[R-sig-Debian] Fw: Default shell in Debian 6 of R is SH instead of BASH

[Johannes Ranke]

It is documented in the R help file for system() that /bin/sh is used (they 
mention that it has to be used). Also there are some warnings that different 
systems behave differently. I do not see what else could be done at the moment.

Am Freitag, 7. März 2014, 01:54:44 schrieb Harutyun Khachatryan:
> I do not think so. In Debian when user logs in shell through ssh it starts
> bash instead of dash and even when you start terminal in Debian X window
> system it also starts bash. So if one run command in Debian shell it runs
> by bash. I think R in Debian also should run system("****") commands with
> bash. Because otherwise it so confusing. Let's consider the situation: one
> connects to Debian server through SSH, runs some shell script in R by
> system(**) then the same command in simple shell (i.e. bash) and get
> different answer. Also BASH more popular than dash. Now R users in Debian
> have to take care how bash script will run in dash.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Friday, March 7, 2014 1:32 PM, Johannes Ranke <jranke at uni-bremen.de>
> wrote:
> 
> Well, R is cross-platform. If you issue system commands I think it is clear
> that it may differ depending on the system (think if Windows or Mac).
> 
> Anyway, you would need to bring this up on debian-devel or the respective
> fedora lists, as it seems to me you are complaining about the system
> defaults. As far as I can see, this is not under the control of the R
> packaging. Please correct me if I am wrong.
> 
> Johannes
> 
> Am Freitag, 7. März 2014, 01:24:42 schrieb Harutyun Khachatryan:
> > The problem is that for R in CenOS 6.5 default SHELL is BASH instead of
> > dash. This arouse some compatibility issues running the same shell
> > script from R in different systems like CentOS, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Mageia
> > versus Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint. So one must take care running shell
> > script in R depending Linux distributive version. I do not think it is
> > good
> > practice.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Friday, March 7, 2014 12:10 PM, Johannes Ranke <jranke at uni-bremen.de>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Am Donnerstag, 6. März 2014, 23:46:28 schrieb Harutyun Khachatryan:
> > > Dear all,
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I am experiencing this problem with R in Debian 6.
> > > 
> > > The config saying about default shell in R for Debian 6 is in file
> > > /usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf (line 80 "SHELL = /bin/bash")
> > 
> > The comment on line 67 suggest that this variable is only used during the
> > build process.
> > 
> > > but in Debian 6
> > > default shell for R is always SH instead of BASH.
> > 
> > The default shell in Debian 6 is dash (it was bash before):
> > 
> > https://wiki.debian.org/Shell
> > 
> > > It can be checked by just
> > > typing in R system("echo $BASH_VERSION"). The same command system("echo
> > > $BASH_VERSION") in R for Centos 6.5 answers "4.1.2(1)-release". Also for
> > > Debian 6 in terminal command "echo $BASH_VERSION" also answers
> > > "4.1.2(1)-release". So it seems it is the problem of R configuration for
> > > Debian 6.
> > 
> > I see no problem to use bash during the build process and have dash as the
> > default shell for the system. bash and dash happily coexist.
> > 
> > > I have installed R from CRAN by method described in
> > > http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/.
> > 
> > Were you successful?
> > 
> > > The same problem exists for
> > > Ubuntu 12.04. I suppose this kind of problem exists for every Debian
> > > like
> > > i.e. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and others system.
> > 
> > It seems to me that there is no problem.
> > 
> > Johannes
> > 
> > > Thank you in advance.
> > > Regards, Harutyun Khachatryan.
> > >
> > >     [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> > >
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> > 
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