Is it possible to install LightGBM with R 4.0.0? So far, I failed with different configs. This is my latest try. On my other Windows machine, I had no troubles today to build under R 3.6.3.

With a hack, it is possible, see my response

R 4.0.0 has been released with a new RTools version with different install paths etc.

Config

• Operating System: Windows 10 - version 10.0.18362 Build 18362
• CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 CPU @ 3.60GHz
• C++ compiler version: Visual Studio 16 2019, MSVC 19.25.28614.0
• CMake version: 3.17.2
• R version: 4.0.0
• RTools40

PATH

Error

PS C:\Users\Michael\LightGBM> rscript build_r.R

• checking for file 'lightgbm_r/DESCRIPTION' ... OK

• preparing 'lightgbm':

• checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK

• cleaning src

• checking for LF line-endings in source and make files and shell scripts

• checking for empty or unneeded directories
  WARNING: directory 'lightgbm/src/compute/test' is empty

• looking to see if a 'data/datalist' file should be added

• building 'lightgbm_2.3.2.tar.gz'

• installing to library 'C:/Users/Michael/Documents/R/win-library/4.0'

• installing source package 'lightgbm' ...
  ** using staged installation
  ** libs
  installing via 'install.libs.R' to C:/Users/Michael/Documents/R/win-library/4.0/00LOCK-lightgbm/00new/lightgbm
  [1] "Trying to build with: 'Visual Studio 16 2019'"
  -- Selecting Windows SDK version 10.0.15063.0 to target Windows 10.0.18362.
  -- The C compiler identification is MSVC 19.25.28614.0
  -- The CXX compiler identification is MSVC 19.25.28614.0
  -- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.25.28610/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe
  -- Check for working C compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.25.28610/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - works
  -- Detecting C compiler ABI info
  -- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
  -- Detecting C compile features
  -- Detecting C compile features - done
  -- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.25.28610/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe
  -- Check for working CXX compiler: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.25.28610/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe - works
  -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
  -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
  -- Detecting CXX compile features
  -- Detecting CXX compile features - done
  R version passed into FindLibR.cmake: 4.0.0
  Creating R.lib and R.def
  CMake Error at cmake/modules/FindLibR.cmake:48 (message):
  Either gendef.exe or dlltool.exe not found!

  Do you have Rtools installed with its MinGW's bin/ in PATH?
  Call Stack (most recent call first):
  cmake/modules/FindLibR.cmake:204 (create_rlib_for_msvc)
  CMakeLists.txt:76 (find_package)

Comments

dlltool.exe is here:

In that folder, gendef.exe is not available though. On my other machine with old R and old RTools, "gendef.exe" is present. Hmm.