R help - Jun 2010 - setting the current working directory to the location of the source file

AFAIK a script run through source() does not have any legit way to learn
about it's own location.

I need this to make sure that the script will find its datafiles after I
move the whole directory. (The datafiles are in the same directory.)

Here is a hack I invented to work around it:

print(getwd())
source_pathname  = get("ofile",envir = parent.frame())
source_dirname = dirname(source_pathname )
setwd(source_dirname)
print(getwd())

Question: Is there a better, cleaner way?

Thanks,
mrgomel

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On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 6:03 AM, Marcin Gomulka <mrgomel@gmail.com> wrote:
> AFAIK a script run through source() does not have any legit way to learn
> about it's own location.
>
> I need this to make sure that the script will find its datafiles after I
> move the whole directory. (The datafiles are in the same directory.)
>
> Here is a hack I invented to work around it:
>
> print(getwd())
> source_pathname  = get("ofile",envir = parent.frame())
> source_dirname = dirname(source_pathname )
> setwd(source_dirname)
> print(getwd())
>
> Question: Is there a better, cleaner way?
>
>
Hi,

I am using some thing like this to setup working directory:

##set working directory

pwd <- getwd()
if (!is.null(pwd)) {
                setwd(pwd)
        } else {
                print("Directory not found")
        }

Thanks & Rg
Mohan L

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On Fri, 11 Jun 2010, Marcin Gomulka wrote:
> AFAIK a script run through source() does not have any legit way to learn
> about it's own location.
>
You mean like 'test.R' being able to figure out that that is what it is 
called when it is invoked from source()?

> cat("print(eval(sys.calls()[[1]][[2]]))",file='test.R')
> source('test.R')
[1] "test.R"
> setwd('projects')
> source('../test.R')
[1] "../test.R"
> source(list.files('..','test.R$',full=TRUE))
[1] "../test.R"
>
>
See

 	?sys.calls


HTH,

Chuck

> I need this to make sure that the script will find its datafiles after I
> move the whole directory. (The datafiles are in the same directory.)
>
> Here is a hack I invented to work around it:
>
> print(getwd())
> source_pathname  = get("ofile",envir = parent.frame())
> source_dirname = dirname(source_pathname )
> setwd(source_dirname)
> print(getwd())
>
> Question: Is there a better, cleaner way?
>
> Thanks,
> mrgomel
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>
Charles C. Berry                            (858) 534-2098
                                             Dept of Family/Preventive Medicine
E mailto:cberry at tajo.ucsd.edu	            UC San Diego
http://famprevmed.ucsd.edu/faculty/cberry/  La Jolla, San Diego 92093-0901

Isn't this what source(..., chdir=TRUE) is for?  See help(source).

/H

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 2:33 AM, Marcin Gomulka <mrgomel at gmail.com>
wrote:
> AFAIK a script run through source() does not have any legit way to learn
> about it's own location.
>
> I need this to make sure that the script will find its datafiles after I
> move the whole directory. (The datafiles are in the same directory.)
>
> Here is a hack I invented to work around it:
>
> print(getwd())
> source_pathname ?= get("ofile",envir = parent.frame())
> source_dirname = dirname(source_pathname )
> setwd(source_dirname)
> print(getwd())
>
> Question: Is there a better, cleaner way?
>
> Thanks,
> mrgomel
>
> ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 8:33 PM, Marcin Gomulka <mrgomel at gmail.com>
wrote:
> AFAIK a script run through source() does not have any legit way to learn
> about it's own location.
>
> I need this to make sure that the script will find its datafiles after I
> move the whole directory. (The datafiles are in the same directory.)
>
> Here is a hack I invented to work around it:
>
> print(getwd())
> source_pathname ?= get("ofile",envir = parent.frame())
> source_dirname = dirname(source_pathname )
> setwd(source_dirname)
> print(getwd())
>
This variation is nearly the same:

https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2010-May/238804.html