[R] cannot allocate vector of size 1215000 Kb

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Paul Hiemstra wrote:

> The memory.size() command provides the maximum amount of memory that can be
> allocated. The amount can be increased to for example 2 GB by the command:
>
> memory.size(size = 2048)
>
> On windows the max size is 2GB, I don't know how large it is on Linux. But
> I must agree with Uwe Ligges that it may be better to cut up your dataset.

This is not correct on either Windows or Linux.  First, memory.size() only 
works on Windows versions of R:

> memory.size()
[1] Inf
Warning message:
'memory.size()' is Windows-specific

and sets the maximum total allocation (and not the size of a single 
piece), with a maximum of 3GB, not 2GB (see the rw-FAQ Q2.9).

On a Unix-alike, the limit is set by the shell running R, and depends on 
the architecture.  On a 32-bit arch it is usually around 3GB: see
?"Memory-limits"


>
> kind regards,
>
> Paul Hiemstra
>
> At 10:59 18-10-2006, John Kapsomenakis wrote:
>> Dear All,
>> I'm running the latest R on SUSE 10.0. After read in a huge data CDF file
>> I tried to  process the only variable variable using the comands
>>
>> aek<-open.ncdf('C:/Monthly/CRU/Crutmp Europe.CDF')

This is strange: that is a DOS path on a Linux system.

>> v1<-aek$var[[1]]
>> gugus<-get.var.ncdf(aek, v1)
>>
>> But I can't because of this message
>> Error: cannot allocate vector of size 1215000 Kb
>>
>> I'm now hoping for some help
>> Any tips to get out of it?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>> john
>>
>> ______________________________________________
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>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595