[R] Calling FING.EXE under RGui.EXE for windows.
Duncan Murdoch
murdoch at stats.uwo.ca
Sun Jan 10 19:24:40 CET 2010
I'm quitting on this one. For the record, I took a look at a fairly old
version of the Tcl code (from 8.4.13) that I had around from an old
attempt to get it to work properly with MDI windows. There are a number
of differences between their exec code and our system() code, but I
couldn't find the right combination to get system() to be able to run
find. It always crashes with a seg fault in ulib.dll when run with
input coming from the pipe we send it.
If you use input redirection on the command line, it's fine, for example
system("cmd /c c:/WINDOWS/system32/find /? <nul")
or
shell("c:/WINDOWS/system32/find \"Hello\" c:/temp/foo.txt <nul")
So perhaps we're not setting up the pipe correctly, but it works with
most other programs, so I'm going to assume find is using it
incorrectly, unless someone points out what we're doing wrong.
Duncan Murdoch
On 10/01/2010 8:18 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
> I noticed this does work, i.e. it displays the requested help info, in
> Rgui on my Vista system:
>
> library(tcltk)
> .Tcl("exec find /?")
>
> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>> On 09/01/2010 6:31 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>> That doesn't explain why this returns character(o) even though we have
>>> launched a console for it:
>>>
>>> system("cmd /c C:\\windows\\system32\\find /?", intern = TRUE)
>> I don't see any console launched. R redirects stdin and stdout (and stderr,
>> I think), and it appears that Windows doesn't open a console. I do see a
>> console flash by if I do
>>
>> system('cmd /c c:/WINDOWS/system32/find.exe /?', wait=FALSE,
>> invisible=FALSE)
>>
>> but of course then we don't capture the output, so it's not very useful.
>> Looking at the source, the only case where we ask to create a console is
>> the combination "wait=FALSE, invisible=FALSE", but there might be
>> combinations of other options that make this a default. The MS
>> documentation says that a console will be created automatically for any
>> console application, but that doesn't appear to be happening.
>>
>> So I guess you could get find.exe to work by calling it from a batch file
>> with a "pause" at the end and using the wait=FALSE,invisible=FALSE options.
>>
>> The above observations are in Win XP SP3, not anything newer.
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 5:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On 07/01/2010 1:25 PM, Uwe Ligges wrote:
>>>>> Argh. I see it as well. Will dig a lit tomorrow.
>>>> I don't know exactly what's going on, but it looks as though it is
>>>> something
>>>> specific to the find.exe utility, e.g. maybe it is assuming that it's
>>>> being
>>>> run inside a console and reading CONIN$ or writing to CONOUT$ without
>>>> checking whether they can be opened. When you run it from Rterm, Rterm
>>>> is
>>>> in a console, which appears to be good enough.
>>>>
>>>> So it may be anyone who wants to use it will have to contact Microsoft to
>>>> find out how...
>>>>
>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>>
>>>>> Uwe
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 07.01.2010 12:25, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>> I get a problem with shell too:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Under Rgui:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> R.version.string
>>>>>> [1] "R version 2.10.1 Patched (2010-01-01 r50884)"
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> system("C:\\windows\\system32\\find /?", intern = TRUE)
>>>>>> character(0)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> system("cmd /c C:\\windows\\system32\\find /?", intern = TRUE)
>>>>>> character(0)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> shell("C:\\windows\\system32\\find /?")
>>>>>> Warning message:
>>>>>> In shell("C:\\windows\\system32\\find /?") :
>>>>>> 'C:\windows\system32\find /?' execution failed with error code 1
>>>>>>
>>>>>> They all work, i.e. they give the required help message, under Rterm
>>>>>> and when I issue this from the Windows console it works:
>>>>>> C:\windows\system32\find /?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 2010/1/7 Uwe Ligges<ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>:
>>>>>>> On 07.01.2010 02:04, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>>>>>>> If you have C:\Rtools\bin on your PATH note that it contains a
>>>>>>>> UNIX-like find utility that conflicts with the find utility in
>>>>>>>> Windows. If that is the problem then remove that from your PATH and
>>>>>>>> then run the batch file.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The batchfiles distribution at http://batchfiles.googlecode.com has
>>>>>>>> utilities (Rgui.bat, R.bat, Rtools.bat, etc.) that will automatically
>>>>>>>> add C:\Rtools\bin to your path temporarily or only while R is running
>>>>>>>> so that you can leave it off your PATH.
>>>>>>> I guess it's the use of system() rather than shell() that causes the
>>>>>>> problem. Under Windows, you have to use shell in order to start a
>>>>>>> command
>>>>>>> interpreter.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Uwe Ligges
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 6:51 PM, John Schexnayder<jschex at us.ibm.com>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>> This is sort of a strange bug. Not show stopping, but annoying. I
>>>>>>>>> was
>>>>>>>>> wondering if anyone else has noticed this and reported it before I
>>>>>>>>> submit
>>>>>>>>> a bug report.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I noticed while running the RGui and attempting to debug one of my
>>>>>>>>> scripts
>>>>>>>>> that I encountered a Windows error informing me that "Find String
>>>>>>>>> [grep]
>>>>>>>>> Utility has encountered a problem and needs to close." It is being
>>>>>>>>> generated by a call to a DOS batch file which contains a call to
>>>>>>>>> Find.exe.
>>>>>>>>> It can be reproduced by simply typing "System("find")" in RGui.
>>>>>>>>> What I
>>>>>>>>> found strange is that I have been running this script daily without
>>>>>>>>> this
>>>>>>>>> problem for months. I now realize I never ran that portion of the
>>>>>>>>> script
>>>>>>>>> while in RGui.exe. It has always run in batch mode which is done by
>>>>>>>>> Rterm.exe.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I have tried this on three separate machines now all running Windows
>>>>>>>>> XP
>>>>>>>>> SP3, with versions of R 2.8.1 and R 2.10.1 If executing
>>>>>>>>> "System("find")
>>>>>>>>> under RGui, an error window for the Find String Utility is generated
>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>> the command is not exectuted. If the same command is issued in
>>>>>>>>> Rterm
>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>> expected "FIND: Parameter format not correct" message is properly
>>>>>>>>> returned.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> It doesn't seem an important bug, but it could be the canary in the
>>>>>>>>> mine
>>>>>>>>> for a larger problem somewhere down the road.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Re,
>>>>>>>>> John Schexnayder
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> IBM Tape Manufacturing - Information Technology
>>>>>>>>> San Jose, CA 95138
>>>>>>>>> JSchex at us.ibm.com
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>>>>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>>>>>>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>>>>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>>>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>>>>>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>>>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
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