[R-SIG-Mac] R.app intractable history problem

[Rob Goedman]

Hi Vi,

Can you check if any change you make to the preferences is stored and  
carried over to a next session. We've had a few cases where the  
preferences file could not be saved due to permissions. If no  
preference is available, the default name used is indeed .Rhistory.  
E.g. change the CRAN mirror, quit and restart.

Gaël, thanks for pointing out the possibility of .First etc being  
stored in .Rdata. That hadn't sunk in yet.

Rob


On Nov 5, 2009, at 12:49 AM, Gaël Laurans wrote:

>
> On Nov 4, 2009, at 8:03 PM, vi wrote:
>
>> Thanks for all the responses! Just some answers to the questions:
>>
>> - I don't have anything in my .Rprofile, .First and .Last. In fact I
>> don't have these files on my computer, they were not created by me or
>> by R.
>
> .Last and .First are functions (potentially stored in a workspace,  
> not necessarily defined in .Rprofile or anything). Simply type  
> ".Last" or ".First" at the R prompt to know if they are defined.
>
>> - "that folder" in my d&d comment refers to the folder I drag and  
>> drop
>> onto the R icon in dock. In this case, .Rhistory is created on exit  
>> in
>> the folder I dropped. As Rob mentioned, this is the correct behavior
>> when the "Always apply" is unchecked in prefs. But for me
>> the .Rhistory file always remains blank even though it's created in
>> the correct location.
>> […]
>> - Most bizzare for me is that no matter what file name I enter for  
>> the
>> history file in prefs, with or without dot (ie, ~/myhistory
>> OR .myhistory OR myhistory OR myname OR ~/xxx/yyy/myname OR /Users/ 
>> me/
>> xxx/yyy/myfile.txt or whatever), it ALWAYS goes back to .Rhistory
>> after I quit, and the file is ALWAYS empty. But it IS created in the
>> location I specify, in addition to a copy of .Rhistory in my home
>> directory.
>> […]
>> My behavior also seems to be different from William Doane (thanks  
>> Rob,
>> I'd missed that exchange in my searching). It's one of these things
>> where I initially thought I was missing something obvious so I  
>> haven't
>> tried upgrading yet, but I agree I should upgrade (will probably do a
>> fresh install of 2.10) and hope it works.
>
> The way you quit R seems to make a difference. If you use the menu  
> or the Cmd+Q shortcut, R.app will save its history in the file  
> defined in the preferences, but if you type quit() at the R prompt,  
> R.app will not save its history at all. R itself will save its  
> (empty) history and overwrite the .Rhistory file whenever you save  
> your workspace upon quitting (i.e. if you say "yes" after quitting  
> through the menu or use quit(save="yes") or set "save workspace on  
> exit" to Yes in R.app's preferences), which might explain why you  
> find empty .Rhistory files all over the place.
>
> Regarding the preferences, I think someone mentioned it already but  
> did you press "enter" immediately after entering the filename  
> (without clicking anywhere)? If nothing helps, you can also edit ~/ 
> Preferences/org.R-project.R.plist but that shouldn't be necessary.
>
> Gaël
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