[R] start.help() and browser

[Marc Schwartz]

On Jan 16, 2012, at 11:20 AM, Christian Hoffmann wrote:

> Hi, when calling  help.start() I get the message
> 
> "> sh: firefox: command not found"
> 
> and the help system is inaccessible (which is an absolute nuisance, but bypassable under  http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/)
> 
> I have no idea what is broken in my system and I didn'n find any pointer in the archives(my search skills may be deficient..)
> 
> My sessionInfo():
> 
> R version 2.14.0 (2011-10-31)
> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin9.8.0/x86_64 (64-bit)
> 
> locale:
> [1] C
> 
> attached base packages:
> [1] tools     tcltk     stats4    splines   parallel  grid      datasets
> [8] compiler  graphics  grDevices stats     utils     methods   base
> 
> other attached packages:
> [1] survival_2.36-10  spatial_7.3-3     rpart_3.1-50      nnet_7.3-1
> [5] nlme_3.1-102      mgcv_1.7-9        foreign_0.8-46    codetools_0.2-8
> [9] cluster_1.14.1    class_7.3-3       boot_1.3-3        Matrix_1.0-1
> [13] MASS_7.3-16       KernSmooth_2.23-6 cwhmisc_3.0       lattice_0.20-0
> Warning message:
> 'DESCRIPTION' file has 'Encoding' field and re-encoding is not possible   IS THIS ESSENTIAL ??
>> 
> 
> I would appreciate help very much
> 
> Christian


Check to see what:

  options()$browser

shows on your system. See ?options. On OSX the default is:

> options()$browser
[1] "/usr/bin/open"

which should open up your system default browser. It may be that you have changed the default value of that option in ~/.Rprofile to open firefox instead or perhaps you copied the ~/.Rprofile from another system with the value modified?

If you want Firefox to open and that is not your default browser, then the full path should be something like:

  /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox

HTH,

Marc Schwartz