[R-SIG-Mac] R.app cannot see tar but R (console) can

[Berend Hasselman]

On 01-08-2011, at 06:15, <Ross.Darnell at csiro.au> <Ross.Darnell at csiro.au> wrote:

> If I run
> 
>> system('tar')
> within the console version of R I get
> 
>> system('tar')
> tar: Must specify one of -c, -r, -t, -u, -x
> 
> If I try using R.app  I get
> 
> R version 2.13.1 (2011-07-08)
> Copyright (C) 2011 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> ISBN 3-900051-07-0
> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin9.8.0/x86_64 (64-bit)
> 
> R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
> You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
> Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
> 
>  Natural language support but running in an English locale
> 
> R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
> Type 'contributors()' for more information and
> 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
> 
> Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
> 'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
> Type 'q()' to quit R.
> 
> [R.app GUI 1.41 (5874) x86_64-apple-darwin9.8.0]
> 
> [Workspace restored from /Users/dar143/.RData]
> [History restored from /Users/dar143/.Rapp.history]
> 
>> system(tar)
> Error in system(tar) : non-empty character argument expected

1. You should have done system("tar"). Now R is looking for an object tar which is empty.

2. GUI applications in Mac OS X don't inherit/receive  the environment used in Terminal.

You can check this in R.app with Sys.getenv("PATH").
You could use Sys.setenv(PATH="...") in R.app to set PATH for that session.

If you want GUI applications to always receive certain environment variables then  see

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/135688/setting-environment-variables-in-os-x
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#qa/qa1067/_index.html
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPRuntimeConfig/Articles/EnvironmentVars.html

If you would like to set environment variables for GUI applications in a "nice" way (would also work for Emacs I think) you can use RCenvironment which provides a preference pane for setting environment variables for GUI applications. See

http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCEnvironment/

best

Berend