[R] R bug when started in Windows 10

[Daniel Nordlund]

On 8/14/2016 12:57 PM, Itamar José G. Nunes wrote:
> Greetings, CRAN supporter. I am Itamar José, a Brazilian programmer and
> biotechnology student.
> I'm using R from some time ago, most of the time working with it in Windows
> 7, but since I changed to Windows 10, I'm having some bugs when R platform
> particularly in this new operational system. If there's not problem, I
> would like some help from you for what I can do about this issue.
> I have asked about this problem in StarkOverflow, but no resolution was
> suggested until now. As I said there, I'm working with a software project
> that requires the portable version of R platform and my intention is to use
> R in any version of Windows and in any compatible computer. I'm copying
> here my answer, as shown below:
>
>
>
> *From
> [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37173431/r-platform-failed-to-start-in-windows-10-when-inside-directory-containing-white
> <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/37173431/r-platform-failed-to-start-in-windows-10-when-inside-directory-containing-white>]Problem:*
> In Windows 7, R works fine without any worries, even in portable version.
> However, in Windows 10 (and probably also in Windows 8), R does not start
> when put the entire folder inside a directory containing whitespaces (ex.:
> "C:/Users/Main/Documents/My Folder/RVersion").
>
> In Windows 10, with the absence of spaces, R runs fine. In the presence of
> spaces, all executable (Rscript.exe, R.exe, etc) except Rgui.exe just open
> a console and closes instantly. The problem is: I really need that R works
> in any folder (this is a important part of the project).
>
> *Additional information:*
>
>    -
>
>    I found that R does not work well in directories without the 8dot3
>    format - and it think that Windows 10 lost this property, which was present
>    in Windows 7. Also, the problem is clear when I run Rgui.exe in a
>    whitespace-containing directory and try to run system("R.exe", intern=TRUE)
>    function: It throws an error indicating that only the part before the first
>    space in directory name was taken into account. Here is the message:
>
>    > system("R.exe", intern=TRUE)
>
>    [1] "'C:\\Users\\Main\\DOCUME~1\\My' nÆo ‚ reconhecido como um comando
>    interno" [2] "ou externo, um programa oper vel ou um arquivo em lotes."
>    attr(,"status") [1] 1 Warning message: running command 'R.exe' had status 1
>
> *Translation of messages [1] and [2]: "'C:\...\My'" not recognized as a
> internal or external command, nor a program operation or dataset*
>
>    -
>
>    The same occurs with non-portable version of R, as I already tested.
>    -
>
>    When I run with a .bat file with the corrected (quoted) directory as
>    input, R.exe runs, but in a disfunctional form and looking like cmd.exe (no
>    R command worked).
>    -
>
>    I have no ideia how to change variables such as R_HOME to a readable
>    version before R prompt starts.
>
> *System/Resources:*
>
>    - Windows 10 Home 64-bit with the last update.
>    - Dell Notebook with Intel i7-5500U 2.40 GHz (not so relevant, I think)
>    - R and R portable 3.3 (last version until this post), downloaded here: [
>    https://sourceforge.net/projects/rportable/]
>    <https://sourceforge.net/projects/rportable/%5D>
>
>
> I believe that, with the popularity of Windows 10, many other users could
> face this problem (specially those who depend of R portability). Because no
> answers were made, and since it remains as a little known issue, I think
> the CRAN support is the only one that knows, most than everyone, how to
> reach the resolution.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>

For this problem, you need to give the EXACT commands you use to start R 
and run your scripts.  In other words, give us a reproducible example, 
so that if we run your example we will see the same failure that you see.

Now in the absence of the reproducible exampole, I did notice one 
problem in the example you did give of a directory with spaces.  It 
looks like you were using single quotes (') around the path/filename. 
Windows requires that there be double quotes (") around any 
path/filename that contains spaces.

If you provide a reproducible example, then you may get more detailed help.


Dan

-- 
Daniel Nordlund
Port Townsend, WA  USA