On 24/01/2008, at 10:00 PM, Kevin E. Thorpe wrote: > > When she does something like latex(describe(dataframe)), the latex > file is produced, the dvi file is successfully written but then > the error "sh: line 1: xdvi: command not found" appears. > > I started a terminal and a "which xdvi" returned the path > where it found xdvi. So, it appears that xdvi is in the > PATH.
Firstly if you have questions about R on MacOS you be much more likely to get a useful reply on r-sig-mac rather than this list. Secondly for the benefit of the non-Mac types here I will try to explain what is going on. On most UNIXen or Linux virtually all process are launched from a shell process. Hence they inherit the environment of a standard shell, and it makes sense to think of 'the' PATH or 'the' environment. MacOS works differently. Most processes are not launched from a shell. The only time you really have a shell involved is if you open the Terminal app. Then you get a Quartz window running a shell and any process you start from that shell will inherit the shell's environment variables. However, if you start the R GUI app from the Finder or Dock, there is no shell in the process hierarchy (use '/Applications/Utilities/ Activity Monitor' to view the process hierarchy) and the environment variables for the R app and anything it invokes are set up in the .plist files in the R Application bundle. Those environment variables are not going to include the Tex paths like /usr/texbin or / usr/local/tetex/bin etc.. Three ways to get over it: 1. Launch a command line R session from a Terminal shell. 2. Start the GUI app from a Terminal shell with 'open /Applications/ R.app' 3. Set the PATH in your R code Finally, the way to check your PATH in R is Sys.getenv("PATH"). Which for the R 2.6.1 GUI app on this PowerMac G5 gives "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/ sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin" Hope this helps Bill Northcott ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.