When running R in 'batch mode', the interactive flag is set to false, which prevents any sort of user prompts that would interrupt the process in the context of an embedded/batch setting. See:
R -e 'interactive()'
Some holds when using Rscript. The flag can also manually be set by using the interactivity package. To test, we can try:
R -e 'install.packages("anything")
Assuming no CRAN mirror has been set yet, install.packages will not show some interactive mirror picker, but instead throw an error and exit.
However, I noticed that the help or ? command will still work. For example, the command below will show the help browser, and it does not continue until I press q.
R -e 'help(lm); 1+2'
However, when sending the output to a file, it does not show the interactive prompt and just dumps the complete help document in the output:
R -e 'help(lm); 1+2' > output.txt
I'm a bit confused now about what is really going on when using help. Why do you get the interactive help browser even when R is running in batch mode? Is this a feature of R, or from the Debian/Ubuntu front-end? Is there a risk of R becoming unresponsive when the help function is called inside i.e. Rserve, RInside, JRI, etc, due to R waiting for using input?
help actually spawns a new process, pager, which is like "less":
> help(lm); 1+2
[1]+ Stopped R -e 'help(lm); 1+2'
$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
27735 pts/6 00:00:00 bash
31607 pts/6 00:00:00 R
31615 pts/6 00:00:00 sh
31616 pts/6 00:00:00 pager
31617 pts/6 00:00:00 ps
Related
I am writing an R code on a Linux system using RStudio. At some point in the code, I need to use a system call to a command that will download a few thousand of files from the lines of a text file:
down.command <- paste0("parallel --gnu -a links.txt wget")
system(down.command)
However, this command takes a little while to run (a couple of hours), and the R prompt stays locked while the command runs. I would like to keep using R while the command runs on the background.
I tried to use nohup like this:
down.command <- paste0("nohup parallel --gnu -a links.txt wget > ~/down.log 2>&1")
system(down.command)
but the R prompt still gets "locked" waiting for the end of the command.
Is there any way to circumvent this? Is there a way to submit system commands from R and keep them running on the background?
Using ‘processx’, here’s how to create a new process that redirects both stdout and stderr to the same file:
args = c('--gnu', '-a', 'links.txt', 'wget')
p = processx::process$new('parallel', args, stdout = '~/down.log', stderr = '2>&1')
This launches the process and resumes the execution of the R script. You can then interact with the running process via the p name. Notably you can signal to it, you can query its status (e.g. is_alive()), and you can synchronously wait for its completion (optionally with a timeout after which to kill it):
p$wait()
result = p$get_exit_status()
Based on the comment by #KonradRudolph, I became aware of the processx R package that very smartly deals with system process submissions from within R.
All I had to do was:
library(processx)
down.command <- c("parallel","--gnu", "-a", "links.txt", "wget", ">", "~/down.log", "2>&1")
processx::process$new("nohup", down.comm, cleanup=FALSE)
As simple as that, and very effective.
tl;dr: How can I invoke the system command y | conda create --name gee_interface from an R console, e.g. via system2()? I'm comfortable enough with system2('conda', c('create', '--name', 'gee_interface')), but I don't know how to handle piping in the 'y' via system2().
Details
I am trying to use an R console to run the bash command conda create --name gee_interface (OSX Mojave with Anaconda installed).
In terminal, that command executes just fine, but prompts me to answer with Proceed ([y]/n)? (I answer 'y' and everything works smoothly).
In R, I run
Sys.setenv(PATH = paste(c("/Applications/anaconda3/bin", Sys.getenv("PATH")), collapse = .Platform$path.sep)) # ensures that system2() finds conda
system2('conda', c('create', '--name', 'gee_interface')) # This is the key line for the purposes of this question
When running the second line [i.e. system2('conda', c('create', '--name', 'gee_interface'))], the process never finishes, but quickly falls to zero CPU usage. Presumably the system is waiting for my response to the prompt, but I don't know how to provide it. How does one do this via an R script? Note also that in my particular case, the number of times that I need to respond 'y' is variable, depending on whether an environment of the name gee_interface already exists or not.
The fix to your first problem is to tell conda not to ask for confirmation using -y:
system2('conda', c('create', '--name', 'gee_interface', '-y'))
As to the second part (variable times that your input is required), I'm guessing it's to overwrite the environment if it exists? In that case, you could check for its existence first with conda info --envs, and run conda remove --name gee_interface --all if necessary before creating it.
See:
https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/commands/create.html
https://docs.conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/tasks/manage-environments.html#removing-an-environment
You could also try your system2 call, with the argument input = "y", but that doesn't fix your second problem of needing to affirm multiple times.
See: Invoke a system command and pipe a variable as an argument
I can't start Rserve in debug mode.
I wrote these commands in R:
library(Rserve)
Rserve(debug=T, args="RS-enable-control", quote=T, port = 6311)
library(RSclient)
c=RSconnect(host = "localhost", port = 6311)
RSeval(c, "xx<-12")
RSeval(c, "2+6")
RSeval(c, "xx")
RSclose(c)
install.packages("fpc")
I placed the Rserve_d.exe in the same directory where the R.dll file is located. But when I launch it and I launch Tableau with the Rserve connection I can't see anything in the debug console, just these few lines.
Rserve 1.7-3 () (C)Copyright 2002-2013 Simon Urbanek
$Id$
Loading config file Rserv.cfg
Failed to find config file Rserv.cfg
Rserve: Ok, ready to answer queries.
-create_server(port = 6311, socket = <NULL>, mode = 0, flags = 0x4000)
INFO: adding server 000000000030AEE0 (total 1 servers)
I tried another solution by the command Rserve(TRUE) in R, but I can't see the transactions between R and Tableau neither in the Rstudio console.
I wanted then to print the output of the variable in R from the R-script function, by print(.arg1). But nothing appears in the R console
but when I run print in the R console it works fine.
According to this article*, RServe should be run with the following command to enable debugging:
R CMD Rserve_d
An alternative is to use the ‘write.csv’ command within the calculated field that calls an R script, as suggested by this FAQ document from Tableau
Starting Rserve_d.exe from command line works. Most likely you have multiple instances of Rserve running and Tableau is sending requests to one that is not Rserve_d running in the command line.
Did you try killing all Rserve processes and then starting Rserve_d from command line?
If you don't want to run from the command line you can try starting Rserve in process from RStudio by typing run.Rserve() then using print() statements in your Tableau calculated fields for things you want to print.
In the R bin directory, you have two executables Rserve for normal execution and Rserve.dbg for debug execution. Use
R CMD Rserve.dbg
My OS is CENTOS7 and I am using the R installation from anaconda. If your RServe debug executable has a different name you should be using that.
I am new to programming and mainly I am able to do some scripts within R, but for my work I need to call an external program. For this program to work on the ubuntu's terminal I have to first use setenv and then execute the program. Googling I've found the system () and Sys.setenv() functions, but unfortunately I can make it function.
This is the code that does work in the ubuntu terminal:
$ export PATH=/home/meme/bin:$PATH
$ mast "/home/meme/meme.txt" "/home/meme/seqs.txt" -o "/home/meme/output" -comp
Where the first two arguments are input files, the -o argument is the output directory and the -comp is another parameter for the program to run.
The reason that I need to do it in R despite it already works in the terminal is because I need to run the program 1000 times with 1000 different files so I want to make a for loop where the input name changes in every loop and then analyze every output in R.
I have already tried to use:
Sys.setenv(PATH="/home/meme/bin"); system(mast "/home/meme/meme.txt" "/home/meme/seqs.txt" -o "/home/meme/output" -comp )
and
system(Sys.setenv(PATH="/home/meme/bin") && mast "/home/meme/meme.txt" "/home/meme/seqs.txt" -o "/home/meme/output" -comp )
but always received:
Error: unexpected constant string in "system(mast "/home/meme/meme.txt""
or
Error: unexpected symbol in "system(Sys.setenv(PATH="/home/meme/bin") && mast "/home/meme/meme.txt""
At this point I have run out of ideas to make this work. If this has already been answered, then my googling have just been poor and I would appreciate any links to its response.
Thank you very much for your time.
Carlos
Additional details:
I use Ubuntu 12.04 64-bits version, RStudio version 0.97.551, R version 3.0.2 (2013-09-25) -- "Frisbee Sailing" Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit).
The program I use (MAST) finds a sequence pattern in a list of letters and is part of the MEME SUIT version 4.9.1 found in http://meme.nbcr.net/meme/doc/meme-install.html and run through command line. The command-line usage for mast is:
mast <motif file> <sequence file> [options]
Construct the string you want to execute with paste and feed that to system:
for(i in 1:10){
cmd=paste("export FOO=",i," ; echo \"$FOO\" ",sep='')
system(cmd)
}
Note the use of sep='' to stop paste putting spaces in, and back-quoting quote marks in the string to preserve them.
Test before running by using print(cmd) instead of system(cmd) to make sure you are getting the right command built. Maybe do:
if(TESTING){print(cmd)}else{system(cmd)}
and set TESTING=TRUE or FALSE in R before running.
If you are going to be running more than one shell command per system call, it might be better to put them all in one shell script file and call that instead, passing parameters from R. Something like:
cmd = paste("/home/me/bin/dojob.sh ",i,i+1)
system(cmd)
and then dojob.sh is a shell script that parses the args. You'll need to learn a bit more shell scripting.
After seven hours of googling and rereading through somewhat similar questions, and then lots of trial and error, I'm now comfortable asking for some guidance.
To simplify my actual task, I created a very basic R script (named test_script):
x <- c(1,2,3,4,5)
avg <- mean(x)
write.csv(avg, file = "output.csv")
This works as expected.
I'm new to python and I'm just trying to figure out how to execute the R script so that the same .csv file is created.
Notable results come from:
subprocess.call(["C:/Program Files/R/R-2.15.2/bin/R", 'C:/Users/matt/Desktop/test_script.R'])
This opens a cmd window with the typical R start-up verbiage, except there is a message which reads, "ARGUMENT 'C:/Users/matt/Desktop/test_script.R' __ ignored __"
And:
subprocess.call(['C:/Program Files/R/R-2.15.2/bin/Rscript', 'C:/Users/matt/Desktop/test_script.r'])
This flashes a cmd window and returns a 0, but no .csv file is created.
Otherwise, I've tried every suggestion I could identify on this site or any other. Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time and efforts.
Running R --help at the command prompt prints:
Usage: R [options] [< infile] [> outfile]
or: R CMD command [arguments]
Start R, a system for statistical computation and graphics, with the
specified options, or invoke an R tool via the 'R CMD' interface.
Options:
-h, --help Print short help message and exit
--version Print version info and exit
...
-f FILE, --file=FILE Take input from 'FILE'
-e EXPR Execute 'EXPR' and exit
FILE may contain spaces but not shell metacharacers.
Commands:
BATCH Run R in batch mode
COMPILE Compile files for use with R
...
Try
call(["C:/Program Files/R/R-2.15.2/bin/R", '-f', 'C:/Users/matt/Desktop/test_script.R'])
There are also some other command-line arguments you can pass to R that may be helpful. Run R --help to see the full list.
It might be too late, but hope it helps for others:
Just add --vanilla in the call list.
subprocess.call(['C:/Program Files/R/R-2.15.2/bin/Rscript', '--vanilla', 'C:/Users/matt/Desktop/test_script.r'])