[R] pdf error msg

[Thomas Lumley]

On Tue, 31 May 2005, Matt McCall wrote:

> I get the following error message when trying to start a pdf file:
>
>> pdf("hi.pdf")
> Error in PDF(file, old$family, old$encoding, old$bg, old$fg, width, height, 
> :
> 	unable to start device pdf
> In addition: Warning message:
> cannot open `pdf' file argument `hi.pdf'

In my experience, when R can't open pdf output file it is usually either 
because the file is locked by eg Acrobat or because you don't have write 
permission to the current directory.  The Mac's Preview program doesn't 
lock pdf files it is displaying, so the first explanation may not apply.


> *** malloc[477]: Deallocation of a pointer not malloced: 0x143cf5c0; This 
> could be a double free(), or free() called with the middle of an allocated 
> block; Try setting environment variable MallocHelp to see tools to help debug

That, on the other hand, does definitely sound like a bug.

 	-thomas

Thomas Lumley			Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics
tlumley at u.washington.edu	University of Washington, Seattle