[ESS] ESS on CentOS 5 throwing errors

[Paul Johnson]

Dear Emmanuel:

Are you still struggling? Comments below:

On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 12:06 PM, Emmanuel Levy <emmanuel.levy at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I tried to install ESS on a CentOS machine (unfortunately no choice on
> the OS...).
>
> However when I start xemacs (installed from EPEL) I get the following
> error messages (copied below).
>
> Any idea what this mean?
>
> Thanks for any help,
>
> Emmanuel


>
> =============================================
> The last ESS version (ess-12.04-4) is in /root/bin/ and is loaded by
> the command:
>
> (load "/root/bin/ess-12.04-4/lisp/ess-site.el")
>
> which is in /root/.xemacs/init.el

This is a really bad sign. You wouldn't want to run Emacs or Xemacs as
root, so you should not install there.  You've got pieces of the ESS
install stuck in a place that ordinary users can't use them. I
wouldn't be surprised if the security framework in Centos is blocking
you from trying to run Xemacs as root, actually.

I can't help with Xemacs, because I have not had much success with it
in about 10 years, but I can help with Emacs and ESS on enterprise
linux.

I think you should consider installing the RPMs I built for ESS on EL.
 On our Centos-5.3 based Linux cluster, the compute nodes have Emacs
(not Xemacs) and Emacs-ess installed from an RPM. It does run, I use
it all the time. If you are content to run Emacs (not Xemacs), check
here:

http://pj.freefaculty.org/Centos/5/x86_64/RPMS/kurocks-noarch

I had 5.10 and 5.11. I  just (today) build 5.14 and uploaded it.  You
need the ess-common and emacs-ess.  You might also (for fun) install
my bit of Emacs heaven, the init file that will make you happy.
That's what I have in emacs-ess-kups.

I'm starting to remember details. Xemacs is packages in a funny way
for EL, I couldn't get ESS to build properly.  I just hacked out the
ESS for Xemacs components from the RPM build files.

I also have machines running RedHat 6 and Centos 6.  For some reason,
I only built RPMS of emacs-ess 5.14 on an i386 system, but the
packages are "noarch" so you could install them on x86_64

http://pj.freefaculty.org/Centos/6/i386/RPMS/

I am reviewing my notes on this, and here's what I did. From the
Fedora linux project, I took the source RPM. Then I hacked out the
Xemacs stuff. It may be they have solved the Xemacs mystery since
then. Look Here

http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=5299

And in the change log, I see this was originally written by an old
friend of mine from the Santa Fe Institute. He put in this comment
with the recent packaging, but I can't say what this means.

* Wed Sep 21 2011 Alex Lancaster <alexlan[AT]fedoraproject org> -
5.14-1 - Update to upstream 5.14 (#654727) - Drop XEmacs patch,
workaround has now been implemented upstream.

If you could get through to Alex, I feel certain he would know where
Xemacs-ess stands now.

pj
>
> =============================================
>
> (1) (initialization/error) An error has occurred while loading
> /root/.xemacs/init.el:
>
> Cannot open load file: "executable"
>
> Backtrace follows:
>
>   signal(file-error ("Cannot open load file" "executable"))
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("executable" nil require nil)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   require(executable)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("ess-custom" nil require nil undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("ess-custom" nil require nil)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   require(ess-custom)
>   (progn (require (quote ess-custom)))
>   (eval-and-compile (require (quote ess-custom)))
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("ess" nil require nil undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("ess" nil require nil)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   require(ess)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("ess-mode" nil require nil undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("ess-mode" nil require nil)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   require(ess-mode)
>   # bind (force)
>   ess-toggle-underscore(force-to-S-assign)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("ess-s-l" nil require nil undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("ess-s-l" nil require nil)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   require(ess-s-l)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("ess-r-d" nil require nil undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("ess-r-d" nil require nil)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   require(ess-r-d)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("/root/bin/ess-12.04-4/lisp/ess-site.el" nil nil nil undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("/root/bin/ess-12.04-4/lisp/ess-site.el")
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   load-internal("/root/.xemacs/init.el" t t t undecided)
>   # bind (handler path nosuffix nomessage noerror filename)
>   load("/root/.xemacs/init.el" t t t)
>   load-user-init-file()
>   #<compiled-function nil "...(10)" [init-file-had-error
> load-user-init-file-p load-user-init-file nil] 2>()
>   # (unwind-protect ...)
>   call-with-condition-handler(#<compiled-function
> (__load_init_file_arg__) "...(26)" [init-file-had-error user-init-file
> __load_init_file_arg__ errstr error-message-string message "Error in
> init file: %s" lwarn initialization error "An error has occurred while
> loading %s:\n\n%s\n\nBacktrace follows:\n\n%s\n\nTo ensure normal
> operation, you should investigate the cause of the error\nin your
> initialization file and remove it.  Use the `-debug-init' option\nto
> XEmacs to enter the debugger when the error occurs and investigate
> the\nexact problem."
> backtrace-in-condition-handler-eliminating-handler t] 8>
> #<compiled-function nil "...(10)" [init-file-had-error
> load-user-init-file-p load-user-init-file nil] 2>)
>   # (condition-case ... . ((error)))
>   # bind (debug-on-error debug-on-error-from-init-file
> debug-on-error-should-be-set debug-on-error-initial)
>   load-init-file()
>   # bind (command-line-args-left)
>   command-line()
>   # (condition-case ... . ((t (byte-code "       ‡" [error-data data nil] 1))))
>   # bind (error-data)
>   normal-top-level()
>   # (condition-case ... . error)
>   # (catch top-level ...)
>
>
> To ensure normal operation, you should investigate the cause of the error
> in your initialization file and remove it.  Use the `-debug-init' option
> to XEmacs to enter the debugger when the error occurs and investigate the
> exact problem.
>
> ______________________________________________
> ESS-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/ess-help



-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science    Assoc. Director
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504     Center for Research Methods
University of Kansas               University of Kansas
http://pj.freefaculty.org            http://quant.ku.edu