Automating running a knitr (.Rnw) file - r

I have a knitr file that works well. I am trying to automate the running of this script every day to create a pdf for other users to access. I have tried Microsoft Task Scheduler and the taskscheduleR package. It was not clear whether I could run the .Rnw file directly, so I packaged it in another R script with knitr(myscript.Rnw) inside. Nothing has worked. Has anyone worked out how to do this?
The error(s) I'm getting include:
Error in file(con, "w") : cannot open the connection:
In file(con, "w") : cannot open file 'MWE.tex': Permission denied
Execution halted
Suggestions appreciated.
Using RStudio and Miscrosoft OS
My script (auto_rnw.R):
library(knitr)
knit(myscript.Rnw)
A MWE of a .Rnw script:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Some text
<<chunk1>>=
library(knitr)
df <- data.frame("Year"=seq(2000,2017), "Value"=rnorm(18,5,2))
#
\end{document}
Scheduled task
library(taskscheduleR)
script='auto_rnw.R'
taskscheduler_create(taskname = "myscript", rscript = script,
schedule = "DAILY", starttime = "14:00",
startdate = format(Sys.Date(), "%d/%m /%Y"))

Related

Rmarkdown does not follow same paths as R script and console commands

In Rmarkdown, I cannot read files that I can read from the console and in an R script, because Rmarkdown is not following the same paths as my R scripts and console commands.
Here is a minimum reproducible example:
Create new project test.Rproj
Create a subdirectory called scripts
Run the following R Script scripts/test.R:
test <- as.data.frame(c(1, 2, 3))
dir.create("data")
write.csv(test, "data/test.csv")
rm(test)
test <- read.csv("data/test.csv")
Quit R, and reopen test.Rproj.
Knit the following Rmarkdown document (scripts/test.Rmd):
---
title: "test"
output: html_document
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
_```
```{r read-data}
test <- read.csv("data/test.csv")
_```
Yields the following error: Quitting from lines 12-13 (test.Rmd)
Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
Calls: ... withVisible -> eval -> eval -> read.csv -> read.table -> file
Execution halted
(Note, the backticks in the .Rmd file are properly specified -- I added underscores above so that the backticks appeared in the code block.)
Two seemingly related issues:
I can read the test.csv file via Rmarkdown if it is in the scripts subdirectory, rather than the data subdirectory.
When I run list.files() from the console or script, I receive of list of files in the top-level directory (i.e., where test.Rproj is located), including the data and scripts subdirectories. When I run list.files() from Rmarkdown, I get a list of files in the scripts subdirectory.
How can I fix this problem?
Session info:
R version 4.1.0 (2021-05-18)
RStudio version 1.4.1717
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Big Sur 11.5.1
Try something that looks like this as I am not sure of the nature of your `R Markdown.
test <- readRDS(here::here("data/test_data.rds"))
The bottom line is to use the here function from the here package.
When you knit a document in RStudio, by default the working directory is set to the current directory of the Rmd document (so that would be the "scripts" folder). Since the "scripts" folder does not contain the "data" directory, you get that error. You can change the default to use the project root directory if you prefer. That's an option in the RStudio Global Options menu.
See See https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/working-directory.html for more info

How can I redirect R Markdown errors to a log file when running .Rmd scripts from a pipeline?

I generate reports at the end of my Snakemake pipeline using a series of R markdown scripts. If one of these markdown files has an error and fails, the error is not saved to a log file making it impossible to investigate afterwards.
From my research I have not found a way to do this, but: is there a way to redirect errors in R markdown to a log file when running the markdown file in a pipeline? (My pipeline uses SnakeMake for the pipeline, but I assume this would apply to any pipeline).
With the current Snakemake version (7.8.0), it is possible to redirect to log files also from R code inside an R markdown.
In your rule, you can do
rule create_report:
log:
log_file = <path/to/logfile>
script:
"my_report.Rmd"
and then in the my_report.Rmd file, add a sink instruction in an R setup block, something like:
```{R setup, include = FALSE}
log <- file(snakemake#log$log_file, open = "wt")
sink(log)
sink(log, type = "message")
```
Followed by the code blocks from which the output you want to redirect.

Source R into chunk

I'm a new in exams so maybe this question is very newbie.
I can't source external R-file (contains re-usable functions) into my .Rnw.
MWE:
functions.r:
x <- 10
question.Rnw
<<echo=FALSE>>=
source('functions.r')
#
\begin{question}
$x=\Sexpr{x}$
\end{question}
generate.r
library('exams')
exams2moodle('question.Rnw')
When I try Rscript generate.r:
Loading required namespace: rmarkdown
Error: chunk 1
Error in file(filename, "r", encoding = encoding) :
cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning message:
In file(filename, "r", encoding = encoding) :
cannot open file 'functions.r': No such file or directory
Execution halted
How can I re-use own R-functions in some questions?
All exercises are copied to a temporary directory where they are processed. Thus, you are in a different directory when you make the source() call. So either you need to include it with the full path source("/path/to/functions.r") - or alternatively you can copy the file to the temporary directory. There is a convenience function include_supplement() to do the latter. If functions.r is in the same directory as question.Rnw you simply need to do:
include_supplement("functions.r")
source("functions.r")
in the code chunk at the beginning of question.Rnw.

Error in R while compiling the markdown

I am trying to save a xgboost code in Rmarkdown to knit HTML document. I am getting an error.
The code is completely executable in "R".
Fatal error: creation of tmpfile failed -- set TMPDIR suitably?
The error is same when I try to run knit Pdf/word.
Someone please help me.
Thank you
It seems the temporary directory cannot be created. Trying making your own temporary directory or setting it to the working directory:
Sys.setenv(TMPDIR = ".")

Set 'texi2dvi' for 'R CMD Rd2pdf'

My texi2dvi is apparently in a place where R CMD Rd2pdf doesn't expect it. Mine is at /usr/local/bin/texi2dvi, and it's being looked for at /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi:
[KenMacBook:~/git] % \R CMD Rd2pdf missing
Hmm ... looks like a package
Converting Rd files to LaTeX
Creating pdf output from LaTeX ...
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi: No such file or directory
Output:
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi: No such file or directory
Output:
Error in running tools::texi2pdf()
I can work around this by running R_TEXI2DVICMD=/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi R CMD Rd2pdf, and then the docs are built correctly.
I'd like to put that setting in my .Rprofile so that things like RStudio (which won't read my .zshrc) and other random R sessions will see the setting. But neither of the following seems to have any effect in my .Rprofile:
Sys.setenv(R_TEXI2DVICMD='/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi')
options(texi2dvi='/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi')
I'm guessing .Rprofile doesn't get read by R CMD commands, is that correct? Is there an appropriate place to put my settings?
UPDATE:
Since Dirk doubts my doubting of .RProfile for affecting R CMD Rd2pdf :-), here's my evidence:
[KenMacBook:~/git] % tail -n2 ~/.Rprofile
Sys.setenv(TEXI2DVI='/no/where')
cat("End of RProfile\n")
[KenMacBook:~/git] % Rscript -e '2+2'
End of RProfile
[1] 4
[KenMacBook:~/git] % R CMD Rd2pdf missing
Hmm ... looks like a package
Converting Rd files to LaTeX
Creating pdf output from LaTeX ...
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi: No such file or directory
Output:
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi: No such file or directory
Output:
Error in running tools::texi2pdf()
Notice that the file's settings are respected in a normal R session, but setting TEXI2DVI has no effect here.
That seems wrong as /usr/local/bin/texi2dvi should be in the $PATH.
I have
edd#max:~$ grep texi2dvi /etc/R/Renviron
## used for options("texi2dvi")
R_TEXI2DVICMD=${R_TEXI2DVICMD-${TEXI2DVI-'/usr/bin/texi2dvi'}}
edd#max:~$
Note that if you want to set the TEXI2DVI environment variable, you probably have to do start before you start R -- think ~/.bash_profile
Here is an example explicitly setting TEXI2DVI:
edd#max:/tmp$ TEXI2DVI=/no/where R CMD Rd2pdf Rcpp-package.Rd
Converting Rd files to LaTeX ...
Rcpp-package.Rd
Creating pdf output from LaTeX ...
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: 1: /no/where: not found
Output:
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: 1: /no/where: not found
Output:
Error in running tools::texi2pdf()
edd#max:/tmp$
As you can see, it is respected.
Edit: Also let's not forget Renviron and Renviron.site so you have plenty of choices so set his.
Edit 2: As you seem to doubt ~/.Rprofile:
edd#max:~$ tail -1 .Rprofile
cat("End of .Rprofile\n")
edd#max:~$ Rscript -e '2+2'
End of .Rprofile
[1] 4
edd#max:~$
Had the same problem and figured out how to fix it - I think it has something to do with a previous installation of macports interfering with the path when R has been installed using brew (assuming you're on OSX).
Run the following in terminal:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Then go Apple > Force Quit > Finder > Relaunch. You'll now be able to see hidden files.
In your user directory there may be a file named .profile, in this file I commented out the line (i.e. put a # in front of it, as shown).
#export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
Then navigate to your R.home() (get this by running R.home() in R)
R.home()
[1] "/usr/local/Cellar/r/3.2.4_1/R.framework/Resources"
And modify the following line in Renviron
R_TEXI2DVICMD=${R_TEXI2DVICMD-${TEXI2DVI-'/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi'}}
This fixed it for me.
To put finder back to usual run
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
in the terminal and relaunch it.
Hope that helps.
The back-and-forth with Dirk produced some solutions, but they're pretty buried, so I summarize them here.
Diagnosis: etc/Renviron contains stale info.
My /usr/local/Cellar/r/3.2.2_1/R.framework/Versions/3.2/Resources/etc/Renviron file (installed using Homebrew) contains this line:
R_TEXI2DVICMD=${R_TEXI2DVICMD-${TEXI2DVI-'/usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi'}}
That's a remnant of someone (possibly me, possibly Homebrew's R package creator) who installed MacTeX in the default location, and then that path got frozen in time in the Renviron file. My texi2dvi is now at /usr/local/bin/texi2dvi, so this value needs to be overridden somehow.
1) $HOME/.Rprofile and $HOME/.Renviron won't help.
They don't take effect soon enough for R to notice them. R sets options("texi2dvi") based on the environment it sees at startup,
% tail -n2 ~/.Rprofile
Sys.setenv(TEXI2DVI='/no/where')
options(texi2dvi='/no/where/else')
% cat ~/.Renviron
TEXI2DVI=/no/where/at/all
% R CMD Rd2pdf myPackageDirectory # Still no joy
Hmm ... looks like a package
Converting Rd files to LaTeX
Creating pdf output from LaTeX ...
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi: No such file or directory
...
See "Initialization at Start of an R Session" for more info about startup files, though as shown above, the information in that document about overriding R_HOME/etc/Renviron is either incorrect or incomplete for this situation. Perhaps it should be amended in the section about R_CHECK_ENVIRON and R_BUILD_ENVIRON to also include something about R CMD RD2*, but I'm not sure whether that's what's going on, I only know this isn't a solution.
2) $HOME/.zshrc (and friends) won't help.
On OS X, your shell startup file is not consulted when you launch GUI apps. You could use defaults write or launchctl setenv to change the TEXI2DVI variable so that it's set when R launches, but you'd also have to stick it in your shell startup file for processes not started by launchd, which is icky. I also version my dotfiles, and I don't like sticking this bit of configuration in the launchctl ether where I can't easily remember it's there. But launchctl is presumably one solution to this.
3) etc/Renviron.site won't help.
This one is surprising - I expected it to work:
% cat /usr/local/Cellar/r/3.2.2_1/R.framework/Resources/etc/Renviron.site
R_TEXI2DVICMD=/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi
TEXI2DVI=/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi
% \R CMD Rd2pdf myPackageDirectory
Hmm ... looks like a package
Converting Rd files to LaTeX
Creating pdf output from LaTeX ...
Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet, :
Running 'texi2dvi' on 'Rd2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: /usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi: No such file or directory
So Renviron.site's settings aren't taking effect here. I'm getting impatient, so I didn't try to diagnose why.
3) Editing etc/Renviron as a last resort
So this finally works:
% grep TEXI2DVI /usr/local/Cellar/r/3.2.2_1/R.framework/Resources/etc/Renviron
TEXI2DVI=/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi ## Added by Ken
R_TEXI2DVICMD=${R_TEXI2DVICMD-${TEXI2DVI-'/usr/local/opt/texinfo/bin/texi2dvi'}}
I don't like it much, because I'll lose those settings next time I upgrade R. And R's documentation specifically says "do not change ‘R_HOME/etc/Renviron’ itself". But at least it works.

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