The cause: Although the authors claim that the source is for “direct usage” in R, the.zip file they supply is not a legitimate R package. The non-zero exit status only signifies that there was a problem with the “package” installation.

Solution: You can download the.RData file they give and import it into the workspace with load('.RData') or you can manually extract the archive and load the features therein with, for example, source('bivpois.table.R'). Instead of installing the functions as a package, this installs them into your system’s global environment, keeping them momentarily accessible.

The.RData from R can be downloaded, extracted, and loaded as described below:

download.file('http://stat-athens.aueb.gr/~jbn/papers/files/14/14_bivpois_RDATA.zip',
f <- tempfile())
unzip(f, exdir=tempdir())
load(file.path(tempdir(), '.RData'))

Instead, you might use the following to make the.RData file accessible in the project folder so that it can be loaded afterward:

download.file('http://stat-athens.aueb.gr/~jbn/papers/files/14/14_bivpois_RDATA.zip',
f <- tempfile())
unzip(f, exdir=tempdir())
file.copy(file.path(tempdir(), '.RData'), 'bivpois.RData')
# the above copies the .RData file to a file called bivpois.RData in your current
# working directory.
load('bivpois.RData')