[R-SIG-Mac] system command in OS X failed when ampersand was added to command

[Noah Lorang]

I'm not able to replicate using the same setup on several computers, either with R.app or R running in the terminal, so it's likely something highly specific to your setup. I'd suggest reinstalling or upgrading R and see if the problem goes away.

The clearer way to do this in R, in my opinion, is to use the wait=FALSE flag in system(), which has the same effect as & directly in the shell.

Noah

On Mar 6, 2011, at Mar 6 10:29 AM , Dennis Fisher wrote:

> Colleagues
> 
> I just encountered an odd problem with the system command; perhaps someone can provide some insight.
> At some point in the past (~ 6 months ago; I was using the latest version of R and Snow Leopard available at the time), the command:
> 	system("open -a /complete/path/to/app /complete/path/to/file &")
> ran successfully.  
> 
> I am using R 2.12.0 and OS X.6.6 and the command failed.  To my surprise, removed the ampersand fixed the problem.  I don't know if the problem lies with OS X or R's interaction with OS X.  Does anyone have any insights into this?
> 
> Dennis
> 
> 
> Dennis Fisher MD
> P < (The "P Less Than" Company)
> Phone: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784)
> Fax: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784)
> www.PLessThan.com
> 
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