[Rd] [R] Repeatable, But Time Varying R GUI Crash (PR#13880)

William Dunlap wdunlap at tibco.com
Thu Aug 6 23:36:40 CEST 2009


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-devel-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-devel-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of 
> murdoch at stats.uwo.ca
> Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 1:45 PM
> To: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Cc: R-bugs at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [Rd] [R] Repeatable, But Time Varying R GUI 
> Crash (PR#13880)
> 
> On 8/6/2009 4:11 PM, Marilyn & Rich Short wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I'm having a problem in R. The R GUI is crashing with a message to 
> > contact Microsoft for the solution. I've contacted 
> Microsoft and they 
> > are of no help. Below is a distilled set of code that will 
> cause the 
> > crash. As you will see, there are two do-loops within which 
> is a "load" 
> > command. The crash usually occurs after 200*400 (=80,000) to 
> > 2,000*400(=800,000) iterations.
> > 
> > Do you have any suggestions on work-arounds?
> 
> I can confirm it in R-patched as well.  It happens on the very first 
> time through if you set gctorture() on, so it looks like somewhere in 
> there is a missing PROTECT, and the garbage collector is reclaiming 
> something that it shouldn't.
> 
> I'll try to track it down, but I'm not sure how quick I'll be.

On Linux with R-2.10.0(devel) valgrind shows:
> gctorture()
> problem2()
==9777== Invalid read of size 1
==9777==    at 0x805DD5C: SETCAR (memory.c:2712)
==9777==    by 0x8156463: Rf_defineVar (envir.c:1353)
==9777==    by 0x80B3B16: RestoreToEnv (saveload.c:2022)
==9777==    by 0x80B4913: do_loadFromConn2 (saveload.c:2346)
==9777==    by 0x8065CF4: do_internal (names.c:1160)
==9777==    by 0x816629F: Rf_eval (eval.c:464)
==9777==    by 0x816815D: do_begin (eval.c:1244)
==9777==    by 0x816629F: Rf_eval (eval.c:464)
==9777==    by 0x8169853: Rf_applyClosure (eval.c:698)
==9777==    by 0x81661D7: Rf_eval (eval.c:508)
==9777==    by 0x816815D: do_begin (eval.c:1244)
==9777==    by 0x816629F: Rf_eval (eval.c:464)
==9777==  Address 0x4516A1B is 3 bytes inside a block of size 2,584
free'd
==9777==    at 0x40052A3: free (vg_replace_malloc.c:233)
==9777==    by 0x805B121: R_gc_internal (memory.c:784)
==9777==    by 0x805C1CF: Rf_allocVector (memory.c:2022)
==9777==    by 0x80B3AD2: RestoreToEnv (saveload.c:2017)
==9777==    by 0x80B4913: do_loadFromConn2 (saveload.c:2346)
==9777==    by 0x8065CF4: do_internal (names.c:1160)
==9777==    by 0x816629F: Rf_eval (eval.c:464)
==9777==    by 0x816815D: do_begin (eval.c:1244)
==9777==    by 0x816629F: Rf_eval (eval.c:464)
==9777==    by 0x8169853: Rf_applyClosure (eval.c:698)
==9777==    by 0x81661D7: Rf_eval (eval.c:508)
==9777==    by 0x816815D: do_begin (eval.c:1244)
==9777==
==9777== ---- Attach to debugger ? --- [Return/N/n/Y/y/C/c] ---- y
starting debugger
==9777== starting debugger with cmd: /usr/bin/gdb -nw /proc/9802/fd/1014
9802
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This GDB was configured as "i386-redhat-linux-gnu"...Using host
libthread_db library "/lib/tls/libthread_db.so.1".

Attaching to program: /proc/9802/fd/1014, process 9802
SETCAR (x=0x5565da0, y=0x4516a18) at memory.c:2712
2712        CHECK_OLD_TO_NEW(x, y);
(gdb) up
#1  0x08156464 in Rf_defineVar (symbol=0x4f5eee0, value=0x4516a18,
    rho=0x559a77c) at envir.c:1353
1353                        SET_BINDING_VALUE(frame, value);
(gdb) list
1348            if (HASHTAB(rho) == R_NilValue) {
1349                /* First check for an existing binding */
1350                frame = FRAME(rho);
1351                while (frame != R_NilValue) {
1352                    if (TAG(frame) == symbol) {
1353                        SET_BINDING_VALUE(frame, value);
1354                        SET_MISSING(frame, 0);      /* Over-ride */
1355                        return;
1356                    }
1357                    frame = CDR(frame);
(gdb) up
#2  0x080b3b17 in RestoreToEnv (ans=0x54876b4, aenv=0x559a77c)
    at saveload.c:2022
2022            defineVar(TAG(a), CAR(a), aenv);
(gdb) list
2017        PROTECT(names = allocVector(STRSXP, cnt));
2018        cnt = 0;
2019        PROTECT(a = ans);
2020        while (a != R_NilValue) {
2021            SET_STRING_ELT(names, cnt++, PRINTNAME(TAG(a)));
2022            defineVar(TAG(a), CAR(a), aenv);
2023            if(R_seemsOldStyleS4Object(CAR(a)))
2024                warningcall(R_NilValue,
2025                            _("'%s' looks like a pre-2.4.0 S4
object: please recreate it"),
2026                            CHAR(PRINTNAME(TAG(a))));

It again complains about the call to R_seemsOldStyleS4Object().

Memory in 'a' may have been freed.  Shouldn't the
    PROTECT(a=ans)
be done earlier, when ans is allocated, instead of when
the pointer is copied?


Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software Inc - Spotfire Division
wdunlap tibco.com 

>  (My 
> house is full of contractors right now, so not a very nice 
> place to work.)
> 
> I don't know any workaround other than "avoid doing the buggy thing". 
> But I can't tell you what that is....
> 
> Duncan Murdoch
> 
> > Once you start the function with the  "problem2()" command, 
> the function 
> > will print to the screen once every 400 iterations. You can 
> monitor the 
> > progress by clicking the scroll button. The R GUI should 
> crash somewhere 
> > between i=200 and i=2000. Although the problem is 
> repeatable, the time 
> > at which the crash occurs is random.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance for your attention,
> > 
> > Rich Short
> > 
> > I'm using Windows XP, SP3 and R 2.9.1.
> > Here is my session info:
> > 
> >> sessionInfo()
> > R version 2.9.1 (2009-06-26)
> > i386-pc-mingw32
> > 
> > locale:
> > LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United
> > States.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United
> > States.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United States.1252
> > 
> > attached base packages:
> > [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
> > 
> > (The problem occurs on my Vista machine as well.)
> > *******************************************
> > 
> > # This script induces the R GUI to crash.
> > 
> > problem2 = function(){
> > 
> > junk = mat.or.vec(8,40)
> > 
> > junk[] = 1
> > 
> > mjunk = mat.or.vec(8,40)
> > 
> > mjunk[] = -1
> > 
> > PathA = tempdir()
> > 
> > conX = paste(PathA,"junkx",sep="\\")
> > 
> > conY = paste(PathA,"junky",sep="\\")
> > 
> > outJunk = file(conX, open="wb")
> > 
> > save(junk, file=outJunk)
> > 
> > close(outJunk)
> > 
> > outJunkY = file(conY, open="wb")
> > 
> > save(mjunk, file=outJunkY)
> > 
> > close(outJunkY)
> > 
> > sign = 1
> > 
> > for(i in 1:4000){
> > 
> > for(ii in 1:400){
> > 
> > sign = -sign
> > 
> > if(sign<0){
> > 
> > load(file=conX)
> > 
> > }else{
> > 
> > load(file=conY)
> > 
> > }
> > 
> > sum = junk[1,5] + mjunk[3,30]
> > 
> > }
> > 
> > cat(" junk = ",junk[1,5],sep="")
> > 
> > cat(" mjunk = ",mjunk[3,30],sep="")
> > 
> > cat(" sum = ",sum,sep="")
> > 
> > cat(" i = ",i,"\n",sep="")
> > 
> > }
> > 
> > }
> > 
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide 
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> 



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