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problematic dev.off() after running examples without plots

3 messages · Martin Maechler, Thierry Onkelinx

Original
Thierry Onkelinx
# 
Dear all,

When running R CMD check on our package, we get an error on the examples.

Error in grDevices::dev.off() :
     cannot shut down device 1 (the null device)

None of the examples in our package generates plots. grDevices::dev.off()
is code added by R CMD check. A workaround is to have at least one example
which has some plot. Is there a better solution? We are using R 3.5.1

Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Statisticus / Statistician

Vlaamse Overheid / Government of Flanders
INSTITUUT VOOR NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK / RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATURE AND
FOREST
Team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / Team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000 Brussel
www.inbo.be

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more
than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say
what the experiment died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
The plural of anecdote is not data. ~ Roger Brinner
The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not
ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
~ John Tukey
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

<https://www.inbo.be>
Martin Maechler
# 
> Dear all, When running R CMD check on our package, we get
    > an error on the examples.

    > Error in grDevices::dev.off() : 
    >  cannot shut down device 1 (the null device)

    > None of the examples in our package generates
    > plots. grDevices::dev.off() is code added by R CMD
    > check. 

Yes, but there's also code added at the very beginning of the
examples R script ( <pkg>-Ex.R ) which opens a pdf device:

  grDevices::pdf.options(width = 7, height = 7, paper = "special", reset = TRUE)
  grDevices::pdf(paste(pkgname, "-Ex.pdf", sep=""), encoding = "ISOLatin1")

and so things should work and do work well for packages without any plots.

You must be doing something particularly strange in some of *your*
examples such as closing all existing devices -- something you should not do:

As a good citizen you close graphic devices that you open but not others.

    > A workaround is to have at least one example which
    > has some plot. Is there a better solution? 

Yes, find the example in your package which does the above
"strange thing" and modify that.

Best,
Martin Maechler
ETH Zurich and R Core Team


    > We are using R 3.5.1

    > Best regards,

    > ir. Thierry Onkelinx Statisticus / Statistician

    > Vlaamse Overheid / Government of Flanders INSTITUUT VOOR
    > NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK / RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATURE
    > AND FOREST Team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / Team
    > Biometrics & Quality Assurance thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
    > Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000 Brussel www.inbo.be

    > ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    > To call in the statistician after the experiment is done
    > may be no more than asking him to perform a post-mortem
    > examination: he may be able to say what the experiment
    > died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher The plural of anecdote
    > is not data. ~ Roger Brinner The combination of some data
    > and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a
    > reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of
    > data.  ~ John Tukey
    > ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    > <https://www.inbo.be>

    > 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

    > ______________________________________________
    > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
    > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
Thierry Onkelinx
# 
Dear Martin,

Thanks for the feedback. After some more digging, I found that the problem
was caused by a function which we imported from another package. That
function closes open devices as a side-effect.

Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Statisticus / Statistician

Vlaamse Overheid / Government of Flanders
INSTITUUT VOOR NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK / RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATURE AND
FOREST
Team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / Team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000 Brussel
www.inbo.be

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more
than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to say
what the experiment died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
The plural of anecdote is not data. ~ Roger Brinner
The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not
ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.
~ John Tukey
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

<https://www.inbo.be>


Op wo 21 nov. 2018 om 10:47 schreef Martin Maechler <
maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>: