[R] Calling FING.EXE under RGui.EXE for windows.

Gabor Grothendieck ggrothendieck at gmail.com
Sun Jan 10 19:57:39 CET 2010 

That may be but given that tcl does not have the same problem it might
still be something that would be desirable to address and it is
possible that it is a symptom of a larger problem in R.  It will more
likely be lost if its buried in this discussion.

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 1:51 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> On 10/01/2010 1:42 PM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps you can add it to the bug list before you leave it including
>> what you tried in case its a symptom of some larger underlying
>> problem.
>
> This list is archived, so there's a record.  But I think this is a find bug,
> not an R bug, so it doesn't make sense to add it to the R bug list.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> 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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