building fails on arch linux with no error message despite verbose=TRUE

Description:

I followed the suggested build instructions at https://github.com/stan-dev/rstan/wiki/Installing-RStan-on-Mac-or-Linux. But the build fails with no actionable error message, even with verbose=TRUE.

Reproducible Steps:

dotR <- file.path(Sys.getenv("HOME"), ".R")
if (!file.exists(dotR)) dir.create(dotR)
M <- file.path(dotR, "Makevars")
if (!file.exists(M)) file.create(M)
cat("\nCXXFLAGS=-O3 -mtune=native -march=native -Wno-unused-variable -Wno-unused-function", 
    file = M, sep = "\n", append = TRUE)

library(devtools)
Sys.setenv(MAKEFLAGS = "-j4")
# installs deps, but rstan fails:
install.packages("rstan", repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org/", dependencies=TRUE)
# so try verbose build from source
install.packages("rstan", type = "source", quiet=FALSE, verbose=TRUE)

Current Output:

Installing package into ‘/home/bjorn/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
system (cmd0): /usr/lib64/R/bin/R CMD INSTALL
foundpkgs: rstan, /tmp/Rtmpf4QkoH/downloaded_packages/rstan_2.16.2.tar.gz
files: /tmp/Rtmpf4QkoH/downloaded_packages/rstan_2.16.2.tar.gz
Warning message in install.packages("rstan", type = "source", quiet = FALSE, verbose = TRUE):
“installation of package ‘rstan’ had non-zero exit status”

Expected Output:

The actual command that had "non-zero exit", and its output, so there is any chance to debug it.

RStan Version:

Rstan 2.16.2

R Version:

R 3.4.2

Operating System:

Arch Linux
gcc 7.2 (The compiler builds cmdstan and Rcpp successfully)

Start by reproducing the source installation on Arch Linux with RStan 2.16.2 and the shown MAKEFLAGS and verbose settings. Trace the R CMD INSTALL invocation and determine where the non-zero exit output is lost; done means the failing command and its diagnostic output are exposed to the user.