[R-SIG-Mac] checking for pdflatex

[Rainer M Krug]

"John Fox" <jfox at mcmaster.ca> writes:

> Dear Jordan,
>
> I'm not looking for an R package, I'm looking for the pdflatex program.

Isn't there an R package which requires latex? You might find one and
check how it is done there? knitr[1] comes to mind?

Please post your findings here as it is an interesting question (not
only for latex).

Cheers,

Rainer

>
> Best,
>  John
>
> On Sun, 15 Mar 2015 21:17:53 -0400
>  Jordan Meyer <jordanmeyer1991 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> You may wish to try using the logical.return argument of library(). If it
>> returns TRUE, you could use find.package() to locate the package you are
>> looking for. For example:
>> 
>> > library(package = "BEST", logical.return = TRUE)
>> Loading required package: rjags
>> Loading required package: coda
>> Linked to JAGS 3.4.0
>> Loaded modules: basemod,bugs
>> [1] TRUE
>> > find.package(package = "BEST")
>> [1] "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.1/Resources/library/BEST"
>> 
>> On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 6:21 PM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:
>> 
>> > Dear Ian,
>> >
>> > Thanks for this. Please see below:
>> >
>> > > -----Original Message-----
>> > > From: Ian Gow [mailto:iandgow at gmail.com]
>> > > Sent: March-15-15 5:07 PM
>> > > To: John Fox
>> > > Cc: r-sig-mac at r-project.org
>> > > Subject: Re: [R-SIG-Mac] checking for pdflatex
>> > >
>> > > I think it's driven by the PATH variable, which appears to differ for me
>> > > between RStudio and R from Terminal on the one hand and R.app on the
>> > > other.
>> >
>> > Yes, I understand that, though I don't understand why there's a difference
>> > in the path.
>> >
>> > >
>> > > > Sys.getenv("PATH")
>> > > [1] "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin"
>> > > > Sys.which("pdflatex")
>> > > pdflatex
>> > >        ""
>> > >
>> > > If I add
>> > >
>> > > Sys.setenv(PATH=paste(Sys.getenv("PATH"),"/opt/local/bin", sep=":"))
>> > >
>> > > to ~/.Rprofile then R.app finds pdflatex (from MacPorts in my case).
>> > >
>> > > > Sys.which("pdflatex")
>> > >                   pdflatex
>> > > "/opt/local/bin/pdflatex"
>> > > > Sys.getenv("PATH")
>> > > [1] "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin"
>> >
>> > The problem for me is to determine whether pdflatex is installed *without*
>> > knowing in advance where it's installed. I haven't described the purpose of
>> > this, and, in the interest of brevity, won't for the time-being, but it may
>> > also prove necessary to determine where pdflatex resides.
>> >
>> > Best,
>> >  John
>> >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > On 15 Mar 2015, at 16:46, John Fox wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > Dear list members,
>> > > >
>> > > > I need to determine whether pdflatex is installed and have been doing
>> > > > that via Sys.which("pdflatex"). This works when R is run in a terminal
>> > > > window (or in RStudio):
>> > > >
>> > > > > Sys.which("pdflatex")
>> > > >            pdflatex
>> > > > "/usr/texbin/pdflatex"
>> > > >
>> > > > but not from R.app:
>> > > >
>> > > > > Sys.which("pdflatex")
>> > > > pdflatex
>> > > >    ""
>> > > >
>> > > > The session info is the same in both cases:
>> > > >
>> > > > -------------- snip ----------------
>> > > >
>> > > >> sessionInfo()
>> > > > R version 3.1.3 (2015-03-09)
>> > > > Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0 (64-bit) Running under: OS X
>> > > > 10.10.2 (Yosemite)
>> > > >
>> > > > locale:
>> > > > [1] en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-8/C/en_CA.UTF-8/en_CA.UTF-
>> > > 8
>> > > >
>> > > > attached base packages:
>> > > > [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>> > > >
>> > > > -------------- snip ----------------
>> > > >
>> > > > Why is the result different? Is there a better way to check for the
>> > > > presence of pdflatex?
>> > > >
>> > > > Any help would be appreciated.
>> > > >
>> > > > Thanks,
>> > > > John
>> > > >
>> > > > ------------------------------------------------
>> > > > John Fox, Professor
>> > > > McMaster University
>> > > > Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
>> > > > http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
>> > > >
>> > > > _______________________________________________
>> > > > R-SIG-Mac mailing list
>> > > > R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
>> > > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
>> >
>> >
>> > ---
>> > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > R-SIG-Mac mailing list
>> > R-SIG-Mac at r-project.org
>> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
>> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------
> John Fox, Professor
> McMaster University
> Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
> http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/


Footnotes: 
[1]  http://yihui.name/knitr/

-- 
Rainer M. Krug
email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de
PGP: 0x0F52F982
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