Rgedit Help: Managing Profiles
Author: Dan Dediu
Description: Rgedit help pages

# Managing Profiles in Rgedit

(c) 2012, Dan Dediu

Table of Contents

Introduction
The profile editor

## Introduction

Profiles are introduced in version 0.8 and allow Rgedit to flexibly interact with R or even other command-line interactive programs such as Octave, locally or remotely through, for example, ssh.

Profiles have the following components:

- name: this is the profile's user-friendly name and must be unique (for example, "My custom-built R");
- cmd: represents the actual command line (including options) used to start an interactive session (for example, "/opt/R-optimized/R --no-save --no-restore");
- local: a boolean specifying if the profile is to be run locally or remotely (for example, True);
- default: is the profile the default profile? There can be a single default profile and this will be used implicitely in any new rgedit tab/session (for example, False);
- setwd: the command used to change the current (working) folder (directory) taking as single parameter (identified in standard Python string notation as "%s") the path, or None if no such command should be run (for example, "setwd(%s)");
- init-script: a boolean value specifying if the init script containing various R routines used by rgedit will called on a new session (for example, True);
- help-type: the help system used by the session; can be one of "HTML", "Text", "Default" or "Custom" (in which case the "help-custom-command" attribute must be given);
- help-custom-command: the actual commands to be run for a custom help system or None if not applicable;
- prompt: the prompt symbol (for example "> ");
- prompt-cmd: the actual command used to set the prompt symbol given as the only parameter (for example, "options( prompt="%s" )");
- continue: the prompt-continuation symbol (for example "+ ");
- continue-cmd: the actual command used to set the prompt continuation symbol given as the only parameter (for example, "options( continue="%s" )");
- source-cmd: the actual command used to send a file containing commands to the interpreter (taking as parameter the file path), or, if no such thing, None (for example, "source("%s",echo=TRUE,print.eval=TRUE,max.deparse.length=500000,local=TRUE)");
- quit-cmd; the command used to finish a session (for example "q()");
- comment: the comment character (for example, "#").

There always is a built-in profile (guaranteed to be always present in any rgedit installation and using a standard R installation) defined as:

Attribute | Value
name | built-in
cmd | R --no-save --no-restore
local | True
default | True
setwd | setwd(%s)
init-script | True
help-type | HTML
help-custom-command | None
prompt | >
prompt-cmd | options( prompt="%s" )
continue | +
continue-cmd | options( continue="%s" )
source-cmd | source("%s",echo=TRUE,print.eval=TRUE,max.deparse.length=500000,local=TRUE)
quit-cmd | q()
comment | #

Below is an example of a profile using a local installation of GNU Octave:

Attribute | Value
name | octave
cmd | octave
local | True
default | False
setwd | chdir %s
init-script | False
help-type | Default
help-custom-command | None
prompt | >
prompt-cmd | PS1( "%s" )
continue | +
continue-cmd | PS2( "%s" )
source-cmd | source("%s")
quit-cmd | quit
comment | #

And, finally, an example of a remote R session thorugh two ssh hops (please note that the hostnames are fictious but this is based on my current remote setup!). For remote sessions is probably advisable to fall back on the text help (no remote browsers), no automatic setwd (as the local and remote paths will be probably different, meaning that the user should be careful to manually change the working directory), and no source (as local temp files are not directly accessible on the remote host, meaning that small pieces of text can be send to the console at any given time):

Attribute | Value
name | remote R through chained ssh
cmd | ssh -X -t user@host1 ssh -X -t host2 "R --no-save --no-restore"
local | False
default | False
setwd | None
init-script | True
help-type | Text
help-custom-command | None
prompt | >
prompt-cmd | options( prompt="%s" )
continue | +
continue-cmd | options( continue="%s" )
source-cmd | None
quit-cmd | q()
comment | #

Thus, the profiles mechanism is quite flexible an can accomodate at least GNU octave (a requested extenssion) and remote sessions (a setup that is probably not uncommon). I'm pretty sure other uses ca be found :)

## The profile editor

Below is a screen shot of the profile editor:

Basically, the profile editor allows the user to edit, delete or add profiles using a simple GUI.

- Editing is simple and ivolves toggling radio buttons and check boxes and double-clicking on text fields to edit the text. The built-in profile cannot be edited.
- To remove the currently selected profile press the "Delete profile" button. The built-in profile cannot be removed.
- To add a new profile, press the "Add profile" button and select a template to use by pressing one of the buttons; of course everything can be customized afterwards...

Please note some conventions:

- The special value "None" must be given as "<None>";
- The changed values will be validated on pressing ENTER or any of the buttons (except Cancel);
- The strings are case-sensitive.

Back to the main help page.