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Problem with path.expand("~")

6 messages · Sarah Goslee, John McKown, Duncan Murdoch +2 more

Original
Thierry Onkelinx
# 
Dear all,

I'm puzzled by the behaviour of path.expand("~")

In the RStudio IDE the output is
[1] "C:/Users/thierry_onkelinx/Documents"

In the R GUI the output is
[1] "~"

But I'm expecting the same result as in the RStudio IDE. The "Start in"
parameter of shortcut to the R GUI has the value
"C:\Users\thierry_onkelinx\Documents"

The problem is that I use normalizePath("~/analysis"). This
yield "C:\\Users\\thierry_onkelinx\\Documents\\analysis" in RStudio

It throws an error in the R GUI
"C:\\Users\\thierry_onkelinx\\Documents\\~\\analysis"
Warning message:
In normalizePath(path.expand(path), winslash, mustWork) :
  path[1]="~/analysis": Het systeem kan het opgegeven pad niet vinden

# sessionInfo() in RStudio
R version 3.2.1 (2015-06-18)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 7 x64 (build 7601) Service Pack 1

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=Dutch_Belgium.1252  LC_CTYPE=Dutch_Belgium.1252
 LC_MONETARY=Dutch_Belgium.1252
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                   LC_TIME=Dutch_Belgium.1252

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

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_3.2.1    fortunes_1.5-2

# sessionInfo() from R GUI
R version 3.2.1 (2015-06-18)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 7 x64 (build 7601) Service Pack 1

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

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

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] tools_3.2.1    fortunes_1.5-2


Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature and
Forest
team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Anderlecht
Belgium

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
Sarah Goslee
# 
Hm.

On my linux system:
[1] "/home/sarahg"

The help file says:
     Expand a path name, for example by replacing a leading tilde by
     the user's home directory (if defined on that platform).

Does Windows 7 define ~?

Just because RStudio defines it for you, doesn't mean that R shares that
same setup; if R is checking with the operating system, then it depends on
the Windows setup. You could, I assume, define ~ in Windows yourself, or
write your own path.expand() to do so. I have no idea which option the
RStudio designers took.

Could you use getwd() to get the output you're looking for? I would expect
~ to properly be "C:/Users/thierry_onkelinx" and getwd() to be what you've
set Start in as, suggesting that not only did RStudio define ~ for Windows,
they did it in a non-standard way. (Unless your home directory on Windows
should be Documents?)

Sarah

On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 10:41 AM, Thierry Onkelinx <thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
John McKown
# 
Works correctly on 3.1.1 under Windows . You may have found a problem in
the Windows port. The Linux version of R 3.2.1 works correctly, for me.

R version 3.1.1 (2014-07-10) -- "Sock it to Me"
Copyright (C) 2014 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: i386-w64-mingw32/i386 (32-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

  Natural language support but running in an English locale

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

[Previously saved workspace restored]
[1] "C:\\Users\\john.mckown\\Documents"
===

R version 3.1.1 (2014-07-10) -- "Sock it to Me"
Copyright (C) 2014 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

  Natural language support but running in an English locale

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

[Previously saved workspace restored]
[1] "C:\\Users\\john.mckown\\Documents"
On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 9:51 AM, Sarah Goslee <sarah.goslee at gmail.com>
wrote:

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Duncan Murdoch
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
On 11/08/2015 10:51 AM, Sarah Goslee wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
The tilde meaning "home" is not a concept in Windows, but R fakes it.
This is described in ?path.expand and the R for Windows FAQ.  Thierry
should set the R_USER environment variable to whatever home dir he
wants.  RStudio is probably doing that for him.

Duncan Murdoch

            

      
      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      William Dunlap
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
In the R GUI the output is
    > path.expand("~")
    [1] "~"

Did you set the environment variable R_USER to something odd like "~"?

Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 7:41 AM, Thierry Onkelinx <thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be>
wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Thierry Onkelinx
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Dear Bill,

The culprit was the environment variable HOME which was set to "~".
Changing it to "C:/Users/thierry_onkelinx/Documents" solved the problem.
Thanks for the hint.

Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature and
Forest
team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
Kliniekstraat 25
1070 Anderlecht
Belgium

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

2015-08-11 17:39 GMT+02:00 William Dunlap <wdunlap at tibco.com>: