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R.app crash report

3 messages · ap_llywelyn@mac.com, Simon Urbanek, Martin Maechler

#
I was doing some stress tests and came across a handful of issues.

Version: R 2.0.1 downloaded from CRAN, standard install.  Using 3  
December 2004 version of R.app from (  
http://www.rosuda.org/R/nightly/other/R-GUI.dmg ).

All tests done on a 12" PowerBook G4 (original) with 640 MB of RAM.

------------------

Source code leading to crash:

library(cluster)
data(xclara)
plot(hclust(dist(xclara)))

This leads to a long wait where the application is frozen (spinning  
status bar going the entire time), a quartz window displays without any  
content, and then the following application crash occurs:

Date/Time:      2004-12-04 20:15:00 -0600
OS Version:     10.3.6 (Build 7R28)
Report Version: 2

Command: R
Path:    /Applications/R.app/Contents/MacOS/R
Version: 1.02-pre build 795 (1.02-pre build 795)
PID:     1654
Thread:  0

Exception:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes:      KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x049b2940

Thread 0 Crashed:
0   libR.dylib               	0x010bd2ec drawdend + 0x168 (plot.c:3358)
1   libR.dylib               	0x010bd1e8 drawdend + 0x64 (plot.c:3346)
2   libR.dylib               	0x010bd2bc drawdend + 0x138 (plot.c:3356)
3   libR.dylib               	0x010bd2bc drawdend + 0x138 (plot.c:3356)
4   libR.dylib               	0x010bd1e8 drawdend + 0x64 (plot.c:3346)
5   libR.dylib               	0x010bd2bc drawdend + 0x138 (plot.c:3356)
6   libR.dylib               	0x010bd2bc drawdend + 0x138 (plot.c:3356)
7   libR.dylib               	0x010bd1e8 drawdend + 0x64 (plot.c:3346)
8   libR.dylib               	0x010bd660 do_dend + 0x278 (plot.c:3438)
9   libR.dylib               	0x0109f670 do_internal + 0x170  
(names.c:1067)
10  libR.dylib               	0x0106bf9c Rf_eval + 0x428 (eval.c:376)
11  libR.dylib               	0x0106d894 do_begin + 0x88 (eval.c:1051)
12  libR.dylib               	0x0106bf9c Rf_eval + 0x428 (eval.c:376)
13  libR.dylib               	0x0106c5e0 Rf_applyClosure + 0x3b8  
(eval.c:570)
14  libR.dylib               	0x0109fb04 applyMethod + 0x1d8  
(objects.c:119)
15  libR.dylib               	0x010a020c Rf_usemethod + 0x420  
(objects.c:300)
16  libR.dylib               	0x010a05e0 do_usemethod + 0x1f4  
(objects.c:389)
17  libR.dylib               	0x0106bf9c Rf_eval + 0x428 (eval.c:376)
18  libR.dylib               	0x0106bf9c Rf_eval + 0x428 (eval.c:376)
19  libR.dylib               	0x0106d894 do_begin + 0x88 (eval.c:1051)
20  libR.dylib               	0x0106bf9c Rf_eval + 0x428 (eval.c:376)
21  libR.dylib               	0x0106c5e0 Rf_applyClosure + 0x3b8  
(eval.c:570)
22  libR.dylib               	0x0106c1c8 Rf_eval + 0x654 (eval.c:411)
23  libR.dylib               	0x010918ec Rf_ReplIteration + 0x1d0  
(main.c:253)
24  libR.dylib               	0x01091a48 R_ReplConsole + 0x88  
(main.c:302)
25  libR.dylib               	0x010923bc run_Rmainloop + 0x6c  
(main.c:656)
26  com.apple.Foundation     	0x909f30e4 __NSFireTimer + 0x68
27  com.apple.CoreFoundation 	0x90194620 __CFRunLoopDoTimer + 0xf4
28  com.apple.CoreFoundation 	0x90191980 __CFRunLoopRun + 0x5c8
29  com.apple.CoreFoundation 	0x90195e94 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 0x148
30  com.apple.HIToolbox      	0x927d5f88 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode +  
0xac
31  com.apple.HIToolbox      	0x927dc6f0 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 0x17c
32  com.apple.HIToolbox      	0x927fe6c8  
BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 0x60
33  com.apple.AppKit         	0x92dd227c _DPSNextEvent + 0x180
34  com.apple.AppKit         	0x92de8c24 -[NSApplication  
nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 0x74
35  com.apple.AppKit         	0x92dfcf8c -[NSApplication run] + 0x21c
36  com.apple.AppKit         	0x92eb948c NSApplicationMain + 0x1d0
37  org.R-project.R          	0x000029c8 _start + 0x188 (crt.c:267)
38  dyld                     	0x8fe1a558 _dyld_start + 0x64

Thread 1:
0   libSystem.B.dylib        	0x9000b20c select + 0xc
1   org.R-project.R          	0x00003b30 -[RController readThread:] +  
0x1b4
2   com.apple.Foundation     	0x90a39b74 forkThreadForFunction + 0x6c
3   libSystem.B.dylib        	0x900246e8 _pthread_body + 0x28

Thread 2:
0   libSystem.B.dylib        	0x90012568 syscall_thread_switch + 0x8
1   com.apple.Foundation     	0x90a029c8 +[NSThread sleepUntilDate:] +  
0x98
2   com.apple.AppKit         	0x92dca420 -[NSUIHeartBeat  
_heartBeatThread:] + 0x494
3   com.apple.Foundation     	0x90a39b74 forkThreadForFunction + 0x6c
4   libSystem.B.dylib        	0x900246e8 _pthread_body + 0x28

PPC Thread State:
   srr0: 0x010bd2ec srr1: 0x0200f030                vrsave: 0x00000000
     cr: 0x24022286  xer: 0x20000004   lr: 0x010bd294  ctr: 0x900f5f70
     r0: 0x010bd294   r1: 0xbfffb7c0   r2: 0x049b2948   r3: 0x00000b26
     r4: 0x00000000   r5: 0xa09faf40   r6: 0xbfffb234   r7: 0x05175200
     r8: 0x00000464   r9: 0x049ad018  r10: 0x00000118  r11: 0x24022282
    r12: 0x900f5f70  r13: 0x011cc51c  r14: 0x0118fdf4  r15: 0x05428acc
    r16: 0x01e09588  r17: 0x05188f10  r18: 0x0189a4e8  r19: 0x01e095f8
    r20: 0x05428a94  r21: 0x00000017  r22: 0x00000bb8  r23: 0x011bcb38
    r24: 0x00000bb7  r25: 0x0189761c  r26: 0x05427748  r27: 0xbfffb940
    r28: 0xbfffb948  r29: 0x0035d450  r30: 0x000023f8  r31: 0x010bd18c

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dist(xclara)->xclara.dist

Works okay, though when attempting to display those results it freezes  
up the entire system, probably as  the result of memory  
threshing/starvation if the top results are any indicator:

  1661 R            8.5%  9:36.12   3    92   567   368M+ 3.88M   350M-   
828M

Sincerely,
David
#
On Dec 4, 2004, at 9:50 PM, ap_llywelyn@mac.com wrote:

            
Please post this to the maintainers of the cluster library (if at all), 
since this has nothing to do with the GUI (behaves the same in X11). 
The above doesn't make much sense anyway - you definitely want to use 
cutree before you plot that dendogram ...

Cheers,
Simon
#
Simon> On Dec 4, 2004, at 9:50 PM, ap_llywelyn@mac.com
Simon> wrote:
>> Source code leading to crash:
    >> 
    >> library(cluster)
    >> data(xclara)
    >> plot(hclust(dist(xclara)))
    >> 
    >> This leads to a long wait where the application is frozen
    >> (spinning status bar going the entire time), a quartz
    >> window displays without any content, and then the
    >> following application crash occurs:

    Simon> Please post this to the maintainers of the cluster
    Simon> library (if at all),

Well, this is a *package*, not a library {please, please!}

And really, that has nothing to do with the 'cluster' package
(whose maintainer I am), as David only uses its data set.
hclust() and dist() are in the standard 'stats' package.

Btw, this can be accomplished more cleanly, i.e., without
attaching "cluster", by 

  data(xclara, package = "cluster")


    Simon> this has nothing to do
    Simon> with the GUI (behaves the same in X11).  The above
    Simon> doesn't make much sense anyway - you definitely want
    Simon> to use cutree before you plot that dendogram ...

Indeed!  

A bit more explicitly for David:
xclara has 3000 observations, 
i.e. 3000*2999/2 ~= 4.5 Mio distances {i.e., a bit more than 36
MBytes to keep in memory and about 48 mio characters to display
when you use default options(digits=7)}.
I don't think you can really make much of printing these many
numbers onto your console as you try with

    David> dist(xclara) -> xclara.dist

    David> Works okay, though when attempting to display those results it freezes  
    David> up the entire system, probably as  the result of memory  
    David> threshing/starvation if the top results are any indicator:

    David> 1661 R   8.5%  9:36.12   3    92   567   368M+ 3.88M   350M-  828M

"freezes up the entire system"  when trying to print something
too large actually has something to do with user interface.
AFAIK, it doesn't work 'nicely' on any R console,
but at least in ESS on Linux, it's just that one Emacs,
displaying the "wrist watch" (and I can easily tell emacs "not
to wait" by pressing Ctrl g").  Also, just trying it now {on a
machine with large amounts of RAM}: After pressing return, it at
least starts printing (displaying to the *R* buffer) after a bit
more than 1 minute.. and that does ``seem'' to never finish.
I can signal a break (via the [Signals] Menu or C-c C-c in
Emacs), and still have to wait about 2-3 minutes for the output
stops; but it does, and I can work on.. {well, in theory; my Emacs
seems to have become v..e..r..y  s...l...o....w}  We only
recently had a variation on this theme in the ESS-help mailing
list, and several people were reporting they couldn't really
stop R from printing and had to kill the R process...

So after all, there's not quite a trivial problem "hidden" in
David's report :  What should happen if the user accidentally
wants to print a huge object to console... how to make sure R
can be told to stop.

And as I see it now, there's even something like an R "bug" (or
"design infelicity") here:

I've now done it again {on a compute server Dual-Opteron with 4
GB RAM}:  After stopping, via the ESS [Signals] [Break (C-c C-c)] menu,
   Emacs stops immediately, but R doesn't return quickly,
and rather, watching "top" {the good ol' unix process monitor} I
see R using 99.9% CPU and it's memory footage ("VIRT" and 
"SHR") increasing and increasing..., upto '1081m', a bit more
than 1 GB, when R finally returns (displays the prompt) after
only a few minutes --- but then, as said, this is on a remote
64bit machine with 4000 MB RAM.

BTW, when I then remove the 'dist' (and hclust) objects in R,
and type  gc(),
(or maybe do some other things in R; the R process has about
halfed its apparent memory usage to 500something MB.  

more stats: 
     during printing:  798 m
     after "break"  :  798, for ~5 seconds, then starting to
		       grow; slowly (in my top, in steps of ~ 10m)
		       upto 1076m
         then the R prompt is displayed and top shows "1081m".

It stays there , until I do  
   > gc()
where it goes down to VIRT 841m (RES 823m)
and after removing the large distance object, and gc() again,
it lowers to 820m (RES 790m) and stays there.

Probably this thread should be moved to R-devel -- and hence I
crosspost for once.

Martin