How to fix R package installation fatal error: zlib.h: No such file or directory

Problem:

While installing some R package, you see an error message like

example.txt

io_utils.c:16:10: fatal error: zlib.h: No such file or directory
   16 | #include <zlib.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make: *** [/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:168: io_utils.o] Error 1

io_utils.c:16:10: fatal error: zlib.h: No such file or directory
   16 | #include <zlib.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make: *** [/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:168: io_utils.o] Error 1

Solution

You need to install the zlib development headers. On Ubuntu, you can do that using

example.sh

sudo apt -y install zlib1g-dev

sudo apt -y install zlib1g-dev

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