Question

I know I must be making a simple syntax mistake, but I want to have a windows batch file that fires up 9 instances of R and runs a different routine in each one. I want these to run simultaneously (i.e. asynchronously). I can fire up 9 command prompt windows and type a command in each one, but it seems like with the START command I should be able to make them start from a single batch file.

Here’s an example of how I start one of the instances of R:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\R\R-2.8.1\bin\R" CMD BATCH "C:\Users\jd\Documents\mexico\Estado\getdata1.r" 

Reading this previous stackoverflow question along with this previous question makes me think I should be able to do this:

START "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\R\R-2.8.1\bin\R" CMD BATCH "C:\Users\jd\Documents\mexico\Estado\getdata1.r" /b

That does not return an error, it just returns a prompt and R never starts. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Simple answer. On windows when running command use “Rcmd” not “R CMD”. There is a separate exe for running the commands. Look in the bin folder of your R installation.