I am interested in providing a command line interface to an R package called Slidify that I am authoring. It uses Rscript and I think that would make it cross-platform. The scripts are stored in the subdirectory inst/slidify. In order to use the script from any directory, I added its path to my .bash_profile as I am on a Mac.
My question is
How should I handle installation of the script in an automated cross-platform way?
How can I make sure that the file permissions are retained in this process?
What should the shebang line for the script be? I am currently using
#!/usr/bin/Rscript --vanilla --slave
I would appreciate pointers on how to handle this and any examples of R packages that already do it. Just to make sure, I am clear on how this would work, a user would be able to generate a slide deck from slides.Rmd by just running slidify generate slides.Rmd from the command line.
UPDATE:
Here is how I install it on a Mac from the command line. I use the excellent sub library by 37 signals to create the scripts.
echo "$(path/to/clidir/slidify init -)" >> ~/.bash_profile
exec bash
Two follow up questions
Can I package these commands into an R function install_slidify_cli?
How can I mirror these commands for Windows users?
Lovin' slidify so would be glad to help.
But in short, you can't.
R packages simply cannot install outside of $R_HOME or the chosen library folder. Ship the script in the package, and tell users to copy it. If there was a better way, out littler package with predecessor / alternative to Rscript would long have used it, and roxygen / roxygen2 would also have shipped something.
Related
I want to run an R command from command line (actually, from within a Makefile). The command is roxygen2::roxygenise(), if it is relevant. I don't want to create a new file and run that as a script - that will just clutter my directory.
In python, this is simple - you write python -c "import antigravity".
I use the Makefile to build, install and test a (Rcpp) package I'm working on.
This is generally done with so 'shebang scripts'.
Historically, littler was there first, about a decade or so ago. It is still widely used, and contains a number of helper scripts as for example roxy.r which does just what you desire: run roxygen2::roxygenize(). I use this all the time.
Next, Rscript started to ship with R. It is similar to littler but automatically available whereever R is which is a plus. On the minus side, it starts slower, and fails to load the methods package which is a source of a number of bug reports and SO questions.
Much more recently, R itself added the ability to run expressions following the -e ... switch.
So you have plenty of choices. You can also study plenty of src/Makevars files many of which use Rscript.
I've searched the web, and I'm still unclear on how to run R from the Mac terminal. I have Rstudio and the standalone R app installed. I thought I could just type "R" from the command line as I do with "python", but that doesn't work. Is it necessary to edit the PATH in my bash profile? If so, how do I give the correct location of R?
Thanks for any help
Edits after receiving comments
So, I'm running Sierra, and when I type "r" or "R" at the terminal, I get "-bash: R: command not found." If I type, "which R" in the terminal I do not get any output.
Here is the output from "echo $PATH": /usr/local/heroku/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/Users/samuelcolon/anaconda/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Users/samuelcolon/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.0/bin:/Users/samuelcolon/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.0#global/bin:/Users/samuelcolon/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.1.0/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Users/samuelcolon/.rvm/bin:/Users/samuelcolon/.rvm/bin
As for the installation, I believe I downloaded it directly from cran.r-project.org a while ago. I can locate the GUI in my applications and open it--
I have version 3.13. Is it possible, I only have R.app installed but not R? Perhaps that's the reason I'm getting the 'command not found' when typing "R" into the terminal?
Generally, I've been working in RStudio, but I'd still like to access R from the terminal and also to find where things are located. I'm fine with removing and re-installing R if it's easiest to start from square one. I hope the extra detail helps, and I appreciate the responses.
An answer for those not that familiar with Terminal and Bash.
I have done a fresh update install of R from the R.org cran site as part of seeking an answer to your question.
I found this latest install version 3.4.0 installs R for access in Terminal, and also installs R.app as part of the package.
To my understanding, reading support docs, if you have an older version of R it will update that. However it will not update an installation of R installed by the anaconda package.
Where are the R files stored?
I can only assume that with a fresh install of the latest R, R will work for you in Terminal.
To learn where the R files are that are being accessed - in Terminal after starting R, and in R.app, type:
>R.home()
In my case as example:
In R.app - the R version 3.4.0 is accessed in the top directory (not my user folder):
R.home()
[1] "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources"
In Terminal - the R version 3.3.2 is accessed in the Anaconda package, again in the top level directory.
R.home()
[1] "/anaconda/lib/R"
So I have two different versions of R, and Terminal accesses a different version to R.app.
How can I ensure I access the same version in Terminal as I do in the R.app?
For someone familiar with bash, and how the whole bash command system works I am sure there is a well constructed command. All the same here are some novice solutions.
-
• First Solution:
I could update the anaconda version, however, I would prefer not to as as other elements of the anaconda package my depend on this older version of R. For those not yet familiar with Terminal and bash, not such a novice solution.
-
• Second Solution:
This solution came from mko. It provides a single use solution. From the result above, and checking the directory structure a little further to find this R file.
Finding the significant R file enables me to edit an extension of the above path shown in the R.app. So add /bin/R to enter
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/R
Entering and pressing return will start R from this version.
Alternatively, one can find this file and icon in the GUI Finder, lead by the above result, and just double click on it, and it will open Terminal and a session with R running for you. Easy!
One could also make an alias of it and put it on your desktop for easy future starts.
-
• Third Solution:
My last solution I think may be best, adding to mko's solution. Make an alias.
Being in my home directory in Terminal I open .bash_profile using the nano text editor. (If you do not already know how to do this, then best not use this solution.)
I then add the line in this env file.
alias Rv340='/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/R'
I then save the changes and exit this terminal session. I then open a new Terminal window. (This is so the changes to the env above are incorporated in the new terminal session).
Then when I enter the alias:
Rv340
The version of R I want opens.
You can choose a different alias name to "Rv340".
-
• Fourth Solution:
A second more permanent solution for opening the same version of R in Terminal is as follows.
Copy the path as showing in R.app in response to the R.home() command above, and add that path to PATH in your .bash_profile. (If you do not know already how to do this, then ignore this solution.) Do so as follows.
export PATH="/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources:$PATH"
To my understanding, this ensures that bash looks here for R (and anything else), then moves on to the other paths in PATH. Since this adds this path to the beginning of $PATH, an env variable, bash looks here first where it finds the newer version first, and stops looking.
When it comes to understanding PATH in the env set up in .bash_profile the following two links were helpful.
About PATH.
How to correctly add a path to PATH.
This solution may muck with anaconda's invocation of R. I have yet to check this.
First of all, you have to start terminal application. You can use either built in Terminal.app, or you can use replacement. My favorite one is iTerm2
https://www.iterm2.com
Then, you simply open terminal window and run R. Just like shown below:
Have fun with R!
Just ran into the same issue when installing R-4.0.3.pkg on my MacBook (MacOS BigSur). Can open R.app to the clunky R GUI, but typing in 'R' in terminal doesn't work.
Turns out, an R executable lives here: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.0/Resources/bin/R
So I added this alias to my newly created .zshrc script:
alias R '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.0/Resources/bin/R'
Now when I type in R, it opens... I swear this all happened seamlessly in earlier versions.
There is currently a bug in CRAN's R installation package that results in it not correctly installing symbolic links to R and Rscript for commandline use. I've just verified this by inspecting the postflight script in their 4.0.5 installation package. This only impacts MacOS system releases of 20 and above (you can check with uname -r).
I've included more info here, along with what the "correct" fix should be: manually creating symbolic links to /usr/local/bin that point to the R and Rscript binaries themselves. If this is the current challenge, then this would be a far better solution to creating aliases or manipulating PATH in various ways, since it's what the installation package intended to do (and presumably will again soon).
R: command not found
In short, if this is the problem, then Ashkan Mirzaee's answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/67202173/2093929) to create the symbolic links directly is correct in form, but might not have the right link command. The 4.0.5 package intends instead to use:
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
cd /usr/local/bin
rm -f R Rscript
ln -s /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/R .
ln -s /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/Rscript .
You can create a symbolic link from R and Rscript binaries to /usr/local/bin to add them to the PATH:
sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/bin/R /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/bin/Rscript /usr/local/bin
Now which R should return /usr/local/bin/R and you can use R.
An easy way to open RStudio with admin privilege on macOS:
Go to Applications, then right click on RStudio
Select "Show Package Contents"
Go to Contents/MacOS
Now open terminal(in bash mode). Type sudo and drag the RStudio.exec into terminal and press on ENTER
Now RStudio will have admin access!
The binary of Rscript is available but when I try to use it I get:
Rscript helloworld.r
Rscript execution error: No such file or directory
If I just do Rscript, it brings the help/usage for it through.
R CMD BATCH is working fine.
I tried adding shebang lines in the R code at the start but it didn't work.
#!/sys_apps_01/R/R-3.2.0/bin/R
#!/sys_apps_01/R/R-3.2.0/bin/Rscript
As in your case, this was caused by me moving R (in order to try to use it in an AWS lambda function).
I resorted to doing the equivalent call on R itself:
./R --slave --no-restore --file=TheScript.R
It's likely this was installed to (configured for) another directory and then moved after installation. Afterwards Rscript won't be able to find the (hardcoded?) R binary. I just had the same problem, which could be solved by reinstalling R.
Andreas
I preface this solution issuing a caution to do this at one's own risk. However I encountered the same issue and had the following solution:
Say you've run make && make install which has installed R to /path/to/install/loc. Once you've moved this to path/to/new/loc, R/Rscript will then complain it can't find the right file/directory.
Editing the R and Rscript executables in path/to/new/loc/bin, you can change any reference to /path/to/old/loc to /path/to/new/loc. This has worked for me and haven't encountered any further issues
As has been previously mentioned, it's definitely preferable to install R to the required location either through prefix=... in the configure script, or by using the rhome=... argument following make install
I encountered the same issue. What happened in my case was that, R was first installed at /usr/lib/R with deb packages, then I moved the dir to /opt/R and defined R_HOME to the new dir, hoping R will adapt to it automatically, but turns out there are hardcoded paths of /usr/lib/R in bin/R. Unless I update the paths, simply moving R to another location will break the installation.
I'm trying to use the SemiMarkov package and I want to change one small line of code in there. I've done some digging via:
getAnywhere("semiMarkov")
& I've identified that I want to change this line:
hessian <- diag(ginv(hessian(V, solution)))
to try something like:
hessian <- diag(ginv(pracma::hessian(V, solution)))
How do I go about this? Do I need to rebuild the package from scratch, and if so do I need rTools etc for this, or is there a simple-ish workaround (I'm a relevant R novice)? I've done some searching online and can't find anything obvious. Any ideas/pointers gratefully appreciated.
If you'd like to simply test out the effect of that change in an interactive R session, you can do so using trace(). Here's how:
Type trace("semiMarkov", edit=TRUE)
In the text editor that that launches, edit the line of interest.
Save the modified file.
Close the text editor
Back in R, use the modified function.
Linux environment
Starting with downloading the package source from CRAN.
This is the landing page: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/SemiMarkov/index.html
This is the package source: https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/SemiMarkov_1.4.2.tar.gz
Download and extract the source:
wget https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/SemiMarkov_1.4.2.tar.gz
tar -xvzf SemiMarkov_1.4.2.tar.gz
This should result in a directory named SemiMarkov. Open up the source (cd SemiMarkov), and modify as necessary.
Next, build the changes:
cd ..
R CMD build SemiMarkov/
This will result in a new archive file named SemiMarkov_1.4.2.tar.gz.
Lastly, install your modified archive:
R CMD INSTALL SemiMarkov_1.4.2.tar.gz
Windows environment
I'm less familiar with the Windows platform. *nix tooling is available in Cygwin, but it's painful. Instead, as Josh O'Brien points out, you should follow the Windows-specific instructions in the R Installation and Administration manual.
I am interested in providing a command line interface to an R package called Slidify that I am authoring. It uses Rscript and I think that would make it cross-platform. The scripts are stored in the subdirectory inst/slidify. In order to use the script from any directory, I added its path to my .bash_profile as I am on a Mac.
My question is
How should I handle installation of the script in an automated cross-platform way?
How can I make sure that the file permissions are retained in this process?
What should the shebang line for the script be? I am currently using
#!/usr/bin/Rscript --vanilla --slave
I would appreciate pointers on how to handle this and any examples of R packages that already do it. Just to make sure, I am clear on how this would work, a user would be able to generate a slide deck from slides.Rmd by just running slidify generate slides.Rmd from the command line.
UPDATE:
Here is how I install it on a Mac from the command line. I use the excellent sub library by 37 signals to create the scripts.
echo "$(path/to/clidir/slidify init -)" >> ~/.bash_profile
exec bash
Two follow up questions
Can I package these commands into an R function install_slidify_cli?
How can I mirror these commands for Windows users?
Lovin' slidify so would be glad to help.
But in short, you can't.
R packages simply cannot install outside of $R_HOME or the chosen library folder. Ship the script in the package, and tell users to copy it. If there was a better way, out littler package with predecessor / alternative to Rscript would long have used it, and roxygen / roxygen2 would also have shipped something.