[R] Genuine relative paths with R

[Ista Zahn]

Hi Olivier,

Please keep the list copied so others can join our discussion.
On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 4:39 PM Olivier GIVAUDAN
<olivier_givaudan using hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Ista,
>
> No worry :)
>
> "/path/to/dir" is what I call hardcoded path.

Yes, we share the same definition :-)

> And I do want to work with relative paths in code, not interacticely.

Yes, using relative paths in code is a good idea. We agree about this also!

>
> I (but not only I actually!) need genuine relative paths especially for inputting or outputting files in a location "close" (e.g. parent or child folder) to where the R script is located.

You still have not explained why!

>
> I'm looking for the equivalent of the function cd in batch / shell, for instance, or __DIR__ in PHP, or %sysget(SAS_EXECFILEPATH) in SAS, etc.
>
> Is it clearer now?

I'm not confused about what you are asking for. I'm only asking for
more details about why you think you need it. Again, my claim is that
all this feature would do is allow the user of the script to
interactively call it with e.g.,

Rscript /path/to/dir/file.R

instead of

cd /path/to/dir/file.R
Rscript file.R

Note that I assume that only relative paths are used in the scripts.
The path is specified by the user when running the script, and this
cannot be avoided. Thus some "auto setwd to the source file directory"
would serve only as a minor convenience that enables my first from
above as opposed to my second form. Is this the benefit you are hoping
for, or is there some other reason you want this feature?

Note that when calling from R you can already to

source("/path/to/dir/file.R", chdir = TRUE)

Best,
Ista

>
> Best regards,
>
> Olivier
>
> ________________________________
> De : Ista Zahn <istazahn using gmail.com>
> Envoyé : samedi 6 octobre 2018 16:40
> À : olivier_givaudan using hotmail.com; r-help using r-project.org
> Objet : Re: [R] Genuine relative paths with R
>
> Hi Olivier,
>
> Sorry for misspelling your name! Please see inline below.
>
> On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 9:58 AM Olivier GIVAUDAN
> <olivier_givaudan using hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Ista,
> >
> > Thank you for your reply.
> >
> > My motivation is described at the 3rd line of my initial message:
> > "if I move all my scripts related to some project as a whole to another location of my computer or someone else's computer, if want my scripts to continue to run seamlessly."
> >
> > The main point is simply to avoid any hardcoded path in my R scripts, as you wrote in your examples.
>
> My claim is that you cannot avoid hardcoding paths. Even if the
> feature you requested existed, you would still have to do e.g.,
>
> source("/path/to/dir/file.R")
>
> That is just as much hard-coded as the (only slightly more verbose)
>
> cd("/path/to/dir")
> source("file.R")
>
> So, I'm afraid I still don't get it. What is it that you actually want
> to do that you currently cannot?
>
> Best,
> Ista
> >
> > BTW I don't use R with command line, only within RStudio or with the default GUI.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Olivier (and not Oliver )
> > ________________________________
> > De : Ista Zahn <istazahn using gmail.com>
> > Envoyé : samedi 6 octobre 2018 12:56
> > À : olivier_givaudan using hotmail.com
> > Cc : r-help using r-project.org
> > Objet : Re: [R] Genuine relative paths with R
> >
> > Hi Oliver,
> >
> > Interesting question. Can you describe your motivation in a little
> > more detail? That is, why do you what this feature? I ask because to
> > my way of thinking you have to know the path to the script in order to
> > call it in the first place. If calling from R, is
> >
> > setwd("/path/to/dir")
> > source("file.R")
> >
> > really so much worse than
> >
> > source("path/to/dir/file.R")
> >
> > ?  If it is worse, why?
> >
> > Similarly if calling from a shell, is
> >
> > cd /path/to/dir
> > Rscript file.R
> >
> > really so much worse than
> >
> > Rscript /path/to/dir/file.R
> >
> > ? Again, if is worse, why?
> >
> > Best,
> > Ista
> > On Sat, Oct 6, 2018 at 8:25 AM Olivier GIVAUDAN
> > <olivier_givaudan using hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear R users,
> > >
> > > I would like to work with genuine relative paths in R for obvious reasons: if I move all my scripts related to some project as a whole to another location of my computer or someone else's computer, if want my scripts to continue to run seamlessly.
> > >
> > > What I mean by "genuine" is that it should not be necessary to hardcode one single absolute path (making the code obviously not "portable" - to another place - anymore).
> > >
> > > For the time being, I found the following related posts, unfortunately never conclusive or even somewhat off-topic:
> > > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1815606/rscript-determine-path-of-the-executing-script
> > > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47044068/get-the-path-of-current-script/47045368
> > > http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Script-auto-detecting-its-own-path-td2719676.html
> > >
> > > So I found 2 workarounds, more or less satisfactory:
> > >
> > >
> > >   1.  Either create a variable "ScriptPath" in the first lines of each of my R scripts and run a batch (or shell, etc.) to replace every single occurrence of "ScriptPath <-" by "ScriptPath <- [Absolute path of the R script]" in all the R scripts located in the folder (and possibly subfolders) of the batch file.
> > >   2.  Or create an R project file with RStudio and use the package "here" to get the absolute path of the R project file and put all the R scripts related to this project in the R project directory, as often recommended.
> > >
> > > But I am really wondering why R doesn't have (please tell me if I'm wrong) this basic feature as many other languages have it (batch, shell, C, LaTeX, SAS with macro-variables, etc.)?
> > > Do you know whether the language will have this kind of function in a near future? What are the obstacles / what is the reasoning for not having it already?
> > >
> > > Do you know other workarounds?
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > >
> > > Olivier
> > >
> > >         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> > >
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