R help - Mar 2011 - system(..., invisible=FALSE, show.output.on.console=FALSE) in Windows 7

Hello,

I work for a company in which a number of employees use R. Many of them like to
run executables via the system function in such a way that the output of that
executable is displayed in a separate window. To give an example of the behavior
they require, the following command can be run in R GUI:

system("cmd",invisible=FALSE,show.output.on.console=FALSE)

The result is that a command prompt opens up and can be used interactively until
it is closed. We have never had a problem with this command running R on Windows
XP machines.

Recently a number of us have switched to PCs running Windows 7. Under this
operating system the above command often, if not always, fails to open a window.
Some people can successfully run the command in one R session but then fail to
get a window if a second R session is started. Others cannot get a window to
open at all. We've tested the command with R 2.12.1, 2.12.1 patched, 2.12.2
and 2.12.2 patched (all in both 32 and 64 bit). All of these exhibit the same
problem.

I raised the issue as a bug
(https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=14516), but this was
promptly closed as being "not reproducible". Since we are having
issues running the above command on all of our windows 7 PCs but none of our
windows XP PCs, and since whoever closed the bug clearly had no issues running
the command on his or her Windows 7 PC, I'm not really sure what to do next
in terms of trying to resolve the problem.

Can anyone shed any light on this issue? Is anyone able to reproduce it (only
takes 30 seconds, just copy the above line into RGui on Windows 7 and confirm
whether a command prompt opens; then, with the first session still open, try the
same in a second RGui window)?

Any help or feedback would be appreciated,

Cheers,

Ralph
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

I see something similar on my system.  Running your command line, I
can see the command window flashup and then disappear.
> sessionInfo()
R version 2.12.1 (2010-12-16)
Platform: i386-pc-mingw32/i386 (32-bit)

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United
States.1252
[3] LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 LC_NUMERIC=C
[5] LC_TIME=English_United States.1252

attached base packages:
[1] tcltk     stats     grDevices utils     datasets  graphics
methods   base

other attached packages:
 [1] RColorBrewer_1.0-2    sqldf_0.3-5           chron_2.3-39
gsubfn_0.5-5
 [5] proto_0.3-8           RSQLite.extfuns_0.0.1 RSQLite_0.9-4
DBI_0.2-5
 [9] zoo_1.6-4             plyr_1.4

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] grid_2.12.1     lattice_0.19-17 tools_2.12.1
>

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Ralph Olsson
<ralpholsson at btinternet.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I work for a company in which a number of employees use R. Many of them
like to run executables via the system function in such a way that the output of
that executable is displayed in a separate window. To give an example of the
behavior they require, the following command can be run in R GUI:
>
> system("cmd",invisible=FALSE,show.output.on.console=FALSE)
>
> The result is that a command prompt opens up and can be used interactively
until it is closed. We have never had a problem with this command running R on
Windows XP machines.
>
> Recently a number of us have switched to PCs running Windows 7. Under this
operating system the above command often, if not always, fails to open a window.
Some people can successfully run the command in one R session but then fail to
get a window if a second R session is started. Others cannot get a window to
open at all. We've tested the command with R 2.12.1, 2.12.1 patched, 2.12.2
and 2.12.2 patched (all in both 32 and 64 bit). All of these exhibit the same
problem.
>
> I raised the issue as a bug
(https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=14516), but this was
promptly closed as being "not reproducible". Since we are having
issues running the above command on all of our windows 7 PCs but none of our
windows XP PCs, and since whoever closed the bug clearly had no issues running
the command on his or her Windows 7 PC, I'm not really sure what to do next
in terms of trying to resolve the problem.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this issue? Is anyone able to reproduce it
(only takes 30 seconds, just copy the above line into RGui on Windows 7 and
confirm whether a command prompt opens; then, with the first session still open,
try the same in a second RGui window)?
>
> Any help or feedback would be appreciated,
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ralph
> ? ? ? ?[[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.
>


-- 
Jim Holtman
Data Munger Guru

What is the problem that you are trying to solve?

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Ralph Olsson
<ralpholsson at btinternet.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I work for a company in which a number of employees use R. Many of them
like to run executables via the system function in such a way that the output of
that executable is displayed in a separate window. To give an example of the
behavior they require, the following command can be run in R GUI:
>
> system("cmd",invisible=FALSE,show.output.on.console=FALSE)
>
> The result is that a command prompt opens up and can be used interactively
until it is closed. We have never had a problem with this command running R on
Windows XP machines.
>
> Recently a number of us have switched to PCs running Windows 7. Under this
operating system the above command often, if not always, fails to open a window.
Some people can successfully run the command in one R session but then fail to
get a window if a second R session is started. Others cannot get a window to
open at all. We've tested the command with R 2.12.1, 2.12.1 patched, 2.12.2
and 2.12.2 patched (all in both 32 and 64 bit). All of these exhibit the same
problem.
>
> I raised the issue as a bug
(https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=14516), but this was
promptly closed as being "not reproducible". Since we are having
issues running the above command on all of our windows 7 PCs but none of our
windows XP PCs, and since whoever closed the bug clearly had no issues running
the command on his or her Windows 7 PC, I'm not really sure what to do next
in terms of trying to resolve the problem.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this issue? Is anyone able to reproduce it
(only takes 30 seconds, just copy the above line into RGui on Windows 7 and
confirm whether a command prompt opens; then, with the first session still open,
try the same in a second RGui window)?
>
> Any help or feedback would be appreciated,
>

Does this work for you?

shell("start")


-- 
Statistics & Software Consulting
GKX Group, GKX Associates Inc.
tel: 1-877-GKX-GROUP
email: ggrothendieck at gmail.com