[R] gc

[Thomas Lumley]

On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, [iso-8859-1] Göran Broström wrote:

> I get
>
> > gc()
>          used (Mb) gc trigger (Mb)
> Ncells 293826  7.9     531268 14.2
> Vcells 564690  4.4    1659889 12.7
>
> but how do I interpret these numbers? I understand (vaguely) the words
> "Ncells" and "Vcells" after reading ?gc, and "used", but what does
> "gc trigger" mean?

This is a threshold for triggering garbage collection.  In the old days
(pre 1.2) this column listed the amount of memory available, but that is
no longer well-defined as R can now grab more memory from the OS when it
runs out.

The only real use for this number to the average user is that mem.limits()
will not set a maximum memory size that's less than the gc trigger.


	-thomas



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