tcltk causes help() to hang in R 4.2.0 on macOS

On May 28, 2022, at 2:36 PM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

CAUTION: The Sender of this email is not from within Dalhousie.

Dear R-sig-mac list members,

I've discovered that loading the tcltk package apparently causes R 4.2.0
(including the current patched version) to hang on an M1 Mac.

Try, e.g.,

library("tcltk")
help("lm")

My session info:

------- snip -------

sessionInfo()

R version 4.2.0 Patched (2022-05-28 r82413)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Monterey 12.3.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS:
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
LAPACK:
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
[8] base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.2.0

------- snip -------

Some additional details: The problem occurs both in the R macOS console
and, if options(help_type="html"), when R is run in a terminal window on
macOS, but not when options(help_type="text"). The former is the default
in the Mac R console, the latter when R is run in a terminal.

The problem is apparently new in R 4.2.0 -- it doesn't, e.g., occur in R
4.1.3. My apologies for not turning it up earlier.

I discovered the problem when accessing help in the Rcmdr GUI, which
uses tcltk, caused R to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Best,
John
--
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/

sessionInfo()

Le 28 mai 2022 ? 19:36, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> a ?crit :

Dear R-sig-mac list members,

I've discovered that loading the tcltk package apparently causes R 4.2.0 (including the current patched version) to hang on an M1 Mac.

Try, e.g.,

library("tcltk")
help("lm")

My session info:

------- snip -------

sessionInfo()

R version 4.2.0 Patched (2022-05-28 r82413)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Monterey 12.3.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
[8] base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.2.0

------- snip -------

Some additional details: The problem occurs both in the R macOS console and, if options(help_type="html"), when R is run in a terminal window on macOS, but not when options(help_type="text"). The former is the default in the Mac R console, the latter when R is run in a terminal.

The problem is apparently new in R 4.2.0 -- it doesn't, e.g., occur in R 4.1.3. My apologies for not turning it up earlier.

I discovered the problem when accessing help in the Rcmdr GUI, which uses tcltk, caused R to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Best,
John
-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/

On 29/05/2022, at 5:36 AM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

Dear R-sig-mac list members,

I've discovered that loading the tcltk package apparently causes R 4.2.0 (including the current patched version) to hang on an M1 Mac.

Try, e.g.,

library("tcltk")
help("lm")

My session info:

------- snip -------

sessionInfo()

R version 4.2.0 Patched (2022-05-28 r82413)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Monterey 12.3.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
[8] base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.2.0

------- snip -------

Some additional details: The problem occurs both in the R macOS console and, if options(help_type="html"), when R is run in a terminal window on macOS, but not when options(help_type="text"). The former is the default in the Mac R console, the latter when R is run in a terminal.

The problem is apparently new in R 4.2.0 -- it doesn't, e.g., occur in R 4.1.3. My apologies for not turning it up earlier.

I discovered the problem when accessing help in the Rcmdr GUI, which uses tcltk, caused R to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Best,
John
-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/

On 30/05/2022, at 10:09 AM, Simon Urbanek <simon.urbanek at r-project.org> wrote:

John,

thanks, this is a regression caused by r78421 (deadlock when TclTk's event loop is called in http processing). Removing L875 in src/modules/internet/Rhttpd.c restores the previous behavior, but the underlying problem is more complex and will require more investigation.

Cheers,
Simon

On 29/05/2022, at 5:36 AM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

Dear R-sig-mac list members,

I've discovered that loading the tcltk package apparently causes R 4.2.0 (including the current patched version) to hang on an M1 Mac.

Try, e.g.,

library("tcltk")
help("lm")

My session info:

------- snip -------

sessionInfo()

R version 4.2.0 Patched (2022-05-28 r82413)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Monterey 12.3.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
[8] base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.2.0

------- snip -------

Some additional details: The problem occurs both in the R macOS console and, if options(help_type="html"), when R is run in a terminal window on macOS, but not when options(help_type="text"). The former is the default in the Mac R console, the latter when R is run in a terminal.

The problem is apparently new in R 4.2.0 -- it doesn't, e.g., occur in R 4.1.3. My apologies for not turning it up earlier.

I discovered the problem when accessing help in the Rcmdr GUI, which uses tcltk, caused R to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Best,
John
-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/

Actually, I take back the reference to the commit - the deadlock is true, and removing the line is a work-around, but r78421 was not necessarily the regression. The issue seems to be caused by a combination of Tcl/Tk and KaTeX (the latter causes the browser to issue multiple parallel http-requests and the former causes the deadlock in its event loop) which has not been there in earlier R versions.

Cheers,
Simon

On 30/05/2022, at 10:09 AM, Simon Urbanek <simon.urbanek at r-project.org> wrote:

John,

thanks, this is a regression caused by r78421 (deadlock when TclTk's event loop is called in http processing). Removing L875 in src/modules/internet/Rhttpd.c restores the previous behavior, but the underlying problem is more complex and will require more investigation.

Cheers,
Simon

On 29/05/2022, at 5:36 AM, John Fox <jfox at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

Dear R-sig-mac list members,

I've discovered that loading the tcltk package apparently causes R 4.2.0 (including the current patched version) to hang on an M1 Mac.

Try, e.g.,

library("tcltk")
help("lm")

My session info:

------- snip -------

sessionInfo()

R version 4.2.0 Patched (2022-05-28 r82413)
Platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Monterey 12.3.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRblas.0.dylib
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods
[8] base

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.2.0

------- snip -------

Some additional details: The problem occurs both in the R macOS console and, if options(help_type="html"), when R is run in a terminal window on macOS, but not when options(help_type="text"). The former is the default in the Mac R console, the latter when R is run in a terminal.

The problem is apparently new in R 4.2.0 -- it doesn't, e.g., occur in R 4.1.3. My apologies for not turning it up earlier.

I discovered the problem when accessing help in the Rcmdr GUI, which uses tcltk, caused R to hang.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Best,
John
-- 
John Fox, Professor Emeritus
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/