Thanks to both Prof. Ripley and Duncan Murdoch for correctly diagnosing my problem as failure to redirect stderr (nothing to do with buffering).
Both pointed me to R CMD BATCH which would have done the job, if I hadn't wanted to run interactively - in my real task (not the example below) I had Rterm --ess. I guess I could use R CMD BATCH --ess but instead I'm using the suggestion in rw-FAQ Q2.12 of simply adding 2>&1 to redirect stderr to stdout. Rterm < m:\test.rsc > m:\test.log 2>&1 Problem solved. The answer was in rw-FAQ , mea culpa for not spotting it myself, thanks for treating me kindly! "Prof Brian Ripley" <rip...@stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote in message news:alpine.lfd.2.00.1006101333520.25...@gannet.stats.ox.ac.uk... > On Thu, 10 Jun 2010, Keith Jewell wrote: > >> In MS Windows I >> a) invoke Rterm from a batch file (test.bat) >> b) to execute commands from a script (m:\test.rsc) >> c) capturing output in a log file (m:\test.log) >> >> BUT if the script results in an error the error message is NOT written to >> the log file, leaving me problems when the error is from a complicated >> function. > > Sure, warning and errors are written to stderr, which you did not > redirect. This is covered in rw-FAQ Q2.12. Using R CMD BATCH would have > done this for you .... > > This is not to do with 'buffered output': in any case R uses minimal > buffering so stdout and stderr can be mixed nicely on a single log file. > >> Simplified example:. >> >> test.bat ------------------------ >> REM ensure 'R' is in path >> path \\Server02\stats\R\R-Current\bin\;%PATH% >> Rterm --no-init-file --no-restore-data --no-save --silent < m:\test.rsc >> > >> m:\test.log >> --------------------- >> >> m:\test.rsc ----------------- >> print("this is a test") >> #generate an error >> nls() >> ------------------ >> >> The error message: >> "Error in .Internal(inherits(x, what, which)) : 'x' is missing" >> is is NOT written to the log file, which just ends >> >> m:\test.log -------------------------- >> <snip> >>> print("this is a test") >> [1] "this is a test" >>> #generate an error >>> nls() >> --------------------- >> >> I surmise this is due to output buffering (?). In an S-Plus version I >> turned >> off buffering with >> guiSetOption(option.name="BufferOutputWindows", value.string="F") >> but I don't think this is available in R (?). >> >> Has anyone any suggestions? >> >> Thanks in advance, >> >> Keith Jewell >> --please do not edit the information below-- >> >> R Version: >> platform = i386-pc-mingw32 >> arch = i386 >> os = mingw32 >> system = i386, mingw32 >> status = >> major = 2 >> minor = 11.0 >> year = 2010 >> month = 04 >> day = 22 >> svn rev = 51801 >> language = R >> version.string = R version 2.11.0 (2010-04-22) >> >> Windows Server 2003 x64 (build 3790) Service Pack 2 >> >> Locale: >> LC_COLLATE=English_United Kingdom.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United >> Kingdom.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United >> Kingdom.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United Kingdom.1252 >> >> Search Path: >> .GlobalEnv, package:datasets, CBRIForecast, package:RODBC, package:tree, >> package:locfit, package:lattice, package:akima, package:nlme, >> package:MASS, >> package:grDevices, package:geometry, KJRutils, package:xlsReadWrite, >> package:svSocket, package:TinnR, package:R2HTML, package:Hmisc, >> package:survival, package:splines, package:graphics, package:stats, >> CBRIutils, package:utils, package:tcltk, package:tools, package:methods, >> TempEnv, Autoloads, package:base >> >> ______________________________________________ >> 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. >> > > -- > Brian D. Ripley, rip...@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 > ______________________________________________ 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.