Month: October 2016

When I try to install R packages in conda, sometimes I get the following error:

install.packages("vegan")
. . .
Error: .onLoad failed in loadNamespace() for 'tcltk', details:
  call: fun(libname, pkgname)
  error: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following directories: 
    /opt/anaconda1anaconda2anaconda3/lib/tcl8.5 ./lib/tcl8.5 ./lib/tcl8.5 ./library ./library ./tcl8.5.18/library ./tcl8.5.18/library

This is happening because install.packages is trying to paint the repository picker window – I don’t understand why it’s not using the command-line repository picker.

My workaround was to set the working directory to

~/miniconda2

so that

./lib/tcl8.5/init.tcl

was on my path. Then it painted the repository-picker just fine, and I was able to install my update.

An alternative workaround might have been to ssh to the same box (without X forwarding).

First, some warnings from the BashFAQ:

• Your script does not actually have a location! Wherever the bytes end up coming from, there is no “one canonical path” for it. Never.

• $0 is NOT the answer to your problem. If you think it is, you can either stop reading and write more bugs, or you can accept this and read on.

The BashFAQ also describes BASH_SOURCE and the applicable caveats.  Here’s some workable, albeit fallible, code from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/59895/can-a-bash-script-tell-which-directory-it-is-stored-in:

# find directory where script may reside
SOURCE="${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"
# resolve $SOURCE till not a symlink
while [ -h "$SOURCE" ]; do 
  DIR="$( cd -P "$(dirname "$SOURCE")" && pwd )"
  SOURCE="$(readlink "$SOURCE")"
  [[ $SOURCE != /* ]] && SOURCE="$DIR/$SOURCE"
done
DIR="$(cd -P "$(dirname "$SOURCE")" && pwd && \
  echo x)"
DIR="${DIR%x}"
echo Script $0 resides in directory $DIR