[Rd] R_BATCHSAVE setting in config.site

[Douglas Grove]

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> R is case-sensitive!
> 
> 'batch mode' does not refer to using the utility `R CMD BATCH' (which you 
> called 'BATCH mode' but is not actually running R but running a utility 
> that runs R), and which is documented to set --save.
> 
> Something like R < input.R is not interactive use, and in Unix parlance is 
> 'batch' use.  It is the opposite of 'interactive' (see ?interactive). EOF 
> is ignored in interactive use of R, but this setting does affect 
> interactive use in that you will no longer be asked it you want to save 
> the workspace.

Sorry, I was under the impression (obviously mistaken) that 'batch'
referred to non-interactive use of R, either via R < input.R or 
via the CMD BATCH utility.  It *is* called 'BATCH' after all, so it's
not a great leap to assume it would be considered a 'batch' mode.


> This setting should probably be described in the R-admin manual, perhaps 
> with a better name.

It would be good to mention somewhere (probably in ?quit) that setting
R_SAVEBATCH to --no-save will mess with the default of the 'save'
argument of quit().


Thanks for help,
Doug


> 
> 
> On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Douglas Grove wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> >
> > I just downloaded and installed last nights version of R-patched
> > and decided that I'd set R_BATCHSAVE=--no-save in config.site,
> > which I haven't done before.
> >
> > Since the comment above R_BATCHSAVE in config.site says:
> >  ## The default behavior of R if it encounters EOF in batch mode.
> >  ## Set this to one of '--save' or '--no-save' depending whether you
> >  ## want automatic saving of '.RData' or not.
> > so I assumed it should only affect BATCH mode.  However, I'm finding
> > the opposite, it only affects interactive mode, and *not* BATCH mode.
> >
> > I configured and made R two different ways, one with R_BATCHSAVE set
> > to --no-save and one with it left unset (defaulting to --save).
> 
> No, unset is not --save.
> 
> > I compared the resulting scripts to one another.  I found that
> > there was no difference in the ${R_HOME}/bin/BATCH scripts but there was
> > a difference in the ${R_HOME}/bin/R scripts.  When I set R_BATCHSAVE
> > to --no-save I got:
> >  exec "${R_binary}" --no-save ${args}
> > rather instead of:
> >  exec "${R_binary}"  ${args}
> > one line 175 of /bin/R.
> >
> > Am I missing something (certainly not an uncommon occurrance) or
> > is this a mistake?
> 
> A misreading.
> 
> -- 
> 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
>