[R-SIG-Mac] checking for pdflatex

[David Winsemius]

On Mar 15, 2015, at 6:29 PM, John Fox wrote:

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

In a Terminal session pdflatex does not appear to be on the bash path:

my-computer-name:~ myusername$ which pdflatex

# Nothing

Whereas in an R.app session (in OSX 10.7.5)

> system("which pdflatex")
/usr/texbin/pdflatex

Conversely when I do this on my Yosemite equipped laptop si the the oppostite. The PATH for The R GUI does not include/usr/texbin/ while the bash PATH does.

Perhaps this helps?

-- 
David.

> 
> 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
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>>> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------
> John Fox, Professor
> McMaster University
> Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
> http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
> 
> _______________________________________________
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David Winsemius
Alameda, CA, USA