jupyter-client has to be installed but “jupyter kernelspec --version” exited with code 127

I have already installed Jupyter notebook in my ubuntu 16.04 machine. In jupyter notebook there is by default python installed. Now I want to use R from jupyter notebook.

To do so I followed IRkernel installation link and run below commands:

install.packages('devtools') devtools::install_github('IRkernel/IRkernel') 

But when I run IRkernel::installspec() command it shows below error:

jupyter-client has to be installed but “jupyter kernelspec --version” exited with code 127

I am now confused why this error occurs.

20 Answers

Running this command from RStudio will show this error. When you run this command from command line/ terminal then everything will be fine.

So just type R from your command line.

Then Run below commands:

install.packages('devtools') devtools::install_github('IRkernel/IRkernel') 

IRkernel::installspec() 

1. If Anaconda is installed and the Jupyter-Notebook with it (should be the standard install), open up the Anaconda prompt, not the Windows command prompt or the Anaconda Navigator
2. Look up the executable of R (not Rgui or Rstudio), it should be somewhere like C:\Program Files\R\R-3.5.1\bin and remember the path typing cd C:\Program Files\R\R-3.5.1\bin and start R by typing R
3. typing IRkernel::installspec()
4. Now you can start an R kernel within Jupyter-Notebook

On some Windows systems you may not succeed even if you run R from cmd / powershell. That's the case on my machine. My workaround is to run R from Anaconda Prompt (if you installed Jupyter via Anaconda). You may need to specify the full path if R is not on your PATH.

I think this is some problem related to the PATH, however I had no luck adding Anaconda\Lib\site-packages\jupyter_client to my system PATH.

I have solved with this:

sudo ln -s /home/'my user name'/anaconda3/bin/jupyter /usr/bin/jupyter

I am running Ubuntu 18.04.4 with R installed in /usr/bin/R and Python in /home/ubuntu/anaconda3/bin/python. I ran into a number of path related problems when trying to tell Jupyter where to find the kernel for my R installation. Regardless of how I ran R the IRkernel::installspec() would not work in R. I found success by making the connection using jupyter kernelspec from the command line. Specifically this is what worked for me.

From within R:

install.packages("devtools") devtools::install_github("IRkernel/IRkernel") system.file('kernelspec', package = 'IRkernel') 

The last line should give you the location of Jupyter will need to find the kernel. Mine was /home/ubuntu/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.0/IRkernel/kernelspec

From the command line:

1. inspect the path that you receive when you were in R. There should be a .json file in it.
2. jupyter kernelspec list (run this to be sure that jupyter is in your path, you should see information about the current available kernels.
3. jupyter kernelspec install /home/ubuntu/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.0/IRkernel/kernelspec --name 'R' --user (you will use path that you received while working in R which could be different)
4. jupyter kernelspec list (this list should now include R)
5. restart jupyter

I tried to install IRkernel on my Windows machine. I experienced a similar problem when I ran from within R:

> IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE) Error in IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE) : jupyter-client has to be installed but “jupyter kernelspec --version” exited with code 1. 

I did not use conda to install Jupyter on my machine, but pip. I have some programmes installed which use python under the hood. It means that I have more than one Python instance on my machine and more Jupyter instances too. To be sure I was referencing the right Jupyter instance, I did this:

> setwd('C:/usr/lib/Python36-32/Scripts') > IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE) [InstallKernelSpec] Installed kernelspec ir in C:\ProgramData\jupyter\kernels\ir 

Besides Python, I can now also use R within my notebooks.

Here a way to overcome this problem. I have installed IRkernel with anaconda in my mac (I guess is the same on Linux). The below command also works in windows to be run on Anaconda shell and pressing y after a y/n prompt (you can also refer )

I typed:

conda install -c r r-irkernel 

Then I started started R typing:

R 

Finally, I have install the kernelspec to tell Jupyter about IRkernel, with the option user=FALSE for installation in the global environment:

IRkernel::installspec(user=FALSE) 

Hope it helps!

Adding this for anyone, who googling and getting stuck on this issue may benefit from this simple learning. I got the same error, as above, followed the instructions above (while launching R in Terminal):

IRkernel::installspec() Error in IRkernel::installspec() : jupyter-client has to be installed but “jupyter kernelspec --version” exited with code 127. 

In Bash I ran:

Mac-Pro:~ $ jupyter kernelspec --version -bash: jupyter: command not found 

Duh, I had no Jupyter installed. Install Jupyter (on mac, using brew) with: brew install jupyter. Installation instructions for other OS's can be found here.

All now working fine.

I had the same error but the fix was different:

Make sure you also have anaconda install on your system! (or at least jupyter)

I had the same error, but in my case, I have jupyter installed in a virtual environment, so I had to start R after installing the virtual environment in order for IRkernel::installspec() to succeed.

I had the same error while trying to install my environment as kernel in Jupyter. First I had created a new environment, installed R, IRkernel and devtools from within conda prompt, then runned R typing R from the prompt and typing

IRkernel::installspec(name = 'myenvname', displayname = 'myenvname') 

I had the same error. I solved simply in this way:

conda install -c anaconda jupyter_client 

And then retyping the previous code it just worked.

In windows 10 sys you just move the 3 files in your R library (install 'IRkernel' before this step) to your jupyter-lab "ir" path

Hope it helps u!

I came up with the same problem and solved it with ease following these steps

pc specs: macOS version 10.14.6

1. make sure R is installed if not find here how to.
2. make sure you have jupyter notebook installed if not find that here how.
3. Go to the terminal or use Launchpad to launch R, then install following package:devtools::install_github('IRkernel/IRkernel').
4. find out the where its installed using:system.file('kernelspec', package = 'IRkernel') and use the path (mine was : /Users/ali/Library/R/4.0/library/IRkernel/kernelspec) you get here in the commond below.
5. now go to the terminal again and type this : jupyter kernelspec install /Users/ali/Library/R/4.0/library/IRkernel/kernelspec --name 'R' --user.
6. Then the last thing is to check the kernal list and restart notebook using cmd 4 and 5 from @Bryan Prazen above.

enjoy !!

I had the same issue; I added the following in the ~/.bashrc (and source) and then tried running IRkernel::installspec() and it worked:

export PATH="~/anaconda3/bin:$PATH" 

I had the same problem but none of the above solutions worked for me. I was using Debian 9 with the default versions of python and R. I had to delete installed programs and compile latest versions of both from source. For Python compiling I had to use this configuration

For Windows Users, After installing anaconda, you should restart your system so Anaconda prompt appears on start. After opening Anaconda Prompt enter

IRkernel::installspec()

This time it will works since I think restart 'cuz PATH of the system to be upgraded.

I don't use conda - I have python virtual env and R installed. I don't know if it matters but I'm running on ubuntu for windows (WSL) (might be the cause of my error, might be unrelated). In the console, it recognized jupyter. Inside R console I installed IRkernel but IRkernel::installspec() gave me the error above (didn't recognize jupyter). I couldn't find a solution that worked, so I am writing here what solved it for me. I found the internals of installspec here. Check before hand where is your jupyter installed with which jupyter and run R from command line. Then, run the following code (adjusted from the link above):

 srcdir <- system.file('kernelspec', package = 'IRkernel') tmp_name <- tempfile() dir.create(tmp_name) file.copy(srcdir, tmp_name, recursive = TRUE) spec_path <- file.path(tmp_name, 'kernelspec', 'kernel.json') library(jsonlite) spec$argv[[1]] <- file.path(R.home('bin'), 'R') spec$display_name <- 'R' write(toJSON(spec, pretty = TRUE, auto_unbox = TRUE), file = spec_path) args <- c('kernelspec', 'install', '--replace', '--name', 'ir', file.path(tmp_name, 'kernelspec')) system2('/path/to/jupyter', args) <--- here you copy paste the path you got earlier with pwd unlink(tmp_name, recursive = TRUE) 

For mac users:

I came across the same problem. You should call IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE) in the terminal through R. I solved it this way, and I bet you could do the same:

1. Call R.home() in R console
2. You shall get [1] "/Library/Frameworks/"
3. Add /bin/R to path nlike this: /Library/Frameworks/
4. In terminal, paste this path /Library/Frameworks/and enter.
5. Now you are using R in terminal. CallIRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE) And it shall be solved then.

I was installing jupyter notebook for R in linux and when I was adding IRkernel for jupyter then I got this same error. Then I install jupyter-client by using Linux terminal sudo apt-get install jupyter-client After this, no other error occurred.

Assume that you have already run R in the terminal. You can first call library('IRkernel'), press Enter, then call installspec() or installspec(user=FALSE).

For me, simply calling IRkernel::installspec() will always raise the error you mentioned in your question. I don't know why what I did solved this problem on my centos server.