R help - Jul 2008 - how can I write code to detect whether the machine is Windows or Linux?

Hi R-People:

I use 2 machines: a machine with a Windows XP operating system, and 
another with a Linux Ubuntu OS. I transport my code between these 2 
machines. However, pathnames to data files always need to be
"adjusted"
to account for the OS that I'm working on.

Here is my question:

How do I write code to detect whether I'm using the XP or the Linux 
machine?

If I knew this, I could write my code in a way so that I didn't have to 
adjust path names to data file all the time.

I checked the archives... didn't find anything, but perhaps didn't know 
the right search terms...

Thanks for your help, R-community! Please respond to: 
philipsmith at alumni.albany.edu

Best regards,
Phil Smith
Duluth, GA

On 24/07/2008, at 9:53 AM, Philip James Smith wrote:
> Hi R-People:
>
> I use 2 machines: a machine with a Windows XP operating system, and  
> another with a Linux Ubuntu OS. I transport my code between these 2  
> machines. However, pathnames to data files always need to be  
> "adjusted" to account for the OS that I'm working on.
>
> Here is my question:
>
> How do I write code to detect whether I'm using the XP or the Linux  
> machine?
>
> If I knew this, I could write my code in a way so that I didn't  
> have to adjust path names to data file all the time.
>
> I checked the archives... didn't find anything, but perhaps didn't
> know the right search terms...
	The help for ``version'' says to use .Platform$OS.type
	to check what platform the code is running on.

		cheers,

			Rolf Turner

######################################################################
Attention:\ This e-mail message is privileged and confid...{{dropped:9}}

on 07/23/2008 04:53 PM Philip James Smith wrote:
> Hi R-People:
> 
> I use 2 machines: a machine with a Windows XP operating system, and 
> another with a Linux Ubuntu OS. I transport my code between these 2 
> machines. However, pathnames to data files always need to be
"adjusted"
> to account for the OS that I'm working on.
> 
> Here is my question:
> 
> How do I write code to detect whether I'm using the XP or the Linux 
> machine?
> 
> If I knew this, I could write my code in a way so that I didn't have to
> adjust path names to data file all the time.
> 
> I checked the archives... didn't find anything, but perhaps didn't
know
> the right search terms...
> 
> Thanks for your help, R-community! Please respond to: 
> philipsmith at alumni.albany.edu
See ?.Platform

For example:

 > .Platform$OS
[1] "unix"

It's always dangerous to say always, but "in general", the use of:

   Path/To/File

with *forward* slashes, will work on both Windows and Linux, including 
the use of relative paths.

See:

http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#How-do-file-names-work-in-Windows_003f

and
 
http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/rw-FAQ.html#R-can_0027t-find-my-file

for some hints.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz

Ryacas is one package that checks this.  Look at this file:

http://ryacas.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/R/yacasInstall.R

On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 5:53 PM, Philip James Smith
<philipsmith at alumni.albany.edu> wrote:
> Hi R-People:
>
> I use 2 machines: a machine with a Windows XP operating system, and another
> with a Linux Ubuntu OS. I transport my code between these 2 machines.
> However, pathnames to data files always need to be "adjusted" to
account for
> the OS that I'm working on.
>
> Here is my question:
>
> How do I write code to detect whether I'm using the XP or the Linux
machine?
>
> If I knew this, I could write my code in a way so that I didn't have to
> adjust path names to data file all the time.
>
> I checked the archives... didn't find anything, but perhaps didn't
know the
> right search terms...
>
> Thanks for your help, R-community! Please respond to:
> philipsmith at alumni.albany.edu
>
> Best regards,
> Phil Smith
> Duluth, GA
>
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