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re| memory.limit()

6 messages · Steve Wisdom, Brian Ripley, Paul Gilbert

Original
Steve Wisdom
# 
Mpiktas <mpiktas at delfi.lt> wrote :
Luis Silva <lm.silva at sapo.pt> wrote :
I believe recent versions of R on Windows automatically set memory.limit to
the size of physical memory.  For instance, on my 512m machines a
plain-vanilla install of R 1.6.1 returns
[1] 536264704

Also note these recent changes :

http://www.r-project.org/nocvs/mail/r-announce/latest/0070.html

R-1.6.0 is released 

o Command-line flags to set memory can now use the suffix `G' 
        for gigabytes. The setting of maximum vsize is now only 
        limited by the platform's address space. 

o Internally memory sizes and counts of cons cells are now stored 
        in unsigned longs. This allows memory limits to be set and 
        objects created in the range 2-4Gb on 32-bit platforms, and 
        allows 64-bit platforms to use much larger amounts of memory. 















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Brian Ripley
# 
Not quite!

memory.limit only exists on Windows, and is not the same as --max-mem-size
(which you probably never need to set on Windows).
The default memory limit has been raised to the smaller of 1Gb and the
  amount of physical RAM.  (See the changes for rw1040 and rw1020 below.)
On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Steve Wisdom wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Not relevant, and in the NEWS file.

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Paul Gilbert
    

    

      
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ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Brian

My limited understand of Windows memory management is that it cannot handle
programs that are bigger than physical memory. Is my understanding correct, and
thus the reason for the above limit? For this and other reasons I have tended to
stick with Unix/Linux versions of R, and I am wondering if this should be seen
as a Windows limitation or a limitation imposed by R in Windows.

Thanks,
Paul Gilbert
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      Brian Ripley
    

    

      
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On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Paul Gilbert wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        
No.  It has had virtual memory since ca 1990.

            

      
      
      
    

        
Windows is very slow at using more that the physical RAM, especially on
16-bit Windows (which 95/98/ME are for this purpose).  But it can do it.

The reason for the 1Gb limit is to do with the limited total space Windows
gives (2Gb or 3Gb across all processes).

Yes, Linux on the same machine handles large amounts of memory better.
But the gap is much less than it used to be.

Brian

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Paul Gilbert
    

    

      
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ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
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Thanks. I had in mind that it was "limited virtual" in the sense that multiple
programs could use more than physical memory, but any one program had to fit in
memory. I guess that is not technically true, but it sounds like it is almost
true for practical purposes.
 
...

            

      
      
      
    

        
Does Windows (2000/XP) impose this limit even if there is more physical memory?

Thanks again,
Paul Gilbert
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      Brian Ripley
    

    

      
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On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Paul Gilbert wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        
The 32-bit address space limit is 4Gb.  Of that Windows NT reserves
address space of 1Gb for itself in Server versions, 2Gb in workstation
versions.  Or so the docs say.

The limits of 32-bit addressing are beginning to hit home, which is why
the major workstation manufacturers went to 64-bit long ago.  (Even my
1997 Sun can run 64-bit address spaces.)