[R] R 2.10 'memory leak'? on OS X

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 20/11/2009 12:33 AM, Stropharia wrote:
> Dear R users,
> 
> I am running R 2.10.0 on OS X 10.5.8.
> 
> I had been running 2.10 successfully for about a week (and have used
> previous R versions for 2+ years on the same computer) until 2 days ago it
> failed to start up for me. Now when I try to start R, the application tries
> to initiate for several minutes then crashes. Looking at the activity
> monitor, my memory usage goes from having about 1.6Gb free (out of 2Gb) to
> <7Mb in the first 10-15 seconds of attempting to start the program. At this
> point I either have to force quit R (as everything starts to freeze up) or
> wait several minutes for it to crash.
> 
> I have erased the application and reinstalled it 4 times now - with exactly
> the same result. I looked around in the Library and System folders to see if
> any other files needed to be removed, but couldn't find any. I have also
> restarted the computer and repaired permissions multiple times - and then
> reinstalled R, with no luck. The exact same thing happens if I start R64.
> 
> I did not updated OS X or R, or install any other programs, just prior to
> this first happening and am at a loss to explain what's going on. I have
> copied the first part of one of the crash logs below. Does anyone have any
> ideas for to remedy this?


It sounds like one of your user-specific startup files is causing the 
problem, e.g. .RData, or .Rprofile.  Did you try starting R with option 
--vanilla?  That will skip them.

Duncan Murdoch

> best,
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> #---------------- Crash log ------------------------
> Process:         R [231]
> Path:            /Applications/R.app/Contents/MacOS/R
> Identifier:      org.R-project.R
> Version:         R 2.10.0 GUI 1.30 Leopard build 32-bit (5511)
> Code Type:       X86 (Native)
> Parent Process:  launchd [101]
> 
> Date/Time:       2009-11-18 23:15:45.570 -0500
> OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.5.8 (9L31a)
> Report Version:  6
> Anonymous UUID:  D86CDCBC-00FD-4AEE-AB50-2EFE0DAE9E1E
> 
> Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
> Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000067ee2
> Crashed Thread:  0
> 
> Thread 0 Crashed:
> 0   libSystem.B.dylib             0xffff07c7 __memcpy + 39
> (cpu_capabilities.h:246)
> 1   com.apple.CoreFoundation       0x96a6a0b4 __CFStringEncodeByteStream +
> 4052
> 2   com.apple.Foundation           0x94446eb7
> -[NSString(NSStringOtherEncodings)
> getBytes:maxLength:usedLength:encoding:options:range:remainingRange:] + 295
> 3   com.apple.Foundation           0x94446a1a _NSNewStringByAppendingStrings
> + 538
> 4   com.apple.Foundation           0x94446760 -[NSString
> stringByAppendingString:] + 192
> 5   org.R-project.R               0x00009ce8 -[RController doLoadHistory:] +
> 808
> 6   org.R-project.R               0x000076df -[RController awakeFromNib] +
> 2319
> 7   com.apple.CoreFoundation       0x96ac07f5 -[NSSet
> makeObjectsPerformSelector:] + 181
> 8   com.apple.AppKit               0x92efed8e -[NSIBObjectData
> nibInstantiateWithOwner:topLevelObjects:] + 1533
> 9   com.apple.AppKit               0x92ef4fba loadNib + 264
> 10  com.apple.AppKit               0x92ef491c +[NSBundle(NSNibLoading)
> _loadNibFile:nameTable:withZone:ownerBundle:] + 946
> 11  com.apple.AppKit               0x92ef455f +[NSBundle(NSNibLoading)
> loadNibFile:externalNameTable:withZone:] + 171
> 12  com.apple.AppKit               0x92ef449d +[NSBundle(NSNibLoading)
> loadNibNamed:owner:] + 391
> 13  org.R-project.R               0x00002538 main + 296
> 14  org.R-project.R               0x000023d6 start + 54
> #----------------------------------------------------------------------