Hi Barry, OK, now I absolutely do feel like the newbie I am :-) I added the function call, and - what a surprise - everything is working fine. Thanks a lot, sophie -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/export-variable-from-bash-to-R-tp4647749p4647912.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.