[Rd] Reading many large files causes R to crash - Possible Bug in R 2.15.1 64-bit Ubuntu

Joshua Ulrich josh.m.ulrich at gmail.com
Mon Jul 23 17:59:33 CEST 2012


David,

Thank you for providing something reproducible.

This line:
templateTimes <- as.xts(templateTimes)

creates a zero-width xts object (i.e. the coredata is a zero-length
vector, but there is a non-zero-length index). So, the
to.period(templateTimes) call returns OHLC data of random memory
locations.  This is the likely cause of the segfaults.

Since aggregating "no data" doesn't make sense, I have patched
to.period to throw an error when run on zero-width/length objects
(revision 690 on R-Forge).  The attached file works with the CRAN
version of xts because it avoids the issue entirely.

Your script will still "hang" on the BAC_0.csv file because
as.character.POSIXt can take a long time.  Better to just call
format() directly (as I do in the attached file).

If you have any follow-up questions, please send them to R-SIG-Finance.

Best,
--
Joshua Ulrich  |  about.me/joshuaulrich
FOSS Trading  |  www.fosstrading.com


On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 8:41 AM, David Terk <david.terk at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm attaching a runnable script and corresponding data files.  This will
> freeze at 83%.
>
> I'm not sure how much simpler to get than this.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Ulrich [mailto:josh.m.ulrich at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 9:17 AM
> To: David Terk
> Cc: Duncan Murdoch; r-devel at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [Rd] Reading many large files causes R to crash - Possible Bug
> in R 2.15.1 64-bit Ubuntu
>
> Well, you still haven't convinced anyone but yourself that it's definitely
> an xts problem, since you have not provided any reproducible example...
> --
> Joshua Ulrich  |  about.me/joshuaulrich
> FOSS Trading  |  www.fosstrading.com
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 8:14 AM, David Terk <david.terk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Where should this be discussed since it is definitely XTS related?  I
>> will gladly upload the simplified script + data files to whoever is
>> maintaining this part of the code.  Fortunately there is a workaround
> here.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Joshua Ulrich [mailto:josh.m.ulrich at gmail.com]
>> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 8:15 AM
>> To: David Terk
>> Cc: Duncan Murdoch; r-devel at r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [Rd] Reading many large files causes R to crash -
>> Possible Bug in R 2.15.1 64-bit Ubuntu
>>
>> David,
>>
>> You still haven't provided a reproducible example.  As Duncan already
>> said, "if you don't post code that allows us to reproduce the crash,
>> it's really unlikely that we'll be able to fix it."
>>
>> And R-devel is not the appropriate venue to discuss this if it's truly
>> an issue with xts/zoo.
>>
>> Best,
>> --
>> Joshua Ulrich  |  about.me/joshuaulrich FOSS Trading  |
>> www.fosstrading.com
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 12:41 AM, David Terk <david.terk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Looks like the call to:
>>>
>>> dat.i <- to.period(dat.i, period=per, k=subper, name=NULL)
>>>
>>> If what is causing the issue.  If variable name is not set, or set to
>>> any value other than NULL.  Than no hang occurs.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: David Terk [mailto:david.terk at gmail.com]
>>> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 1:25 AM
>>> To: 'Duncan Murdoch'
>>> Cc: 'r-devel at r-project.org'
>>> Subject: RE: [Rd] Reading many large files causes R to crash -
>>> Possible Bug in R 2.15.1 64-bit Ubuntu
>>>
>>> I've isolated the bug.  When the seg fault was produced there was an
>>> error that memory had not been mapped.  Here is the odd part of the
>>> bug.  If you comment out certain code and get a full run than comment
>>> in
>> the code which
>>> is causing the problem it will actually run.   So I think it is safe to
>>> assume something wrong is taking place with memory allocation.  Example.
>>> While testing, I have been able to get to a point where the code will
> run.
>>> But if I reboot the machine and try again, the code will not run.
>>>
>>> The bug itself is happening somewhere in XTS or ZOO.  I will gladly
>>> upload the data files.  It is happening on the 10th data file which
>>> is only 225k lines in size.
>>>
>>> Below is the simplified code.  The call to either
>>>
>>> dat.i <- to.period(dat.i, period=per, k=subper, name=NULL)
>>> index(dat.i) <- index(to.period(templateTimes, period=per, k=subper))
>>>
>>> is what is causing R to hang or crash.  I have been able to replicate
>>> this on Windows 7 64 bit and Ubuntu 64 bit.  Seems easiest to
>>> consistently replicate from R Studio.
>>>
>>> The code below will consistently replicate when the appropriate files
>>> are used.
>>>
>>> parseTickDataFromDir = function(tickerDir, per, subper) {
>>>   tickerAbsFilenames = list.files(tickerDir,full.names=T)
>>>   tickerNames = list.files(tickerDir,full.names=F)
>>>   tickerNames = gsub("_[a-zA-Z0-9].csv","",tickerNames)
>>>   pb <- txtProgressBar(min = 0, max = length(tickerAbsFilenames),
>>> style = 3)
>>>
>>>   for(i in 1:length(tickerAbsFilenames)) {
>>>     dat.i = parseTickData(tickerAbsFilenames[i])
>>>     dates <- unique(substr(as.character(index(dat.i)), 1,10))
>>>     times <- rep("09:30:00", length(dates))
>>>     openDateTimes <- strptime(paste(dates, times), "%F %H:%M:%S")
>>>     templateTimes <- NULL
>>>
>>>     for (j in 1:length(openDateTimes)) {
>>>       if (is.null(templateTimes)) {
>>>         templateTimes <- openDateTimes[j] + 0:23400
>>>       } else {
>>>         templateTimes <- c(templateTimes, openDateTimes[j] + 0:23400)
>>>       }
>>>     }
>>>
>>>     templateTimes <- as.xts(templateTimes)
>>>     dat.i <- merge(dat.i, templateTimes, all=T)
>>>     if (is.na(dat.i[1])) {
>>>       dat.i[1] <- -1
>>>     }
>>>     dat.i <- na.locf(dat.i)
>>>         dat.i <- to.period(dat.i, period=per, k=subper, name=NULL)
>>>         index(dat.i) <- index(to.period(templateTimes, period=per,
>>> k=subper))
>>>     setTxtProgressBar(pb, i)
>>>   }
>>>   close(pb)
>>> }
>>>
>>> parseTickData <- function(inputFile) {
>>>   DAT.list <- scan(file=inputFile,
>>> sep=",",skip=1,what=list(Date="",Time="",Close=0,Volume=0),quiet=T)
>>>   index <-
>>> as.POSIXct(paste(DAT.list$Date,DAT.list$Time),format="%m/%d/%Y
>>> %H:%M:%S")
>>>   DAT.xts <- xts(DAT.list$Close,index)
>>>   DAT.xts <- make.index.unique(DAT.xts)
>>>   return(DAT.xts)
>>> }
>>>
>>> DATTick <- parseTickDataFromDir(tickerDirSecond, "seconds",10)
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch.duncan at gmail.com]
>>> Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2012 4:48 PM
>>> To: David Terk
>>> Cc: r-devel at r-project.org
>>> Subject: Re: [Rd] Reading many large files causes R to crash -
>>> Possible Bug in R 2.15.1 64-bit Ubuntu
>>>
>>> On 12-07-22 3:54 PM, David Terk wrote:
>>>> I am reading several hundred files.  Anywhere from 50k-400k in size.
>>>> It appears that when I read these files with R 2.15.1 the process
>>>> will hang or seg fault on the scan() call.  This does not happen on
>>>> R
>> 2.14.1.
>>>
>>> The code below doesn't do anything other than define a couple of
>> functions.
>>> Please simplify it to code that creates a file (or multiple files),
>>> reads it or them, and shows a bug.
>>>
>>> If you can't do that, then gradually add the rest of the stuff from
>>> these functions into the mix until you figure out what is really
>>> causing
>> the bug.
>>>
>>> If you don't post code that allows us to reproduce the crash, it's
>>> really unlikely that we'll be able to fix it.
>>>
>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This is happening on the precise build of Ubuntu.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have included everything, but the issue appears to be when
>>>> performing the scan in the method parseTickData.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Below is the code.  Hopefully this is the right place to post.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> parseTickDataFromDir = function(tickerDir, per, subper, fun) {
>>>>
>>>>    tickerAbsFilenames = list.files(tickerDir,full.names=T)
>>>>
>>>>    tickerNames = list.files(tickerDir,full.names=F)
>>>>
>>>>    tickerNames = gsub("_[a-zA-Z0-9].csv","",tickerNames)
>>>>
>>>>    pb <- txtProgressBar(min = 0, max = length(tickerAbsFilenames),
>>>> style = 3)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>    for(i in 1:length(tickerAbsFilenames)) {
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>      # Grab Raw Tick Data
>>>>
>>>>      dat.i = parseTickData(tickerAbsFilenames[i])
>>>>
>>>>      #Sys.sleep(1)
>>>>
>>>>      # Create Template
>>>>
>>>>      dates <- unique(substr(as.character(index(dat.i)), 1,10))
>>>>
>>>>      times <- rep("09:30:00", length(dates))
>>>>
>>>>      openDateTimes <- strptime(paste(dates, times), "%F %H:%M:%S")
>>>>
>>>>      templateTimes <- NULL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>      for (j in 1:length(openDateTimes)) {
>>>>
>>>>        if (is.null(templateTimes)) {
>>>>
>>>>          templateTimes <- openDateTimes[j] + 0:23400
>>>>
>>>>        } else {
>>>>
>>>>          templateTimes <- c(templateTimes, openDateTimes[j] +
>>>> 0:23400)
>>>>
>>>>        }
>>>>
>>>>      }
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>      # Convert templateTimes to XTS, merge with data and convert
>>>> NA's
>>>>
>>>>      templateTimes <- as.xts(templateTimes)
>>>>
>>>>      dat.i <- merge(dat.i, templateTimes, all=T)
>>>>
>>>>      # If there is no data in the first print, we will have leading
>>>> NA's.  So set them to -1.
>>>>
>>>>      # Since we do not want these values removed by to.period
>>>>
>>>>      if (is.na(dat.i[1])) {
>>>>
>>>>        dat.i[1] <- -1
>>>>
>>>>      }
>>>>
>>>>      # Fix remaining NA's
>>>>
>>>>      dat.i <- na.locf(dat.i)
>>>>
>>>>      # Convert to desired bucket size
>>>>
>>>>      dat.i <- to.period(dat.i, period=per, k=subper, name=NULL)
>>>>
>>>>      # Always use templated index, otherwise merge fails with other
>>>> symbols
>>>>
>>>>      index(dat.i) <- index(to.period(templateTimes, period=per,
>>>> k=subper))
>>>>
>>>>      # If there was missing data at open, set close to NA
>>>>
>>>>      valsToChange <- which(dat.i[,"Open"] == -1)
>>>>
>>>>      if (length(valsToChange) != 0) {
>>>>
>>>>        dat.i[valsToChange, "Close"] <- NA
>>>>
>>>>      }
>>>>
>>>>      if(i == 1) {
>>>>
>>>>        DAT = fun(dat.i)
>>>>
>>>>      } else {
>>>>
>>>>        DAT = merge(DAT,fun(dat.i))
>>>>
>>>>      }
>>>>
>>>>      setTxtProgressBar(pb, i)
>>>>
>>>>    }
>>>>
>>>>    close(pb)
>>>>
>>>>    colnames(DAT) = tickerNames
>>>>
>>>>    return(DAT)
>>>>
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> parseTickData <- function(inputFile) {
>>>>
>>>>    DAT.list <- scan(file=inputFile,
>>>> sep=",",skip=1,what=list(Date="",Time="",Close=0,Volume=0),quiet=T)
>>>>
>>>>    index <-
>>>> as.POSIXct(paste(DAT.list$Date,DAT.list$Time),format="%m/%d/%Y
>>>> %H:%M:%S")
>>>>
>>>>    DAT.xts <- xts(DAT.list$Close,index)
>>>>
>>>>    DAT.xts <- make.index.unique(DAT.xts)
>>>>
>>>>    return(DAT.xts)
>>>>
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
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>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>>>
>>>
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>>


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