R devel - Aug 2008 - Second X11 call with invalid display crashes R after first X11 call. (PR#12628)

I get this with R 2.7.2 (and 2.7.1, and 2.6.2, but NOT 2.4.0):

 > X11() # this one opens up okay
 > X11("foo")
 Error: Couldn't find per display information
 $

and R crashes out back to my shell prompt.

If I do X11("foo") as a first command I get a meaningful error and my
R prompt back:
> X11("foo")
Error in X11(d$display, d$width, d$height, d$pointsize, d$gamma, d$colortype,  :

  unable to start device X11cairo
In addition: Warning message:
In X11("foo") : unable to open connection to X11 display
'foo'
>
So it only seems to be after a *successful* X11() call it that it crashes R.

Can't find anything in latest changes that refer to fixing this.

My system is Ubuntu 7.10 with R 2.7.2 from latest repository, also
happens with an R 2.7.0 binary I've got hanging around compiled from
source and also happens on other systems I've tried.
> sessionInfo()
R version 2.7.2 (2008-08-25)
i486-pc-linux-gnu

locale:
LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_
MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;L
C_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

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

This is an Xt error, whereas the first one is an Xlib error.  It is easy 
to trap it.

You do realize that this will never work?  In the current setup all open 
X11 devices must be on the same display, and 'display' is ignored if a 
device is already open.  (I don't know if that is documented: I did not 
write the Xlib device nor the help page.)


On Thu, 28 Aug 2008, b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk wrote:
> I get this with R 2.7.2 (and 2.7.1, and 2.6.2, but NOT 2.4.0):
>
> > X11() # this one opens up okay
> > X11("foo")
> Error: Couldn't find per display information
> $
>
> and R crashes out back to my shell prompt.
>
> If I do X11("foo") as a first command I get a meaningful error
and my
> R prompt back:
>
>> X11("foo")
> Error in X11(d$display, d$width, d$height, d$pointsize, d$gamma,
d$colortype,  :
>
>  unable to start device X11cairo
> In addition: Warning message:
> In X11("foo") : unable to open connection to X11 display
'foo'
>>
>
> So it only seems to be after a *successful* X11() call it that it crashes
R.
>
> Can't find anything in latest changes that refer to fixing this.
>
> My system is Ubuntu 7.10 with R 2.7.2 from latest repository, also
> happens with an R 2.7.0 binary I've got hanging around compiled from
> source and also happens on other systems I've tried.
>
>> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.7.2 (2008-08-25)
> i486-pc-linux-gnu
>
> locale:
>
LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_
>
MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;L
> C_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
-- 
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