Can't install the readxl package. error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]

[mikbrt]

When I try to install the package using either:
install.packages("readxl") or devtools::install_cran("readxl")
I get the following output that results in no package installed:

Installing package into ‘/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/readxl_1.4.3.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 2093488 bytes (2.0 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 2.0 MB

* installing *source* package ‘readxl’ ...
** package ‘readxl’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** using staged installation
** libs
using C compiler: ‘gcc (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0’
using C++ compiler: ‘g++ (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0’
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Iunix -I. -I'/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4/cpp11/include' -I'/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include'    -fvisibility=hidden -fpic  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/home/jranke/git/r-backports/bookworm/r-base-4.4.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2   -c cpp11.cpp -o cpp11.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Iunix -I. -I'/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4/cpp11/include' -I'/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include'    -fvisibility=hidden -fpic  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/home/jranke/git/r-backports/bookworm/r-base-4.4.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2   -c XlsWorkBook.cpp -o XlsWorkBook.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Iunix -I. -I'/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4/cpp11/include' -I'/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include'    -fvisibility=hidden -fpic  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/home/jranke/git/r-backports/bookworm/r-base-4.4.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2   -c XlsxWorkBook.cpp -o XlsxWorkBook.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Iunix -I. -I'/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4/cpp11/include' -I'/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include'    -fvisibility=hidden -fpic  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/home/jranke/git/r-backports/bookworm/r-base-4.4.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2   -c zip.cpp -o zip.o
g++ -std=gnu++17 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -Iunix -I. -I'/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4/cpp11/include' -I'/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include'    -fvisibility=hidden -fpic  -g -O2 -ffile-prefix-map=/home/jranke/git/r-backports/bookworm/r-base-4.4.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2   -c Read.cpp -o Read.o
In file included from Spinner.h:3,
                 from XlsCellSet.h:4,
                 from SheetView.h:8,
                 from Read.cpp:1:
/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h: In member function ‘void RProgress::RProgress::render()’:
/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h:229:17: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
  229 |         REprintf(str.c_str());
      |         ~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~
/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h:231:16: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
  231 |         Rprintf(str.c_str());
      |         ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~
/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h: In member function ‘void RProgress::RProgress::clear_line(bool, int)’:
/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h:272:15: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
  272 |       REprintf(spaces);
      |       ~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~
/usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h:274:14: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
  274 |       Rprintf(spaces);
      |       ~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~
cc1plus: some warnings being treated as errors
make: *** [/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:204: Read.o] Error 1
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘readxl’
* removing ‘/home/username/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.4/readxl’

The downloaded source packages are in
        ‘/tmp/Rtmp5P0Lvo/downloaded_packages’
Warning message:
In install.packages("readxl") :
  installation of package ‘readxl’ had non-zero exit status

I tried setting these flags in my bash terminal to get around the issue but it didn't work:

export CXXFLAGS="-Wno-format-security"
export CFLAGS="-Wno-format-security"

[mikbrt]

Fixed the issue, there were a few lines wrong in the file: /usr/lib/R/site-library/progress/include/RProgress.h
Turns out it had nothing to do with the readxl package, but instead the R package "progress".

I changed lines 229, 231, 272, 274.
229 | REprintf(str.c_str()); -> REprintf("%s", str.c_str());
231 | Rprintf(str.c_str()); -> Rprintf("%s", str.c_str());
272 | REprintf(spaces); -> REprintf("%s", spaces);
274 | Rprintf(spaces); -> Rprintf("%s", spaces);

According to this reply in a thread for a different package, another solution would also be to install the new version of the progress package in R with command install.packages('progress'), which is probably a better than manually changing lines of code.