[Rcpp-devel] grDevices issue with RInside

[Jonathon Love]

hi dirk,

i've got it!

Rst.rhome is assigned here from getenv() (and no copy is made):

https://github.com/eddelbuettel/rinside/blob/d94b999b1f9a5b9a7c1eaefc89abe40ea0d2d4d2/src/RInside.cpp#L164

It makes it's way down inside of R, and is assigned to R_Home:

https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/3234382b4b4632b114fc8400885300b04e4934a0/src/gnuwin32/system.c#L724

strings returned by getenv() are invalidated by subsequent calls to 
getenv().

the offending code exists in a #ifdef _WIN32 which is why it's windows only.

i'll have a PR for you shortly.

this has been a bit of an epic.

jonathon



> hi dirk,
>
>> Might it be that you are shooting the messenger? You see the issue via
>> RInside as you implemented it via RInside.
>>
>> But we "merely" give you access to the embedded R instance, and 
>> methinks that
>> the issue may be with ggjoy and/or the pdf() device. Are you really 
>> sure RInside
>> plays any part here?
>
> yeah, i totally recognise RInside may only be related in an incredibly 
> tangential way.
>
> all this code works fine when run interactively (and on macOS and 
> linux), and i haven't been able to reproduce the issue outside of 
> rinside ... i expect it's some subtle interaction, but i thought i'd 
> check in with you that you'd not encountered something like this before.
>
> to me it looks like an R issue, but it's almost impossible to get 
> anyone to take you seriously when your minimal example is an 
> executable embedding RInside :P
>
> with thanks
>
> jonathon