R devel - Feb 2005 - getAnywhere and functions starting with "." (PR#7684)

Full_Name: Mark Bravington
Version: 2.0.1
OS: Windows XP
Submission from: (NULL) (140.79.22.104)


'getAnywhere' crashes when its argument starts with a period:
> getAnywhere( '.onLoad')
Error in exists(x, envir, mode, inherits) : 
        invalid first argument

One fix might be to replace the line

if ( !is.null(f <- getS3method(gen, cl, TRUE))) {

with

if ( nchar( gen) && !is.null(f <- getS3method(gen, cl, TRUE))) {

Mark

This was mentioned a week or so ago on R-devel and is already fixed in the 
current sources: from the NEWS file

     o	getAnywhere() was confused by names with leading or trailing dots
 	(spotted by Robert McGehee)

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 mark.bravington@csiro.au wrote:
> Full_Name: Mark Bravington
> Version: 2.0.1
> OS: Windows XP
> Submission from: (NULL) (140.79.22.104)
>
>
> 'getAnywhere' crashes when its argument starts with a period:
It does not: it gives an error.  Please do read the comment on this in the 
posting guide!
>> getAnywhere( '.onLoad')
> Error in exists(x, envir, mode, inherits) :
>        invalid first argument
>
> One fix might be to replace the line
>
> if ( !is.null(f <- getS3method(gen, cl, TRUE))) {
>
> with
>
> if ( nchar( gen) && !is.null(f <- getS3method(gen, cl, TRUE))) {
>
> Mark
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
>
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley@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

mark.bravington@csiro.au wrote:
> Full_Name: Mark Bravington
> Version: 2.0.1
> OS: Windows XP
> Submission from: (NULL) (140.79.22.104)
> 
> 
> 'getAnywhere' crashes when its argument starts with a period:
> 
> 
>>getAnywhere( '.onLoad')
> 
> Error in exists(x, envir, mode, inherits) : 
>         invalid first argument
> 
> One fix might be to replace the line
> 
> if ( !is.null(f <- getS3method(gen, cl, TRUE))) {
> 
> with
> 
> if ( nchar( gen) && !is.null(f <- getS3method(gen, cl, TRUE))) {
> 
> Mark
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Has already been fixed, as you can easily see, e.g., from R-devels NEWS 
file, section BUG FIXES:

  o getAnywhere() was confused by names with leading or trailing dots
    (spotted by Robert McGehee)

Uwe Ligges

>> [MVB] 'getAnywhere' crashes when its argument starts with a
period:
> [UL] Has already been fixed, as you can easily see, e.g., from
R-devels NEWS file, section BUG FIXES:

Good, thanks.

It seems quite common for bugs to be reported after they have been fixed
in R-devel. This is likely to occur when-- as in the 'getAnywhere'
case-- there's no record of the bug in Bug Tracking (I do check before
submitting).

Checking R-devel news can be cumbersome-- I couldn't reach the ftp site
yesterday, for example, and it's not always feasible to download 12MB--
and many users won't be set up to handle it.

To avoid wasting R-core's time over repeat posts, is there some mileage
in R-core adding "fixed in Rdevel" bug reports into the Bug Tracking
system, even if there is no prior bug report?

Mark


Mark Bravington
CSIRO Mathematical & Information Sciences
Marine Laboratory
Castray Esplanade
Hobart 7001
TAS

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