[R] png-generation from script (non-X11 env) now broken?

David Wolfskill r at catwhisker.org
Tue Feb 25 20:12:02 CET 2014


On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 01:45:40PM -0500, epi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> You can try to use cairo instead of png.
> IT doesn?t require X.
> try putting this line in a Rprofile file :
> 
> 
> 	options(bitmapType="cairo") 
> ..

Thank you for the suggestion.

Early in the first function my script invokes, I have:

  options(width = 120)

so I inserted the line:

  options(bitmapType="cairo")

just after that.  Re-running the script (from an environment without the
DISPLAY environment variable set) yields:

| Error in .External2(C_X11, paste("png::", filename, sep = ""), g$width,  : 
|   unable to start device PNG
| Calls: gen_build_histogram -> png
| In addition: Warning message:
| In png(filename = fn, height = height, width = width, units = "in",  :
|   unable to open connection to X11 display ''
| Execution halted

(as before).

On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 01:51:58PM -0500, Ista Zahn wrote:
> Hi David,
> 
> Did you see https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-help/2010-March/231778.html
> ? What does capabilities() tell you?

I had not seen that particular message, no; thank you for pointing it out.

When I try that, I see:

dwolf-fbsd(9.2-S)[3] echo $DISPLAY
DISPLAY: Undefined variable.
dwolf-fbsd(9.2-S)[4] R

R version 3.0.2 Patched (2013-11-12 r64207) -- "Frisbee Sailing"
Copyright (C) 2013 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: amd64-portbld-freebsd9.2 (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
...
> capabilities()
    jpeg      png     tiff    tcltk      X11     aqua http/ftp  sockets 
   FALSE    FALSE    FALSE     TRUE    FALSE    FALSE     TRUE     TRUE 
  libxml     fifo   cledit    iconv      NLS  profmem    cairo 
    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE 
> options(bitmapType="cairo")
> capabilities()
    jpeg      png     tiff    tcltk      X11     aqua http/ftp  sockets 
   FALSE    FALSE    FALSE     TRUE    FALSE    FALSE     TRUE     TRUE 
  libxml     fifo   cledit    iconv      NLS  profmem    cairo 
    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE 
> 


Compare the above with:

dwolf-fbsd(9.2-S)[15] echo $DISPLAY
localhost:11.0
dwolf-fbsd(9.2-S)[16] R

R version 3.0.2 Patched (2013-11-12 r64207) -- "Frisbee Sailing"
Copyright (C) 2013 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: amd64-portbld-freebsd9.2 (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
...
> capabilities()
    jpeg      png     tiff    tcltk      X11     aqua http/ftp  sockets 
    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE     TRUE     TRUE 
  libxml     fifo   cledit    iconv      NLS  profmem    cairo 
    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE 
> options(bitmapType="cairo")
> capabilities()
    jpeg      png     tiff    tcltk      X11     aqua http/ftp  sockets 
    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE     TRUE     TRUE 
  libxml     fifo   cledit    iconv      NLS  profmem    cairo 
    TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE     TRUE    FALSE 
> 

> ...

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				r at catwhisker.org
Taliban: Evil cowards with guns afraid of truth from a 14-year old girl.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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