Jo La Frite <[email protected]> writes,
> I am having a strange problem with Stata (Stata/SE 9.0 for Windows, I have
> WIndow XP). Suddenly, Stata stopped recognizing basic commands such as
> "clear". Programs that used to work are interrupted at various stages due to
> unrecognized basic commands. For example, I get the message : "unrecognized
> command: _gmin ". I don't understand what is going on and I am worried
> about my programs and system . Can anyone help please? Thanks!
Jo has already gotten lots of good advice from the list. Some of that
advice, however, as been of the form of "do this and hope" and then
gone on to mention how serious the problem might be. Jo, I fear, may
be more nervous than ever.
Here's my advice:
1. From what Jo says, it appears that somehow Stata's official
ado-files got erased or that Jo or some system administrator
made some change in Stata's parameters so that Stata can no
longer find its official ado-files.
2. It's an interesting question how that happened, and I can
concoct explanations with serious implications such as
viruses or a bad hard disk, to benign, such as Jo erased
Stata's official ado directory unintentionally. The
explanations with serious implications are unlikely.
3. We can now try to figure out what happened, or just set
about fixing it. I suggest we fix it. If one of the
serious stories turns out to be the cause, we will discover
that soon enough.
4. Before fixing, let's get a list of the user-written ado-files
Jo has installed. Jo, bring up your broken Stata. Type the
following:
. ado dir
That should list the packages. -ado dir- is a built-in command
of Stata, so even if the ado-files are missing, -ado dir- will
work. Assuming it does work, let's do the following:
. log using installed.log, replace
. ado dir
. log close
Exit Stata and store new file installed.log in a safe place.
Print the file, too. In the worst case, we can use the
information listed to reinstall the user-written files.
5. Take a deep breath and reinstall Stata.
Before doing that, make sure you have both the original
CD and the paper license, because you are going to need the
license codes. If you can't find everything, Jo, call
Stata Technical Services.
6. Launch the newly installed Stata. Type -ado dir-. That
will either (1) list the files you previously had installed,
or (2) it will list nothing. 99.9 percent of the time, the
result will be (1).
7. Regardless, -update- your Stata: Type -update query- and follow the
instructions.
8. Now you are either done, or 0.01 percent of the time, you still
need to reinstall all the user-written files. In the 0.1 percent
case, on your original -ado dir- listing, you might have a line that
reads,
[1] package mf_invtokens from http://fmwww.bc.edu/RePEc/bocode/m
'MF_INVTOKENS': module (Mata) to convert ...
Type,
. net from http://fmwww.bc.edu/RePEc/bocode/m
. net install mf_invtokens
In the case where the package is from http://fmwww.bc.edu,
easier than the above is simply to type
. ssc install mf_invtokens
Both will do the same thing. -ssc- can only be used to install
materials from http://fmwww.bc.edu/. In other cases, type the
two commands.
Anyway, work the list starting at the top.
Good luck. I've gone through this from start to finish just to prove to you,
Jo, that no matter what happens, we have a plan on how to deal with it.
I work for StataCorp so now I am required to add, since you are running Stata
9, that now might be a good time to consider upgrading to Stata 10, Jo.
-- Bill
[email protected]
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