Bug 490961 - Command line arguments are incorrect
Summary: Command line arguments are incorrect
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: rkward
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Other All
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: RKWard Team
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2024-07-29 02:57 UTC by Iris
Modified: 2024-07-29 13:39 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Iris 2024-07-29 02:57:58 UTC
SUMMARY

The command line arguments set via `Rf_initialize_R` and `R_set_command_line_arguments` are incorrect.

The first argument must be the name of the program by which R was invoked.

R assumes that the previous is true, and so it skips the first command line argument.

for Unix, in `Rf_initialize_R`:
https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/f4de6dfdeb1d8b100d6a70c259c80a20508a4309/src/unix/system.c#L407

for Windows, in `cmdlineoptions`:
https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/589b76ba28bb97e9d628f6e4ae1735c4e2660b3f/src/gnuwin32/system.c#L1180

for all, in `R_common_command_line`:
https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/f4de6dfdeb1d8b100d6a70c259c80a20508a4309/src/main/CommandLineArgs.c#L103

I would suggest something more like:

```
	int argc = 4;
	char* argv[4] = { qstrdup ("rkward"), qstrdup ("--slave"), qstrdup ("--no-save"), qstrdup ("--no-restore") };
```

But I have one more suggestion.

I think you should not be using option `--slave`. In interactive use, this turns off printing the prompt when waiting for input and turns off printing a continuation prompt for code that spans multiple lines. That doesn't seem like what you want.

Instead, you should replace it with `--quiet` (or `--silent` or `-q`, but I prefer `--quiet`). When combined with `--no-save`, you end up with the same R settings except `R_NoEcho` is `FALSE`, as it should be:

```
	int argc = 4;
	char* argv[4] = { qstrdup ("rkward"), qstrdup ("--quiet"), qstrdup ("--no-save"), qstrdup ("--no-restore") };
```

OBSERVED RESULT

```R
> commandArgs()
[1] "--slave"
[2] "--no-save"
[3] "--no-restore"
```

EXPECTED RESULT

```R
> commandArgs()
[1] "rkward"
[2] "--quiet"
[3] "--no-save"
[4] "--no-restore"
```
Comment 1 Thomas Friedrichsmeier 2024-07-29 11:52:37 UTC
Thanks for the detailed report! This appears to date back all the way to version 0.2.0 in 2004.

There probably never was a good reason for the inclusion of --slave, anyway, so I will just remove this, without replacement. It may be worth pointing out, however, that the input and continuation prompts are not actually considered, and options(prompt="something> ") continues to be ignored inside the RKWard R Console window. (Supporting custom prompts would currently break the syntax highlighting, there).
Comment 2 Thomas Friedrichsmeier 2024-07-29 11:58:03 UTC
Git commit 083220da6af7240cd99d195a3cb7bdcdbf188fda by Thomas Friedrichsmeier.
Committed on 29/07/2024 at 11:56.
Pushed by tfry into branch 'master'.

Fix setting R commandline options

M  +1    -0    ChangeLog
M  +1    -1    rkward/rbackend/rkrbackend.cpp

https://invent.kde.org/education/rkward/-/commit/083220da6af7240cd99d195a3cb7bdcdbf188fda
Comment 3 Iris 2024-07-29 13:39:12 UTC
Okay, awesome, thank you so much for solving this so quickly!