How to automatically close Windows terminal shell after being called from Stata

[Matthew Smith Stata]

I have written a programme in Stata that calls R to run an R script (SLS.R). This works fine on a Mac operating system but when I try this in a Windows operating system the user has to manually click to close the shell. Is there a way to automatically close the shell window instead of having to manually click?

    if "`c(os)'" == "MacOSX" {
    shell "/usr/local/bin/r" CMD BATCH SLS.R
    }
    else{
    // Write batch file to find R.exe path and R version
    set more off
    qui: file close _all
    qui: file open bat using setup.bat, write replace
    qui: file write bat ///
    `"@echo off"' _newline ///
    `"SET PATHROOT=C:\Program Files\R\"' _newline ///
    `"echo Locating path of R..."' _newline ///
    `"echo."' _newline ///
    `"if not exist "%PATHROOT%" goto:NO_R"' _newline ///
    `"for /f "delims=" %%r in (' dir /b "%PATHROOT%R*" ') do ("' _newline ///
            `"echo Found %%r"' _newline ///
            `"echo shell "%PATHROOT%%%r\bin\x64\R.exe" CMD BATCH SLS.R > runr.do"' _newline ///
            `"echo All set!"' _newline ///
            `"goto:DONE"' _newline ///
    `")"' _newline ///
    `":NO_R"' _newline ///
    `"echo R is not installed in your system."' _newline ///
    `"echo."' _newline ///
    `"echo Download it from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/"' _newline ///
    `"echo Install it and re-run this script"' _newline ///
    `":DONE"' _newline ///
    `"echo."' _newline ///
    `"pause"'
    qui: file close bat
    //Run batch
    shell setup.bat
    //Run R
    do runr.do
    }

Any help is much appreciated!

[Daniel Feenberg]

Try

! setup.bat

There is documentation for this at https://www.stata.com/manuals13/dshell.pdf

[Matthew Smith Stata]

Hi Daniel,

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work. It still creates a shell that requires one to manually close it.

The shell window seems to open during this part of the code

 
 `"for /f "delims=" %%r in (' dir /b "%PATHROOT%R*" ') do ("' _newline ///             `"echo Found %%r"' _newline ///             `"echo shell "%PATHROOT%%%r\bin\x64\R.exe" CMD BATCH SLS.R > runr.do"' _newline ///             `"echo All set!"' _newline ///             `"goto:DONE"' _newline ///

I have changed the "shell" to "!", like so

 
 `"for /f "delims=" %%r in (' dir /b "%PATHROOT%R*" ') do ("' _newline ///             `"echo Found %%r"' _newline ///             `"echo ! "%PATHROOT%%%r\bin\x64\R.exe" CMD BATCH SLS.R > runr.do"' _newline ///             `"echo All set!"' _newline ///             `"goto:DONE"' _newline ///

However, I still get the same issue. Do you have any other ideas perhaps?

[Matthew Smith Stata]

The line:

  
 `"echo ! "%PATHROOT%%%r\bin\x64\R.exe" CMD BATCH SLS.R > runr.do"' _newline ///

is using shell to write this Stata code into a do file called "runr.do". But the shell does not automatically close once this is done.

[Daniel Feenberg]

Suggestions:

1) set trace on, then examine the generated code one line at a time.
2) What are the contents of runr.do? Does it look legit?
3) What happens if you unroll the for loop?

[Matthew Smith Stata]

Hi Daniel, thanks for your feedback. I have tried the above. Essentially I am trying to tell Stata where the R folder (the R.exe file) is within a Windows computer. However, this can vary for each user. Do you know if there is a way to tell Stata where the R.exe file is without having to open shell?

[Matthew Smith Stata]

I found the

rscript

command on GitHub that looks for whether R is installed and executes the r script.

https://github.com/reifjulian/rscript