[R] LaTeX in system()

[Charilaos Skiadas]

This is exactly the problem: apps launched through the Finder do not  
go through the usual shell initialization process, where the PATH is  
typically set up. The two solutions would be to either use the full  
path to the command, or else start R.app from the Terminal, via the  
command:

open -a R

If you start R.app this way, it will get the same path as your shell.

Haris Skiadas
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Hanover College

On May 8, 2008, at 11:25 AM, Erik Iverson wrote:

> Are you running R from the shell, or R.app?
>
> I don't own or use a Mac, but I've seen something like this happen  
> to people running R through ESS on some Emacs on a Mac.
>
> Apologies for lack of precision here in terminology, but it had  
> something to do with the PATH getting set through a shell  
> initialization file (e.g., .cshrc, .bashrc).  Thus, starting in a  
> shell, the path was set properly.  But the path was not set in the  
> 'Mac GUI environment', so things started 'from there' (i.e., by  
> clicking something), did not know about the path.
>
> If it is a situation like the above, it really has nothing to do  
> with R directly.  If that is the problem, there is probably some  
> way to set environment variables so that the Mac GUI shell knows  
> about them.
>
> HTH,
> Erik Iverson
>
> Christoph Heibl wrote:
>> Dear list,
>> I want to run latex from an R script:
>>     system("latex mysource.tex")
>> or:
>>     texi2dvi("mysource.tex", pdf = TRUE, clean = FALSE, quiet  
>> =         TRUE, texi2dvi = latex)
>> but latex does not seem to be on the search path:
>>     /bin/sh: line 1: latex: command not found.
>> Although 'printenv PATH' tells me that the usr/texbin is looked  
>> for executables:
>> /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:/sw/bin:/ 
>> sw/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/texbin:/ 
>> usr/X11R6/bin Or am I wrong here?
>> In any case this is strange because if I call latex from the  
>> Terminal shell it runs without problems.  On the other hand  
>> texi2dvi from the tools package also does not work (for the same  
>> reason?)
>> I use R version 2.6.2 on Intel Mac OS X 10.4.11
>> Why is there a difference between the way the call to latex  
>> behaves directly in the shell or via the R system () command?
>> Thanks in advance for any advice!
>> Christoph
>> ________________________________________________________
>> Christoph Heibl
>> Systematic Botany
>> Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
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>> D-80638 München
>> GERMANY
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