Files

Simple ``one-liner'' functions can be typed in at the command line. However, they are destroyed when the RLaB  session is ended. Most users will want to create their functions in a text-editor as ordinary ASCII files.

The function load will execute the RLaB  statements in a file as if they were typed at the command line. The RLaB  command rfile searches a specified path for files with a `.r' extension. When the rfile command finds a file that matches its argument, it executes the RLaB  statements in the file as if they were typed at the command line.

Statements in a file are executed in the same manner as they would be had they been typed in interactively. Files containing ordinary commands and multiple functions are acceptable. In fact, complete programs can be written and run interactively or in batch mode. To run a program in batch mode you can try:

% rlab program.r &

Or the program could contain #!/usr/local/bin/rlab on the first line. Then, if your operating system provides the proper support, RLaB  can execute your program, interactively, or in the background by simply typing:

$ chmod +x program.r
$ ./program.r