Yes I'm using R 3.4.4 on Ubuntu 18.04. I doubt the Windows version would make use of a bash script. I'm all for a more consistent interface. It puzzles me that a shell script is used at all since that does not seem portable, especially for Windows users.
To my surprise I discovered the R that's called from shell, usr/bin/R, is actually just a shell script. The binary that's called seems to be /usr/lib/R/bin/exec/R which is a tiny executable that then probably calls something else. In comparison the python called from shell, /usr/bin/python3.6, really is a binary. I'm sure there's a good reason that R uses a shell wrapper script but it's not like a C program can't parse arguments or set env vars. On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 7:30 PM Gábor Csárdi <csardi.ga...@gmail.com> wrote: > For the record, this is Linux R-devel: > > root@4bef68c16864:~# R CMD > /opt/R-devel/lib/R/bin/Rcmd: 60: shift: can't shift that many > root@4bef68c16864:~# R CMD -h > /opt/R-devel/lib/R/bin/Rcmd: 62: exec: -h: not found > root@4bef68c16864:~# R CMD --help > /opt/R-devel/lib/R/bin/Rcmd: 62: exec: --help: not found > > This is R-release on macOS: > > ❯ R CMD > /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/Rcmd: line 62: > /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/: is a directory > /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/Rcmd: line 62: exec: > /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/: cannot execute: > Undefined error: 0 > ❯ R CMD -h > /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/Rcmd: line 62: exec: -h: > invalid option > exec: usage: exec [-cl] [-a name] file [redirection ...] > ❯ R CMD --help > /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/bin/Rcmd: line 62: exec: --: > invalid option > exec: usage: exec [-cl] [-a name] file [redirection ...] > > On Windows you indeed get a useful list of commands and more helpful tips. > > Gabor > > > On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 11:36 PM Abby Spurdle <spurdl...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > First time posting in the R mailing lists so hopefully this works well. > > > I noticed when I type `R CMD` I get this unhelpful message: > > > /usr/lib/R/bin/Rcmd: 60: shift: can't shift that many > > > > I wasn't able to reproduce this. > > Maybe it's a Linux thing. > > But then, I suspect you've omitted some of your input. > > > > > I also think it would be nice if `R CMD help` showed the usable > commands. > > > > What do you mean... > > All of the following give you the "usable commands": > > > > > R CMD > > > R CMD -h > > > R CMD --help > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
