Maptools runs out of memory installing the help files for spCbind-methods

Hi,
I'd be grateful for help with the following:-

Running R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24) on Gentoo Linux, on an
x86 PC. I am trying to install maptools, (via CRAN from
maptools_0.7-29.tar.gz'), for the first time.

All runs smoothly until the installation gets to
"*** installing help indices" for spCbind-methods, about two
thirds of the way through the help files, at which point the
installation hangs until R runs out of memory.
The last few lines of the output are :-
"sp2tmap                text    html    latex   example
spCbind-methods        text    html    latex   example
Out of memory!"
and it freezes.

Memory available as reported by

gc()

used (Mb) gc trigger (Mb) max used (Mb)
Ncells 133838  3.6     350000  9.4   350000  9.4
Vcells  81771  0.7     786432  6.0   406077  3.1

top, in another shell, reports that I am using almost all
the memory (2G) and almost all the swap (1G)

the command
perl /usr/lib/R/share/perl/build-help.pl --txt --html
--latex is running as well as R.

I tried this on an amd64 Linux system, and got exactly the
same results.

I've never seen this before, and I can't find any similar
issues in the bug tracker, or on the forums.

Any suggestions? Am I missing something that it needs?
Anthony

Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems Research,
School of Nursing, Dublin City University, Dublin 9,Ireland.
Tel:- +353 1 700 7807. Mobile:- +353 86 606 9713