R macOS toolchain Evolution

As the years pass by, the R development toolchain for macOS changes. The goal of this post is to provide a summary of how the toolchain has evolved across the releases.

For help installing or removing the current toolchain, please see the guidelines set forth in:

• R Compiler Tools for Rcpp on macOS.
• Uninstalling the R Development Toolchain on macOS

Historical Information

The toolchain has changed overtime with respect to the compiler and gfortran requirements. In particular, in prior version of R the compiler was:

• R 4.y.z
  • Compiler: Xcode CLI from the macOS SDK 10.13
  • Fortran:
    • gfortran8.1 if on Mojave (10.14) or Catalina (10.15)
    • gfortran6.3 if on Sierra (10.12) or High Sierra (10.13)
• R 3.6.z
  • Compiler: clang7 and OS X SDK 10.11
  • Fortran: gfortran6.1
• R 3.5.z: clang6 and OS X SDK 10.11
  • Compiler: clang6
  • Fortran: gfortran6.1
• R 3.4.z: clang4 and OS X SDK 10.11
  • Compiler: clang4
  • Fortran: gfortran6.1
• R 3.0.0 - 3.3.3:
  • Compiler: Included Xcode CLI clang version and OS X SDK 10.9
  • Fortran: gfortran4.8.2 (custom)

Notes:

The gfortran binary has shifted from a custom version of gfortran4.8.2 compiled by the CRAN macOS maintainers to the official binaries by the GNU project.

• Official Installers
  • gfortran8.2 for Mojave (macOS 10.14)
    • https://github.com/fxcoudert/gfortran-for-macOS/releases/download/8.2/gfortran-8.2-Mojave.dmg
  • gfortran6.3 for Sierra (macOS 10.12)
    • https://github.com/fxcoudert/gfortran-for-macOS/releases/download/6.3/gfortran-6.3-Sierra.dmg
• CRAN gfortran6.1 installer
  • https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/tools/gfortran-6.1.pkg
• Custom gfortran4.8.2 binary
  • https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/tools/gfortran-4.2.3.pkg