R help - Mar 2012 - Cannot change location of tempdir()

Hi,

One of the functions I use needs to write to a temporary file, in the 
directory given by tempdir(). I want to change this from the standard 
one, as the file is too large for the drive. However, tempfile() doesnt 
seem to respect the environment variables when I change them with 
Sys.setenv(). In a fresh R-session:

 > Sys.getenv("TMP")
[1] "C:\\Users\\skoiejo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp"
 >  Sys.setenv(TMP = "e:\\Temp\\Rtmp")
 > Sys.getenv("TMP")
[1] "e:\\Temp\\Rtmp"
 >  tempfile()
[1]
"C:\\Users\\skoiejo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Rtmp2tvQ7U\\file499a5987"
# I have also tried to change "TMPDIR", "TEMP" and
"R_USER", all with
the same result.

# The directory is writable:
 > write("some text", file =
paste(Sys.getenv("TMP"),"test.txt",sep = ""))
 > list.files(Sys.getenv("TMP"))
[1] "test.txt"

I have probably misunderstood something, but what? Session info below.

 > sessionInfo()
R version 2.14.0 (2011-10-31)
Platform: x86_64-pc-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United 
States.1252    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United 
States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_2.14.0

I know this is not the last version, but I do not have administrator 
rights myself on the computer and did not see any relevant references to 
tempfile() in the news for newer versions.

Thanks,
Jon

-- 
Jon Olav Sk?ien
Joint Research Centre - European Commission
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES)
Land Resource Management Unit

Via Fermi 2749, TP 440,  I-21027 Ispra (VA), ITALY

jon.skoien at jrc.ec.europa.eu
Tel:  +39 0332 789206

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this email are those of the individual and do not
necessarily represent official views of the European Commission.

On 08-03-2012, at 12:15, Jon Olav Skoien wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> One of the functions I use needs to write to a temporary file, in the
directory given by tempdir(). I want to change this from the standard one, as
the file is too large for the drive. However, tempfile() doesnt seem to respect
the environment variables when I change them with Sys.setenv(). In a fresh
R-session:
> 
> > Sys.getenv("TMP")
> [1] "C:\\Users\\skoiejo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp"
> >  Sys.setenv(TMP = "e:\\Temp\\Rtmp")
> > Sys.getenv("TMP")
> [1] "e:\\Temp\\Rtmp"
> >  tempfile()
> [1]
"C:\\Users\\skoiejo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Rtmp2tvQ7U\\file499a5987"
> # I have also tried to change "TMPDIR", "TEMP" and
"R_USER", all with the same result.
> 
> # The directory is writable:
> > write("some text", file =
paste(Sys.getenv("TMP"),"test.txt",sep = ""))
> > list.files(Sys.getenv("TMP"))
> [1] "test.txt"
> 
> I have probably misunderstood something, but what? Session info below.
From the help for Sys.setenv:

Sys.setenv sets environment variables (for other processes called from within R
or future calls to Sys.getenv from this R process).

You should try

tempfile(tmpdir=Sys.getenv("TMP"))

and see if that works.

Berend

On Thu, 8 Mar 2012, Jon Olav Skoien wrote:
> Hi,
>
> One of the functions I use needs to write to a temporary file, in the 
> directory given by tempdir(). I want to change this from the standard one,
as
> the file is too large for the drive. However, tempfile() doesnt seem to 
> respect the environment variables when I change them with Sys.setenv(). In
a
> fresh R-session:
Who said it would?  By the time you set these, tempdir() is already 
created.

Set TMPDIR before you start R, e.g. on the RGui command line.
>
>> Sys.getenv("TMP")
> [1] "C:\\Users\\skoiejo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp"
>>  Sys.setenv(TMP = "e:\\Temp\\Rtmp")
>> Sys.getenv("TMP")
> [1] "e:\\Temp\\Rtmp"
>>  tempfile()
> [1]
"C:\\Users\\skoiejo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Rtmp2tvQ7U\\file499a5987"
> # I have also tried to change "TMPDIR", "TEMP" and
"R_USER", all with the
> same result.
>
> # The directory is writable:
>> write("some text", file =
paste(Sys.getenv("TMP"),"test.txt",sep = ""))
>> list.files(Sys.getenv("TMP"))
> [1] "test.txt"
>
> I have probably misunderstood something, but what? Session info below.
>
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.14.0 (2011-10-31)
> Platform: x86_64-pc-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
>
> locale:
> [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United 
> States.1252    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
> [4] LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United
States.1252
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>
> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
> [1] tools_2.14.0
>
> I know this is not the last version, but I do not have administrator rights
> myself on the computer and did not see any relevant references to
tempfile()
> in the news for newer versions.
>
> Thanks,
> Jon
>
> -- 
> Jon Olav Sk?ien
> Joint Research Centre - European Commission
> Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES)
> Land Resource Management Unit
>
> Via Fermi 2749, TP 440,  I-21027 Ispra (VA), ITALY
>
> jon.skoien at jrc.ec.europa.eu
> Tel:  +39 0332 789206
>
> Disclaimer: Views expressed in this email are those of the individual and
do
> not necessarily represent official views of the European Commission.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595