[R] RMySQL segmentation fault

[Matthew.Kelly@csiro.au]

Hello all,

Thanks to those who helped with my problem.

The problem posted to the list was as follows;

>I have been trying to use RMySQL but when I run the commands below I end up with a segmentation fault
> Note I can access the MySQL database as any MySQL user.  
> 
> If I and running after logging in as root then running R, the following works
> 
> > library(RMySQL)
> > m <- dbDriver("MySQL")
> > con <- dbConnect(m,host="acomputer",dbname="atable",user="au_ser",password="a_password")
> > rs <- dbSendQuery(con,statement="select * from flock")
> > data <- fetch(rs,n=-1)
> 
> If I run the same code as a normal user the following line fails with a segmentation fault
> con <- dbConnect(m,host="acomputer",dbname="atable",user="au_ser",password="a_password")
> 
> I have the following relevant software installed
> MySql 3.23.32 
> R-1.7.0
> RMySQL 0.5.2
> Redhat 7.0

The problem was fixed by upgrading Development and Client MySQL Packages to MySQL 4.0. (thanks to David James)

However the following fix was also suggested, and may be useful for people who cannot upgrade the mysql client.

I had the same problem and after running RMySQL with strace and playing around a bit, I found out, that - at least when using MySQL-client library 3.23.49 - RMySQL crashes, if there is a .my.cnf in your ~home, which contains more than just a plain [client]. The easiest workaround for me is just to rename or delete the .my.cnf. Seems to be a bug in the mysql-client library and not in the RMySQL package.(thanks to Holger Klein )