# BiocManager Error: invalid version specification ‘c(3, 9)’

**URL:** <https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632>\
**Category:** R\
**Tags:** build-env\
**Created:** [January 2, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632 "2019-01-02T18:26:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LiNk-NY](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/link-ny/32/5122_2.png) [@LiNk-NY](https://travis-ci.community/u/LiNk-NY)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/1 "2019-01-02T18:26:44Z")

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I’m not sure why this error has popped up recently.  
It’s hard to debug this without being able to check the environment.

Any ideas and/or suggestions?

Example:  
[https://www.travis-ci.org/waldronlab/MultiAssayExperiment/builds/474509079](https://www.travis-ci.org/waldronlab/MultiAssayExperiment/builds/474509079)

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**Author:** ![jayhesselberth](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/jayhesselberth/32/779_2.png) [@jayhesselberth](https://travis-ci.community/u/jayhesselberth)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 8:50am UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/2 "2019-01-03T08:50:55Z")

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I’m also seeing this error in many builds. It’s always on the devel branch—I assume it’s a new issue with R 3.5.2.

```auto
Installing R packages: devtools
0.37s$ Rscript -e 'install.packages(c("devtools"));if (!all(c("devtools") %in% installed.packages())) { q(status = 1, save = "no")}'
Error: invalid version specification ‘c(3, 9)'

```

Here’s a few of my failing builds:

- [valr](https://travis-ci.org/rnabioco/valr/jobs/474753579)
- [scrunchy](https://travis-ci.org/hesselberthlab/scrunchy/jobs/474642219)

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**Author:** ![LiNk-NY](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/link-ny/32/5122_2.png) [@LiNk-NY](https://travis-ci.community/u/LiNk-NY)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/3 "2019-01-03T21:44:47Z")

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**Update** : This seems to be due to an R-devel regression introduced at some point causing  
versions to be reported as an integer vector rather than character.

See here for more info:  
[https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2019-January/014508.html](https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2019-January/014508.html)

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**Author:** ![manish-saraswat1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@manish-saraswat1](https://travis-ci.community/u/manish-saraswat1)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/4 "2019-01-04T12:52:12Z")

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I am also getting this error. ☹  
Any way to fix it ?

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**Author:** ![zappingseb](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/zappingseb/32/876_2.png) [@zappingseb](https://travis-ci.community/u/zappingseb)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/5 "2019-01-04T13:25:58Z")

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Scrolling through the issue on bioc-devel mailinglist shows it shall be fixed soon: [https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2019-January/077155.html](https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2019-January/077155.html) 2019-Jan-04 - 8:09 am CET

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**Author:** ![jayhesselberth](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/travis-ci.community/jayhesselberth/32/779_2.png) [@jayhesselberth](https://travis-ci.community/u/jayhesselberth)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 1:29pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/6 "2019-01-04T13:29:06Z")

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My builds on bioc-devel [are fixed](https://travis-ci.org/hesselberthlab/scrunchy/jobs/475297302).

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**Author:** ![manish-saraswat1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@manish-saraswat1](https://travis-ci.community/u/manish-saraswat1)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://travis-ci.community/t/biocmanager-error-invalid-version-specification-c-3-9/1632/7 "2019-01-04T16:39:08Z")

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For me, it seems to work now for linux: devel. I think the guys have fixed this issue.