R help - Oct 2009 - Help with history() in Emacs/ESS

Hi Everyone,

I am a beginner running R 2.9.2 under Ubuntu and typically use Emacs w/ESS.
However, I am confused with history() command. When I issue command
history() in Emacs within an R session, this is what get:
> history()
Error in savehistory(file) : no history available to save


Similarly, history(max=10) command gives the same error message.

However, there is this In/Out Menu in the Emacs when R is running, and if I
press List Input History from this menu, I see the entire history in a new
frame. Unfortunately, I cannot control how much history I can view by this
menu approach. I would greatly appreciate if someone could explain what is
going on with history() command under Emacs/ESS. Interestingly, history()
command seems to work fine in an R session within the terminal. Best
regards,

Tariq

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Lines sent to R by C-c C-n and related commands are excluded
from the R history.  They appear only in the ESS history.

This, along with everything else, is documented in the file
..../ess/doc/html/ess.html

Questions on ESS should be sent to the ESS list
ess-help at stat.math.ethz.ch

Rich

On Oct 25, 2009, at 4:04 PM, Tariq Perwez wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am a beginner running R 2.9.2 under Ubuntu and typically use Emacs  
> w/ESS.
> However, I am confused with history() command. When I issue command
> history() in Emacs within an R session, this is what get:
>
>> history()
> Error in savehistory(file) : no history available to save
>
>
> Similarly, history(max=10) command gives the same error message.
>
> However, there is this In/Out Menu in the Emacs when R is running,  
> and if I
> press List Input History from this menu, I see the entire history in  
> a new
> frame. Unfortunately, I cannot control how much history I can view  
> by this
> menu approach. I would greatly appreciate if someone could explain  
> what is
> going on with history() command under Emacs/ESS. Interestingly,  
> history()
> command seems to work fine in an R session within the terminal. Best
> regards,
>
> Tariq


When R is run under ESS it uses the --no-readline command line option,  
which disables the normal history() mechanism. The use of readline is  
described in ?history.

If you start R using:

   R --no-readline

from a terminal session, you will observe the same behavior as under  
ESS.

You can review the manual for ESS and see a description of the built- 
in ESS command history mechanism.

Also, ESS related questions should really go to the ESS list:

   https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help

HTH,

Marc Schwartz