[Rd] R 4.1.x make check fails, stats-Ex.R, step factor reduced below minFactor

Fri Oct 1 12:03:25 CEST 2021

For what it's worth, make check runs OK for me with sessionInfo()

R version 4.1.1 Patched (2021-09-30 r80997)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
Running under: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /home/smeyer/R/base/release/build/lib/libRblas.so
LAPACK: /home/smeyer/R/base/release/build/lib/libRlapack.so

The output of these examples is:

>> try(nlm1 <- update(nlmod, control = list(tol = 1e-7))) # where central diff. work here:
> Warning in nls(formula = y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x), algorithm = "default",  :
>   No starting values specified for some parameters.
> Initializing ‘Const’, ‘A’, ‘B’ to '1.'.
> Consider specifying 'start' or using a selfStart model
> Error in nls(formula = y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x), algorithm = "default",  : 
>   step factor 0.000488281 reduced below 'minFactor' of 0.000976562
>>    (nlm2 <- update(nlmod, control = list(tol = 8e-8, nDcentral=TRUE), trace=TRUE))
> Warning in nls(formula = y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x), algorithm = "default",  :
>   No starting values specified for some parameters.
> Initializing ‘Const’, ‘A’, ‘B’ to '1.'.
> Consider specifying 'start' or using a selfStart model
> 1017460.306    (4.15e+02): par = (1 1 1)
> 758164.7503    (2.34e+02): par = (13.42031396 1.961485 0.05947543745)
> 269506.3537    (3.23e+02): par = (51.75719817 -13.09155958 0.8428607712)
> 68969.21891    (1.03e+02): par = (76.0006985 -1.93522675 1.0190858)
> 633.3672224    (1.29e+00): par = (100.3761515 8.624648408 5.104490252)
> 151.4400170    (9.39e+00): par = (100.6344391 4.913490999 0.2849209664)
> 53.08739445    (7.24e+00): par = (100.6830407 6.899303393 0.4637755095)
> 1.344478582    (5.97e-01): par = (100.0368306 9.897714144 0.5169294926)
> 0.9908415908   (1.55e-02): par = (100.0300625 9.9144191 0.5023516843)
> 0.9906046057   (1.84e-05): par = (100.0288724 9.916224018 0.5025207336)
> 0.9906046054   (9.94e-08): par = (100.028875 9.916228366 0.50252165)
> 0.9906046054   (5.00e-08): par = (100.028875 9.916228377 0.5025216525)
> Nonlinear regression model
>   model: y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x)
>    data: parent.frame()
>       Const           A           B 
> 100.0288750   9.9162284   0.5025217 
>  residual sum-of-squares: 0.9906046

Running with example(nls) in an interactive session gives the extra output

> Number of iterations to convergence: 11 
> Achieved convergence tolerance: 4.996813e-08

(when the "show.nls.convergence" option is not set to FALSE. It is set 
to FALSE in SSasymp.Rd but not reset at the end.)

Best regards,

	Sebastian

Am 01.10.21 um 11:01 schrieb Andrew Piskorski:
> I recently built R 4.1.1 (Patched) from source, as I have many older
> versions over the years.  This version, on Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS:
> 
>    R 4.1.1 (Patched), 2021-09-21, svn.rev 80946, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
> 
> Surprisingly, "make check" fails, which I don't recall seeing before.
> The error is in from stats-Ex.R, which unfortunately terminates all
> further testing!  This particular error, "step factor ... reduced
> below 'minFactor'" does not seem very serious, but I can't figure out
> why it's happening.
> 
> I installed with "make install install-tests" as usual, which seemed
> to work fine.  Running the same tests after install, I'm able to get
> more coverage by using errorsAreFatal=FALSE.  However, it seems the
> rest of the 'stats' tests after the bad one still do not run.
> 
> I'm confused about the intent of this particular test.  The comment
> above it seems to says that it's SUPPOSED to throw this error, yet
> getting the error still terminates further testing, which seems
> strange.  What's supposed to happen here?
> 
> Any ideas on why this error might be occurring, and how I should debug
> it?  What's the right way for me to disable this one failing test, so
> the ones after it can run?
> 
> Thanks for your help!
> 
> 
> ## "make check" output:
> make[1]: Entering directory '/home/nobackup/co/R/R-4-1-branch/Build-x86_64/tests'
> make[2]: Entering directory '/home/nobackup/co/R/R-4-1-branch/Build-x86_64/tests'
> make[3]: Entering directory '/home/nobackup/co/R/R-4-1-branch/Build-x86_64/tests/Examples'
> Testing examples for package 'base'
> Testing examples for package 'tools'
>    comparing 'tools-Ex.Rout' to 'tools-Ex.Rout.save' ... OK
> Testing examples for package 'utils'
> Testing examples for package 'grDevices'
>    comparing 'grDevices-Ex.Rout' to 'grDevices-Ex.Rout.save' ... OK
> Testing examples for package 'graphics'
>    comparing 'graphics-Ex.Rout' to 'graphics-Ex.Rout.save' ... OK
> Testing examples for package 'stats'
> Error: testing 'stats' failed
> Execution halted
> Makefile:37: recipe for target 'test-Examples-Base' failed
> make[3]: *** [test-Examples-Base] Error 1
> make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/nobackup/co/R/R-4-1-branch/Build-x86_64/tests/Examples'
> ../../tests/Makefile.common:198: recipe for target 'test-Examples' failed
> make[2]: *** [test-Examples] Error 2
> make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/nobackup/co/R/R-4-1-branch/Build-x86_64/tests'
> ../../tests/Makefile.common:184: recipe for target 'test-all-basics' failed
> make[1]: *** [test-all-basics] Error 1
> make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/nobackup/co/R/R-4-1-branch/Build-x86_64/tests'
> Makefile:305: recipe for target 'check-all' failed
> make: *** [check-all] Error 2
> 
> 
> ## From file:  tests/Examples/stats-Ex.Rout.fail
> 
>> ## Here, requiring close convergence, you need to use more accurate numerical
>> ##  differentiation; this gives Error: "step factor .. reduced below 'minFactor' .."
>> options(digits = 10) # more accuracy for 'trace'
>> ## IGNORE_RDIFF_BEGIN
>> try(nlm1 <- update(nlmod, control = list(tol = 1e-7))) # where central diff. work here:
> Warning in nls(formula = y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x), algorithm = "default",  :
>    No starting values specified for some parameters.
> Initializing 'Const', 'A', 'B' to '1.'.
> Consider specifying 'start' or using a selfStart model
>>     (nlm2 <- update(nlmod, control = list(tol = 8e-8, nDcentral=TRUE), trace=TRUE))
> Warning in nls(formula = y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x), algorithm = "default",  :
>    No starting values specified for some parameters.
> Initializing 'Const', 'A', 'B' to '1.'.
> Consider specifying 'start' or using a selfStart model
> 1017460.306    (4.15e+02): par = (1 1 1)
> 758164.7503    (2.34e+02): par = (13.42031396 1.961485 0.05947543745)
> 269506.3538    (3.23e+02): par = (51.75719816 -13.09155957 0.8428607709)
> 68969.21893    (1.03e+02): par = (76.0006985 -1.935226745 1.0190858)
> 633.3672230    (1.29e+00): par = (100.3761515 8.624648402 5.104490259)
> 151.4400218    (9.39e+00): par = (100.6344391 4.913490985 0.2849209569)
> 53.08739850    (7.24e+00): par = (100.6830407 6.899303317 0.4637755074)
> 1.344478640    (5.97e-01): par = (100.0368306 9.897714142 0.5169294939)
> 0.9908415909   (1.55e-02): par = (100.0300625 9.9144191 0.5023516843)
> 0.9906046057   (1.84e-05): par = (100.0288724 9.916224018 0.5025207336)
> 0.9906046054   (9.95e-08): par = (100.028875 9.916228366 0.50252165)
> 0.9906046054   (9.93e-08): par = (100.028875 9.916228366 0.50252165)
> Error in nls(formula = y ~ Const + A * exp(B * x), algorithm = "default",  :
>    step factor 0.000488281 reduced below 'minFactor' of 0.000976562
> Calls: update -> update.default -> eval -> eval -> nls
> Execution halted
> 
> 
> ## After install, start R with --vanilla and run tests like this:
> ## https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-patched/R-admin.html#Testing-a-Unix_002dalike-Installation
> Sys.setenv(LC_COLLATE = "C", LC_TIME = "C", LANGUAGE = "en")
> pdf("tests.pdf")
> tools::testInstalledPackages(scope="base", errorsAreFatal=FALSE)
>