[R] Rgui.exe fix for "console not found" buffer overflow problem

Gabor Grothendieck ggrothendieck at gmail.com
Sun Oct 29 15:55:23 CET 2006


On 10/29/06, Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/29/06, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> > On 10/29/2006 8:23 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
> > > On 10/29/06, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
> > >> On 10/29/2006 5:52 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> > >>> On 10/29/2006 1:12 AM, Jesse Albert Canchola wrote:
> > >>>> Here's how the problem started.  In Rgui.exe, I attempted to get more
> > >>>> visible output in the buffer (I wanted to be able to scroll up the to the
> > >>>> top and see the variable names, etc.), so I put the max of all 9's in the
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Rgui.exe
> > >>>>
> > >>>> pull-down menus
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Edit > Gui Preferences... > buffer bytes 9999999999999
> > >>>>
> > >>>> and
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> lines 9999999999999999999
> > >>>> not realizing this would effectively break the Rgui.exe and no matter what
> > >>>> you did to clean R out of your machine and re-install it, you would get
> > >>>> the same thing (with both v2.3.1 and v2.4.0).  After a couple of weeks of
> > >>>> using Rterm.exe and meeting deadlines, I finally had time to wade through
> > >>>> the vague references online regarding where the problem might be.
> > >>> Thanks for the report.  I'll take a look and see if there's a more
> > >>> friendly way to handle this.
> > >>>
> > >>> Generally starting with the --vanilla option is a good idea to help with
> > >>> diagnosing startup problems.  If they go away, you've got a problem in
> > >>> one of your startup files, and ?Startup tells you how to trace through
> > >>> the startup process.
> > >> Whoops, I forgot that --vanilla doesn't stop an attempt to load
> > >> Rconsole.  I'll take a look, and see if perhaps it should.
> > >
> > > Also it might be useful if the Edit GUI screen listed the location of
> > > the Rconsole
> > > file it is using so its not so mysterious.
> >
> > The problem is that that dialog is not using an Rconsole file, it's
> > using internal values.  Those may have been loaded from an Rconsole, or
> > they may just be defaults.
> >
> > But you're right, in the case where they were loaded from a file, it
> > would be nice if it were easier to find out what that file is.  (It
> > wouldn't help in the situation here, because you can't get to that
> > dialog:  R won't start at all if someone has messed up their Rconsole
> > file sufficiently.  If --vanilla prevented the Rconsole file from
> > loading, again it wouldn't help, because the values would be defaults,
> > not those from the file.)
> >
> > Duncan Murdoch
> >
>
> There is a "Load" button on the Edit | GUI Preferences screen.
> Does that load the values from the Rconsole file?  If so, then perhaps
> it could be expanded to show which Rconsole file it would load
> from if it were pressed.
>

I guess I should have tried pressing it before I posted but if you do
press it then it comes up with a browser window pointed at the
Rconsole file and giving one a chance to change which file it loads
before actually loading it so this seems like an easy way to find the
Rconsole file that is actually being used.



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