[R] open/execute/call/run an external file

[STEPHEN M POWERS]

I'm trying to figure out how to trigger a process from within R. I have an 
exectuable file that runs a Fortran model, but ideally, would like to run it 
from R. Note that I'm not talking about importing the function at all, passing 
variables, or anything complicated like that. I basically just want a script 
that double-clicks on a particular file and opens/runs it for me.

The idea here is that the executable Fortran file, when double clicked, simply 
draws all necessary inputs from text files within the same directory and I have 
no need to change this. So I've used R to summarize some raw data and format 
these required text input files in the way the Fortran executable requires, and 
also have scripts to interpret the Fortran text file outputs and summarize/plot 
them in R. The problem is I must run the first part of the R script to send 
data from R to the model, then double click the Fortran executable, then run 
the second part of the R script to get the model outputs into R, in three 
separate steps. Given that I may be doing this hundereds of times, I'd prefer 
to do it all in one step.

Any thoughts?---steve

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Re: [R] open/execute/call/run an external file

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007, STEPHEN M POWERS wrote:

 I'm trying to figure out how to trigger a process from within R. I have 
 an exectuable file that runs a Fortran model, but ideally, would like to 
 run it from R. Note that I'm not talking about importing the function at 
 all, passing variables, or anything complicated like that. I basically 
 just want a script that double-clicks on a particular file and 
 opens/runs it for me.

 The idea here is that the executable Fortran file, when double clicked, 
 simply draws all necessary inputs from text files within the same 
 directory and I have no need to change this. So I've used R to summarize 
 some raw data and format these required text input files in the way the 
 Fortran executable requires, and also have scripts to interpret the 
 Fortran text file outputs and summarize/plot them in R. The problem is I 
 must run the first part of the R script to send data from R to the 
 model, then double click the Fortran executable, then run the second 
 part of the R script to get the model outputs into R, in three separate 
 steps. Given that I may be doing this hundereds of times, I'd prefer to 
 do it all in one step.

 Any thoughts?---steve

It is described in the relevant manual: Writing R Extensions.
?system, and if this is Windows also ?shell and ?shell.exec.

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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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, UKFax:  +44 1865 272595

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