profile.do error

[joelgombin]

In the profile.do file, I encounter an error with Linux/Stata 12 at line 34. The problem seems to be with the c() instruction :

c(update_query) undefined

[briatte]

It's a Mac and Windows-only command. This little fix should work.

[joelgombin]

Great, thanks!

[briatte]

I have:

• uploaded all missing sources
• updated the guide content
• updated the course utilities

The error mentioned should be gone, but it's worth checking out.

[joelgombin]

Works just fine on my Ubuntu.

[briatte]

Would you mind posting the output of the adopath command on your machine? I'm curious to know what the library paths are on Unix. If you have downloaded the last version of the course, type srqm to get the same.

[joelgombin]

srqm gives :

Date: 18 Aug 2013 15:43:34
Software: Stata 12
OS: Unix 
Computer: PC (64-bit x86-64)
Working directory: /media/Data/Dropbox/cours Statistical reasoning/srqm
Stata directories:
  [1]  (UPDATES)   "/usr/local/stata12/ado/updates/"
  [2]  (BASE)      "/usr/local/stata12/ado/base/"
  [3]  (SITE)      "/usr/local/ado/"
  [4]              "."
  [5]  (PERSONAL)  "~/ado/personal/"
  [6]  (PLUS)      "~/ado/plus/"
  [7]  (OLDPLACE)  "~/ado/"
  [8]              "/media/Data/Dropbox/cours Statistical reasoning/srqm/setup"
Course material:
  folders:  code data
  datasets: ess2008 gss0012 nhis2009 qog2013 wvs2000
  packages: lookfor_all, fre, ... (16 packages)

[briatte]

Alright. That means that I should rewrite the 'microlab fix' to make it work on all systems. It takes a bit of code, which has just been added to the utilities. The behaviour is now:

• If you have admin rights on your system, you will see nothing at startup. The update does not change that. In the next situations, the user gets a warning.
• If you lock the stata.trk file of your PLUS folder, the setup will install packages in the PERSONAL folder. This will hopefully fix the course setup on rights-restricted machines in the Sciences Po microlabs.
• If you lock your PERSONAL folder, the setup will try to install locally in the setup/pkg folder. If that fails, the setup returns an additional warning and will not be able to fully replicate the course do-files.

This fixes issue #2. The course utilities are now entirely deployed. I'll add a bit more to the draft code, guide and slides this month, and leave it as such for some time. I'll keep an eye on pull requests :)

[joelgombin]

Out of curiosity, I reran profile.do on my Ubuntu today. Got several problems:

• first, same "Warning: invalid package install path ~/ado/plus/" warning as we saw on other machines.
• second, "Error: installation of kountry failed with error code 601". Again, I swa that on the students' machines as well.
• third, when installing clarify, I get: "unexpected end of file could not copy http://gking.harvard.edu/clarify/setx.hlp (no action taken) Error: installation of clarify failed with error code 612". Again, it looks like recurring behavior.

[joelgombin]

When running profile.do a second time, though, everything seems fine (no error message).

[briatte]

Okay, these are three distinct issues as far as I can tell:

• the first one is something that works only on Macs. I should have tested the revised code on other machines…
• the second one is probably caused by some file copying, it must be failing for similar privilege reasons;
• the third one looks like a server-side issue; Clarify isn't really required for the course, it's only used in the Stata Guide.

I'll run some tests tomorrow and publish a patched version that works on the Sciences Po admin-restricted machines.

[briatte]

Alright, version 4.5 is the patch that should close this issue:

• the issue with ado/plus was due to Linux and Windows not having an ado folder to begin with; it should not be an issue any more, the code has been patched and will fall back to something else if the patch fails
• kountry has a new package architecture since August 2013; installation should now work smoothly, although kountry fails to uninstall (at least on Stata 13 for Mac; it seemed fine on Stata 11 for Windows)
• I have not been able to reproduce the issue with clarify, but it does look like a server-side issue; it could also be a client-side issue with the wifi at Sciences Po or something like that, so it cannot be fixed

Assuming that the course setup has been run last week, the command to apply the patch with srqm_get this week is:

srqm_get srqm_link.ado srqm_pkgs.ado

Add week2.do to the arguments to also fix the title in that do-file.

(Note: the course utilities have a version number principally because of these issues at installation. Every year has required its own patch and version bump so far. The current code should work well because it will fall back to a local install if everything goes to hell.)

[joelgombin]

Great, thanks a mil!

I believe the clarify issue was indeed server-side and circumstancial.

Just a sidenote: the patch shouldn't be run in the same (admin) session as the first profile.do run, otherwise it just doesn't work (I didn't bother understanding why).

[briatte]

So, did it work? :)

[joelgombin]

Yes !

[briatte]

\o/