R devel - Mar 2007 - Too long pathname in bitmap() crashes R on WinXP

Hi,

using too long pathnames for bitmap() crash R on WinXP.  I've verified
that this is the case with R version 2.4.1 Patched (2007-03-25 r40958)
and R version 2.5.0 alpha (2007-03-30 r40957). I cannot reproduce it
on Linux.

REPRODUCIBLE EXAMPLE:

% Rterm --vanilla

# Tell R where Ghostscript is
gsexe <- "C:/gs/gs8.54/bin/gswin32c.exe";
gsexe <- "C:/Program Files/gs/gs8.56/bin/gswin32c.exe";
gsexe <- shortPathName(gsexe);
Sys.putenv("R_GSCMD"=gsexe);

# Total length of pathname (R crashes when it is too long)
n <- 130;

# Output path
path <- tempdir();

# Filename
name <- paste(rep("a", n-5-nchar(path)), collapse="");
filename <- paste(name, "png", sep=".");

# Full pathname
pathname <- file.path(path, filename);
print(pathname);
stopifnot(nchar(pathname) == n);

bitmap(pathname);
plot(1);
dev.off();

R crash with dev.off(), but the PNG file is still created.


# MORE DETAILED EXAMPLE:

n <- 130;
path <- tempdir();
name <- paste(rep("a", n-5-nchar(path)), collapse="");
filename <- paste(name, "png", sep=".");
pathname <- file.path(path, filename);
print(pathname);

# Tell R where Ghostscript is
gsexe <- "C:/gs/gs8.54/bin/gswin32c.exe";
gsexe <- "C:/Program Files/gs/gs8.56/bin/gswin32c.exe";
gsexe <- shortPathName(gsexe);

cmd <- paste(gsexe, " -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -q -sDEVICE=png256 -r72
-g432x432 -sOutputFile=", pathname, sep="");
print(cmd);
print(nchar(cmd));

tmp <- tempfile();
postscript(file=tmp, width=6, height=6, pointsize=9, paper="special",
horizontal=FALSE, print.it=TRUE, command=cmd);
plot(1);
dev.off();

It seems to have to do with the length of 'cmd' (since the possible
pathname length varies with the length of 'gsexe' used).

Any ideas?

/Henrik

It is also possible to trigger this on Unix: a buffer in postscript() is 
PATH_MAX when it should be 2*PATH_MAX + 2.

I'll fix this in 2.5.0 alpha (there is also a potential issue inside the 
Windows' runcmd that needs fixing).

On Fri, 30 Mar 2007, Henrik Bengtsson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> using too long pathnames for bitmap() crash R on WinXP.  I've verified
> that this is the case with R version 2.4.1 Patched (2007-03-25 r40958)
> and R version 2.5.0 alpha (2007-03-30 r40957). I cannot reproduce it
> on Linux.
>
> REPRODUCIBLE EXAMPLE:
>
> % Rterm --vanilla
>
> # Tell R where Ghostscript is
> gsexe <- "C:/gs/gs8.54/bin/gswin32c.exe";
> gsexe <- "C:/Program Files/gs/gs8.56/bin/gswin32c.exe";
> gsexe <- shortPathName(gsexe);
> Sys.putenv("R_GSCMD"=gsexe);
>
> # Total length of pathname (R crashes when it is too long)
> n <- 130;
>
> # Output path
> path <- tempdir();
>
> # Filename
> name <- paste(rep("a", n-5-nchar(path)),
collapse="");
> filename <- paste(name, "png", sep=".");
>
> # Full pathname
> pathname <- file.path(path, filename);
> print(pathname);
> stopifnot(nchar(pathname) == n);
>
> bitmap(pathname);
> plot(1);
> dev.off();
>
> R crash with dev.off(), but the PNG file is still created.
>
>
> # MORE DETAILED EXAMPLE:
>
> n <- 130;
> path <- tempdir();
> name <- paste(rep("a", n-5-nchar(path)),
collapse="");
> filename <- paste(name, "png", sep=".");
> pathname <- file.path(path, filename);
> print(pathname);
>
> # Tell R where Ghostscript is
> gsexe <- "C:/gs/gs8.54/bin/gswin32c.exe";
> gsexe <- "C:/Program Files/gs/gs8.56/bin/gswin32c.exe";
> gsexe <- shortPathName(gsexe);
>
> cmd <- paste(gsexe, " -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -q -sDEVICE=png256 -r72
> -g432x432 -sOutputFile=", pathname, sep="");
> print(cmd);
> print(nchar(cmd));
>
> tmp <- tempfile();
> postscript(file=tmp, width=6, height=6, pointsize=9,
paper="special",
> horizontal=FALSE, print.it=TRUE, command=cmd);
> plot(1);
> dev.off();
>
> It seems to have to do with the length of 'cmd' (since the possible
> pathname length varies with the length of 'gsexe' used).
>
> Any ideas?
>
> /Henrik
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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