I appreciate the feedback.

1) The paths are properly set...I only wonder if the spaces in the path to 
wget.exe are problematic for R. The full path (C:\\Program Files 
(x86)\\GnuWin32\\bin) is properly included in the return list for 
Sys.getenv("PATH"). Sys.which("wget") returns:

>"C:\\PROGRA~2\\GnuWin32\\bin\\wget.exe"

Note that in this return, the folder 'Program Files (x86)' was truncated. Not 
sure if that is a problem in this. Also as mentioned, wget works fine directly 
from the Windows CMD line, so it strikes me as an issue calling a system 
command from R as opposed to a problem with the command itself.

2) 'dir' is a recognized command at the Windows command line...but it is 
somewhat irrelevant as I was only using it to determine whether any calls to 
the Windows command line from R were working...it is not essential to the 
script.

One further point, I booted up my old machine last night and reinstalled R and 
wget...and was successfully able to run the script. Old machine is Windows XP 
versus Windows 8.1 on my new machine. Perhaps this confirms it is a Windows 
permission issue and not an R problem?

-Matt


On Saturday, October 11, 2014 3:00 AM, Prof Brian Ripley 
<rip...@stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:



Please do follow the posting guide and not sent HTML: it gets mangled.

There are two issues here:

1) Paths.  Use Sys.which("wget") to see if the command is on your path. 
  I suspect it is not, and you need to set the path when running R in 
the same way as is done for your shell.  Compare the setting of PATH in 
your shell with Sys.getenv("PATH") in R, and use Sys.getenv() to set it 
(or do so on the shortcut used to start R: see the rw-FAQ).

3) AFAIR 'dir' is not a system command.  See ?system (on Windows) and 
note that shell() is required for some commands: this is one.

These are not R issues, and you may need to seek local Windows help.


On 11/10/2014 02:20, Matt Borkowski wrote:
> Hello,
> First please keep in mind I am not a programmer and know very little about R. 
> I am running the 64bit version of R on a Windows 8.1 machine. I am trying to 
> run a script (which I have successfully run in the past) to download some 
> weather data from a NOAA ftp site.
> When I attempt to run the following command:     system("wget -P data/raw 
> ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/2013/724620-23061-2013.gz";)
>
> it returns status 127, which as I understand simply means the command will 
> not run.
> If I go directly to my command prompt in Windows, navigate to my working 
> director, and run     wget -P data/raw 
> ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/2013/724620-23061-2013.gz
> the command runs and the file downloads without a problem.
> Playing around, it seems I can't invoke any system commands from R. Even a 
> simple      system("dir")
> returns status 127.
> I have moved to a new computer since I last successfully ran this 
> script...I'm wondering if this might be a permissions issue or other security 
> setting preventing me from invoking system commands.
> Any ideas?
> -Matt
>     [[alternative HTML version deleted]]


-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  rip...@stats.ox.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, University of Oxford
1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK

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