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fork package problem

3 messages · billk01, Duncan Murdoch, Jan T. Kim

Original
billk01
# 
I have been using the fork package on a cluster to spawn jobs.  I have 
noticed that I end up with many "R defunct" (zombie) processes following 
the use of fork that do not die completely until I close down R.  
Initially, I thought it may be my code but I ran the example from the 
latest fork package (see code below) on R.2.3.1 and ended up with the 
same problem.  The code from the fork package that results in the R 
defunct processes is as follows:

{
pid = fork(slave=NULL)
if(pid==0) {
cat("Hi from the child process\n"); exit()
} else {
cat("Hi from the parent process\n");
}

I am running R-2.3.1 Suse10 linux but the same error also occurs with 
R.2.2.0.

I thought R-dev would be the most useful place but please suggest 
another mailing list if this is in appropriate.

Thanks,

Bill
Duncan Murdoch
#
On 12/15/2006 8:30 AM, billk01 wrote:
Generally problems with contributed packages should be reported to the 
maintainer, in this case Greg Warnes.  You can get his email address 
from the DESCRIPTION file in the package, or library(help=fork).

Please also see whether the error occurs in the almost-released 2.4.1, 
available on CRAN.  (This might not be relevant to your problem with 
fork, but the more testers, the better!)

Duncan Murdoch
Jan T. Kim
#
On Fri, Dec 15, 2006 at 08:30:05AM -0500, billk01 wrote:
This is what happens if you don't call wait (as the documentation
of fork demonstrates in an example, if I recall correctly).

Best regards, Jan