On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 8:05 PM, jlfmssm <jlfm...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I am working on a project. The new data files is coming as the data > collectors get data, then > the data collectors put these new data files in a folder. I need to > read these new data files when they are in folder. > so far, I did this job manually, that is to say, each time I go to > that folder and find new data files, then use my R program to > read these new data files. I am wondering if anyone know how to > perform this job automatically in R.
Without needing some operating-system specific hackery, the easiest way would be to use 'list.files()' and look for new files every so many minutes or seconds (depending on how urgent it is). Or to check file.info() on your directory and test the modification time. You'd then write that into a .R file and run that in the background using your operating system's background job functionality (as a 'service' in Windows, or as a background process in Unix). Use Sys.sleep(seconds) to wait in your loop. Something like (totally untested): lastChange = file.info(dumpLocation)$mtime while(TRUE){ currentM = file.info(dumpLocation)$mtime if(currentM != lastChange){ lastChange = currentM doSomethingWithStuffIn(dumpLocation) } # try again in 10 minutes Sys.sleep(600) } There are ways for programs to get directory content change events when files appear in directories, but they will probably be very operating system specific. There's also the problem of your code firing up when a file is only half-uploaded - what do you do then? Does your data format have an 'end of data' marker? Barry -- blog: http://geospaced.blogspot.com/ web: http://www.maths.lancs.ac.uk/~rowlings web: http://www.rowlingson.com/ twitter: http://twitter.com/geospacedman pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacedman ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.