[R] gc() shrinks with multiple iterations

[Thomas Lumley]

On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, Andrew Perrin wrote:

> Is it expected behavior for gc() to return shrinking values as it gets
> called multiple times? Here's what I've got:
>

Yes, it's part of the new memory management.  R can now expand or contract
its heap dynamically, so when memory use decreases the spare memory will
be released back to the operating system.  The operating system typically
won't take it, but it will be available for .C code to malloc(), and
if it remains unused a competent operating system will probably swap it to
disk.

	-thomas

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html
Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe"
(in the "body", not the subject !)  To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch
_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._