happens:</p>
  
  <p>What I did first:</p>
  
  <pre><code>install.packages("/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi_0.6-5.tar.gz", repos = NULL, type = "source", lib = "/home/myusername/Rpackages/")
  * installing *source* package ‘Rmpi’ ...
  ** Paket ‘Rmpi’ erfolgreich entpackt und MD5 Summen überprüft
  checking for gcc... gcc -m64 -std=gnu99
  checking whether the C compiler works... yes
  checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
  checking for suffix of executables... 
  checking whether we are cross compiling... no
  checking for suffix of object files... o
  checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
  checking whether gcc -m64 -std=gnu99 accepts -g... yes
  checking for gcc -m64 -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... none needed
  Trying to find mpi.h ...
  Cannot find mpi.h header file
  Please use --with-mpi=/path/to/mpi or specify the environment variable MPI_ROOT
  ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘Rmpi’
  * removing ‘/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi’
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Ok, so mpi.h seemed to be missing, I did some searching and found out what to do: specify the path to the MPI libraries:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; install.packages("/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi_0.6-5.tar.gz", repos = NULL, type = "source", lib = "/home/myusername/Rpackages/", configure.args="--with-mpi=/cm/local/modulefiles/openmpi/gcc/64/1.6.3" )
  * installing *source* package ‘Rmpi’ ...
  ** Paket ‘Rmpi’ erfolgreich entpackt und MD5 Summen überprüft
  checking for gcc... gcc -m64 -std=gnu99
  checking whether the C compiler works... no
  configure: error: in `/tmp/Rtmp9qZ8QA/R.INSTALLad327c257ce2/Rmpi':
  configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
  See `config.log' for more details
  
  ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘Rmpi’
  * removing ‘/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi’
  Warnmeldung:
  In install.packages("/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi_0.6-5.tar.gz",  :
    Installation des Pakets ‘/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi_0.6-5.tar.gz’ hatte Exit-Status ungleich 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So now there is no mpi.h error, but the C compiler appears not to work, although it did before and I only changed the mpi option in the install.packages function.</p>
  
  <p>What went wrong here and how can I install the package?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Edit 2: After some help, I figured out how to find where the mpi files are located and did this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>install.packages("/home/myusername/Rpackages/Rmpi_0.6-5.tar.gz", repos = NULL, type = "source", lib = "/home/myusername/Rpackages/", configure.args=c("--with-Rmpi-libpath=/usr/mpi/gcc/openmpi-1.6.3/lib64/","--with‌​-Rmpi-type=OPENMPI", "--with-Rmpi-include=/usr/mpi/gcc/openmpi-1.6.3/include/") )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, this still does not work and I get the following errors:</p>
  
  <pre><code>* installing *source* package ‘Rmpi’ ...
  ** Paket ‘Rmpi’ erfolgreich entpackt und MD5 Summen überprüft
  checking for openpty in -lutil... no
  checking for main in -lpthread... no
  configure: creating ./config.status
  config.status: creating src/Makevars
  ** libs
  gcc -m64 -std=gnu99 -I/usr/include/R -DNDEBUG -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"\" -DPACKAGE_STRING=\"\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" -DPACKAGE_URL=\"\" -I/usr/mpi/gcc/openmpi-1.6.3/include/  -DMPI2 -DOPENMPI -I/usr/local/include    -fpic  -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m64 -mtune=generic  -c Rmpi.c -o Rmpi.o
  Rmpi.c: In Funktion »mpi_bcast«:
  Rmpi.c:605:2: Fehler: unbekannter Typname: »R_xlen_t«
  make: *** [Rmpi.o] Fehler 1
  ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘Rmpi’
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Edit 3: I figured out a solution to my problem which due to incomplete information, noone here could have found I guess. On the cluster, R was only installed in version 2.15.2, but Rmpi 0.6-5 is built for R 3.0.0 or newer. The R version dependence in the Rmpi package is wrongly specified. I downloaded an older version (Rmpi 0.6-1) and was able to install this one.</p>