R system functions always returns error 127

r shell error-handling system system2
Powerfool picture Powerfool · Nov 11, 2015 · Viewed 28.2k times · Source

I need to execute an external tool from R and process errors (if any) occurred in that tool. I know 3 functions to do something familiar with my task: 

shell, system and system2.

Trying to test those, I see that command 

shell("notepad")

opens notepad. As far as I know shell doesn't allow to check errors (there's no interface to look into stderr).

When I call 

system("notepad")

or 

system2("notepad")

R freezes trying to make those commands.

Calling 

system("start notepad")

or 

system2("start notepad")

returns warning 

Warning message:
running command '"start notepad"' had status 127

Answer

Jonas Luz Jr. picture Jonas Luz Jr. · Nov 19, 2016

Adapting @DavidTseng's answer (sorry for not having enough reputation to upvote it)...

system("cmd.exe", input = "notepad")

worked for me in Windows.

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