[R] how to set environment variables?

[Andreas Zankl]

Thanks. Sys.putenv did work, however this has to be set every time I start R.

gs is on my path and works fine under Unix, but I get the following 
error when running bitmap (without setting R_GSCMD first):

/bin/sh: line 1: gs: command not found

I assume the problem is related to the fact that I am using the csh 
shell, while the new Mac OS X default shell is now bash. So I guess 
my .csh path settings are ignored by R calling bash. I solved the 
problem by adding my R_GSCMD settings to the Renviron file 
(R_GSCMD=${RGSCMD-'/sw/bin/gs'} in my case). Hope this helps anyone 
with the same problem.

Thanks again for your help!
Andreas



At 12:51 +0100 20.10.2005, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>On Thu, 20 Oct 2005, Andreas Zankl wrote:
>
>>The help file of the R bitmap function says that I have to set the
>>environment variable R_GSCMD to the path of my Ghostscript
>>installation.
>
>Actually, it does not say that.  It says you _can_ specify the path 
>to your executable (not the installation) that way. It will work 
>without doing so if the executable 'gs' (on a Unix-alike) is on your 
>path, which it normally is on Unix-alikes.
>
>>How do I set this variable (either by commandline or in
>>R.app for Mac)? Sorry if this sounds like a very basic question, but
>>I could not find the answer anywhere else.
>
>?Sys.putenv for how to do it from R.  help.search("environment 
>variable") got me there.
>
>--
>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


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--------------------------
Andreas Zankl, MD
Division of Molecular Pediatrics
Clinique Infantile 02/50
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