You can get a more informative error message from system("bash -c 'cd yourDirectory'"), although it will not take R to that directory if there are no problems. E.g., I did in a shell % mkdir -p dir/subdir % chmod -x dir to make an untraversable directory 'dir' and a subdirectory of it. Then in R I get: > setwd("dir/subdir") Error in setwd("dir/subdir") : cannot change working directory > system("bash -c 'cd dir/subdir'") bash: line 0: cd: dir/subdir: Permission denied And for a nonexistent directory I get: > setwd("no/such/directory") Error in setwd("no/such/directory") : cannot change working directory > system("bash -c 'cd no/such/directory'") bash: line 0: cd: no/such/directory: No such file or directory
(It would be nice if the name of the offending directory and a reason were given in setwd's error message, but that would require someone to write the code.) Bill Dunlap TIBCO Software wdunlap tibco.com On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 12:38 PM, Chris <chris.bar...@barkerstats.com> wrote: > > I have a script that runs correctly (no errors) on Windows, the first > command is a "setwd(.....windows directory)"I installed the script on a > Linux machine and changed the windows directory reference to the correct > directory on the linux machine.when I ran the script I got a message that > "cannot change working directory". I confirmed I have read and write access > to the directory.I mainly run R on windows infrequently use linux/unix and > would appreciate suggestions.thanks in advance Chris Barker, Ph.D. > Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics - UIC-SPH > > > > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > 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. [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see 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.