I found out that it is possible to open the windows explorer with a predefined path via the cmd.exe program using the following command:
explorer PATH
Back in R using the following command opens up the windows explorer:
system("explorer", intern=TRUE)
However, when I specify a path R returns the following warning message and does not open the explorer at the specified path:
> system("explorer C:\\Users\\xxx", intern=TRUE)
character(0)
attr(,"status")
[1] 1
Warning message:
running command 'explorer C:\Users\xxx' had status 1
I quoted the \ otherwise R complained about not recognising \U from \Users.
However, when the command is executed as we would expect the double \ are replaced by only one .
When I copy paste the explorer C:\Users\xxx bit from the R warning message into the cmd.exe program the explorer is opened up at the specified path.
Does anybody have any idea why that fails?
try
shell("explorer C:\\Users\\xxx", intern=TRUE)
I've created this simple function... I hope it'll be useful!
wopen <- function(x){
y <- getwd()
y <- gsub("/", "\\\\", y)
shell(paste0("explorer ", y), intern = TRUE)
}
Briefly: it takes the current directory, changes the slash direction and call to cmd.exe to open it. Regards.
Related
I have a '.js' script that I usually activate from the terminal using the command node script.js. As this is part of a process where I first do some data analysis in R, I want to avoid the manual step of opening the terminal and typing the command by simply having R do it for me. My goal would be something like this:
...R analysis
write.csv(df, "data.csv")
system('node script.js')
However, when I use that specific code, I get the error:
sh: 1: node: not found
Warning message:
In system("node script.js") : error in running command
Of course, the same command runs without problem if I type it directly on the terminal.
About my Software
I am using:
Linux computer with the PopOS!
RStudio 2021.09.1+372 "Ghost Orchid"
R version 4.0.4.
The error message node: not found indicates that it couldn't find the program node. It's likely in PATH in your terminal's shell, but not in system()'s shell (sh).
In your terminal, locate node by executing which node. This will show the full path to the executable. Use that full path in system() instead.
Alternatively, run echo $PATH in your terminal, and run system('echo $PATH') or Sys.getenv('PATH') in R. Add any missing directories to R's path with Sys.setenv(PATH = <your new path string>)
Note that system2() is recommended over system() nowadays - but for reasons unimportant for your case. See ?system and ?system2 for a comparison.
Examples
Terminal
$ which node
/usr/bin/node
R
system('/usr/bin/node script.js')
# alternatively:
system2('/usr/bin/node', c('script.js'))
or adapt your PATH permanently:
Terminal
% echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/home/caspar/programs:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin
R
> Sys.getenv('PATH')
[1] "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/postback"
> Sys.setenv(PATH = "/home/caspar/programs:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/postback")
I recently updated R to the latest release: 3.4.0. R is installed on a network location H:/. Now something weird is happening when I try to install a local binary package:
filename <- paste0("R:/path/independeR_", versions, ".zip")
install.packages(filename,
repos = NULL, type = "source",
lib = gsub("\\\\\\\\networkpath/home/[[:alpha:]]*/",
"H:/", .libPaths()[1]))
Both H:/ and R:/ are network locations. In .libPaths() the default location is in the H:/ location, but it shows with the entire network adress. In the call to install.packages I substituted this.
The code above fails, with the following output:
'\\networkpath\home\JDUB~PN6\DOCU~UZL\R\R-34~TN4.0' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Warning in install.packages :
running command '"//networkpath/home/JDUB~PN6/DOCU~UZL/R/R-34~TN4.0/bin/x64/R" CMD INSTALL -l "H:\Documents\R\R-3.4.0\library" "R:/path/independeR_0.1.8.zip"' had status 1
Warning in install.packages :
installation of package ‘R:/path/independeR_0.1.8.zip’ had non-zero exit status
There is two things that surprise me here. The directorynames are all jumbled up (DOCU~UZL instead of Documents etc), but for some reason Command promt seems fine with that. The more interesting thing is the following:
When I try to put the command "//networkpath/home/JDUB~PN6/DOCU~UZL/R/R-34~TN4.0/bin/x64/R" CMD INSTALL -l "H:\Documents\R\R-3.4.0\library" "R:/path/independeR_0.1.8.zip" directly into Command Prompt, the output is very similar:
C:\Users\jdubbeldam>"//networkpath/home/JDUB~PN6/DOCU~UZL/R/R-34~TN4.0/b
in/x64/R" CMD INSTALL -l "H:\Documents\R\R-3.4.0\library" "R:/path/independeR_0.1.8.zip"
'\\networkpath\home\JDUB~PN6\DOCU~UZL\R\R-34~TN4.0' is not recognized as
an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
For some reason CMD seems to cut off the path to the command halfway through. I guess that this is because the command is too long. When I try the same command, but with H:/Documents/R/R-3.4.0/bin/x64/R, the installation goes just fine.
I would like to be able to automatically install this package from a script, so I would like a solution to this problem from within R. Is there a way to get R to use the shorter H:/Documents/R/R-3.4.0/bin/x64/R?
I was having problems with updating packages, while searching I found that there is a reported bug affecting getting the timestamps from files in Windows 10:
https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=17261
Starting in R 3.4.0, file.info sometimes returns for mtime,
atime and ctime for directories. It seems to have something to do
with sharing. This affects functions that use file.mtime like
update.packages.
Reproduce:
Try file.info() with a random directory. If it returns a legitimate
file time, open a windows explorer window and navigate to the
directory, then run the call again and it will return s.
In some cases it returns s even if the directory is not open (or
in the path of an open explorer window), but this is not consistent.
With a comment of Tomas Kalibera:
Thank you for the report, this is a known bug that has been fixed
recently in R-devel
I found that when I closed the file explorer windows the timestamps worked correctly and didn't show up as NA's.
This may be a lead for why your code isn't working.
I managed to make the following work. However, I think it is extremely ugly, and would still like to see if it is possible to do it someway else.
filename <- paste0("R:/path/independeR_", versions, ".zip")
cmd <- file.path(gsub("//networkpath/home/[[:alnum:]]*/", "H:/",
gsub("//networkpath/home/[[:alnum:]]*~[[:alnum:]]*/",
"H:/", R.home())), "bin/x64/R")
libname <- gsub("\\\\\\\\networkpath/home/[[:alpha:]]*/",
"H:/", .libPaths()[1])
call <- paste(paste0('"', cmd, '"'),
"CMD",
"INSTALL",
"-l",
paste0('"', libname, '"'),
"--no-lock",
paste0('"', filename, '"'),
sep = " ")
system(call)
I want to open a file from within R.
I can launch the software (graphpad prism) with the following:
system2("C:/Program Files (x86)/GraphPad/Prism 7/prism.exe")
I expected this to open my prism file as if I were double clicking on it or running it from cmd, but it didn't:
system2("H:/Graphs/Shell/Templates/NASH4_Standard.pzfx")
I am receiving the message:
Warning message: running command
'H:/Graphs/Shell/Templates/NASH4_Standard.pzfx' had status 127
I see that this is not an error but just a warning. Am I unintentionally "shelling" the document in the background? How would I make sure it pops up as a window?
Status 127 was addressed here, but for launching the software, not opening the document with it.
In Windows environments, you need to call a command line interpreter like CMD prompt or PowerShell. Also, any file path that has spaces needs to be enclosed in double quotes above the quotes needed in R for string literals (the case for your .exe not specific file).
With system() send entire command in one string:
system('cmd /c "H:/Graphs/Shell/Templates/NASH4_Standard.pzfx"')
# POWER SHELL REQUIRES MORE QUOTE ESCAPING (ONLY ONE PAIR W/O SPACES)
system('powershell & """H:/Graphs/Shell/Templates/NASH4_Standard.pzfx"""')
With system2() use the args parameter:
# FILES
system2('cmd', args=c('/c', '"H:/Graphs/Shell/Templates/NASH4_Standard.pzfx"'))
system2('powershell', args=c(' & """H:/Graphs/Shell/Templates/NASH4_Standard.pzfx"""'))
# EXECUTABLES
system2('cmd', args=c('/c', '"C:/Program Files (x86)/GraphPad/Prism 7/prism.exe"'))
system2('powershell', args=c(' & """C:/Program Files (x86)/GraphPad/Prism 7/prism.exe"""'))
shell.exec("C:/Program Files (x86)/GraphPad/Prism 7/prism.exe")
does it work for you ?
ps. and shell.exec("MyWorkbook.xls") open file with default program
I wanted to run this example script: http://mazamascience.com/WorkingWithData/?p=912 from Windows command line. So I opened the command line and typed Rscript tryCatch.R 1. However, I keep getting the error message Error: R not found. I did set the PATH environment variable as C:\Programme\R\R-3.0.1\bin. If I just type R.exe, it does start R, but it cannot find the packages that are to be loaded at start (e.g. package 'utils' in options<"defaultPackages"> was not found). I guess I have to set another path to the libraries somewhere, but I haven't got any idea where to do this.
UPDATE: After explicitly typing PATH C:\Programme\R\R-3.0.1\bin (rather than just adding this to the value of the environment variable PATH) it seems that R is found. However, a new problem occurs: In normalizePath<path.expand(path), winslash, mustWork>: path[2] = "C:/Programme/R/R-3.0.1/library": Access denied, the same than for the methods library. Then: Calls: .First ... library -> .getRequiredPackages2 -> library -> normalizePath Execution stopped. I'm using Windows 7 and I do have administrator rights.
Rscript is very handy (R CMD BATCH is the old way to ) specially under windows, But generally under I create a batch file to avoid all path's headache.
For example say launcher.bat:
#echo off
C:
PATH C:\Programme\R\R-3.0.1\bin;%path%
cd PATH_TO_YOUR_RSCRIPT
Rscript tryCatch.R 1
pause
And open a console(using cmd) , go where you have stored your launcher.bat and launch it. Or from the R cosnole using shell:
shell('path_to_launcher\launcher.bat')
I've found out that it was a language-specific problem on Windows 7, similar to what is described here: https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2011-May/276932.html
After changing PATH to C:\Program Files\R\R-3.0.1\bin the script is properly executed from the command prompt.
Thanks to everyone who tried to help!
I ran into this problem under windows 7, apparently, when setting environment variables>user variables the path is not added into the PATH, so the user must add this path in system variables > PATH
at the end just add the path to your .EXE files and voila.
I have used R in the past to do very basic calls to the commmand line. The example can be found here.
This time around, I am looking to mimic this code which runs successfully from the command line in Windows:
> cd C:\Documents and Settings\BTIBERT\My Documents\My Dropbox\Eclipse\Projects\R\MLB\retrosheet\rawdata
> bgame -y 2010 2010bos.eva >2010bos.txt
This is the code I am trying to run inside of R. I have already set the working directory inside of R.
dir <- paste("cd", getwd(), sep=" ")
system(dir)
system("bgame -y 2010 2010bos.eva >2010bos.txt")
I am sure this is user error, but what am I doing wrong? It appears to work initially, but returns the following error. I very well could be doing something wrong, but I believe I am using the same commands.
Expanded game descriptor, version 109(185) of 05/08/2008.
Type 'bgame -h' for help.
Copyright (c) 2001 by DiamondWare.
[Processing file 2010bos.eva.]
>2010bos.txt: can't open.
Warning message:
running command 'bgame -y 2010 2010bos.eva >2010bos.txt' had status 2
Any help you can provide will be appreciated.
You need to issue all commands in one system() call:
system(paste("cd",getwd() "&& bgame -y 2010 2010bos.eva >2010bos.txt",sep=" "))
You should already be in your working directory, so I'm not sure the cd getwd() is necessary. And you may need quotes around your path because it contains spaces. The error may be resolved by putting spaces around >.
If I were in your shoes, I would try this:
system("bgame -y 2010 2010bos.eva > 2010bos.txt")
UPDATE:
And you should probably heed this advice in the "Differences between Unix and Windows" section of ?system that says you should use shell:
• The most important difference is that on a Unix-alike
‘system’ launches a shell which then runs ‘command’. On
Windows the command is run directly - use ‘shell’ for an
interface which runs ‘command’ _via_ a shell (by default the
Windows shell ‘cmd.exe’, which has many differences from the
POSIX shell).
This means that it cannot be assumed that redirection or
piping will work in ‘system’ (redirection sometimes does, but
we have seen cases where it stopped working after a Windows
security patch), and ‘system2’ (or ‘shell’) must be used on
Windows.
Has no-one else found that system("dir", intern = T) for example doesn't work, but that you need system("cmd.exe /c dir", intern = T)? Only the latter works for me. I found this at the discussion site here (William Dunlap's post, about a third of the way down).
Also, it doesn't work with the "cd" command, but you can use the setwd() function within R and then the command will be executed within that directory.
I created the following functions for convenience, for executing programmes and running commands:
#the subject is an input file that a programme might require
execute <- function(programme, subject.spec = "", intern = FALSE, wait = FALSE){
if(!identical(subject.spec, "")){subject.spec <- paste0(" ", subject.spec)} #put space before the subject if it exists
system(paste0("cmd.exe /c ", programme, subject.spec), intern = intern, wait = wait)
}
command <- function(command, intern = TRUE, wait = FALSE){
system(paste("cmd.exe /c", command), intern = T, wait = wait)
}
Does it break your code when you get error 1 or does execution continue?
Whenever executing system commands through another language it is useful to print the system call before you call it to see exactly what is happening, pull up the shell you are intending to use and check for the same error. As the command is executed correctly this could be a hickup in bgame or R.
If you look at http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/datasets/R/html/base/html/shell.html you can see the variable flag passed to the system call."flag the switch to run a command under the shell. If the shell is bash or tcsh the default is changed to "-c"."
Also "the shell to be used can be changed by setting the configure variable R_SHELL to a suitable value (a full path to a shell, e.g. /usr/local/bin/bash)."