[R] some general advice sought on the use of gctorture()

[Jeff Newmiller]

This is very off-topic here. My suggestion would be to do as the Posting Guide says and ask this on R-devel, or perhaps even a gdb forum. From what little I know, valgrind might help also.
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Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

On April 24, 2015 6:49:31 AM PDT, Franckx Laurent <laurent.franckx at vito.be> wrote:
>Dear all
>
>I have bumped into the dreaded 'segfault' error type when running some
>C++ code using .Call().
>
>I have already undertaken several attempts to debug the C++ code with
>gdb(), but until now I have been unable to pinpoint the origin of the
>problem. There are two elements that I think are puzzling (a) this
>.Call() has worked fine for about three years, for a variety of data
>(b)  the actual crash occurs at random points during the execution of
>the function (well, random from a human eye's point of view).
>
>>From what I understand in the "R extensions" manual, the actual
>problem may have been around for a while before the actual call to the
>C++ code. As recommended in the manual, I am now using  gctorture() to
>try to pinpoint the origins of the problem. I can, alas, only confirm
>that gctorture() has an enormous impact on execution time, even for
>operations that are normally executed within the blink of an eye. From
>what I have seen until now, executing all the R code before the crash
>with gctorture(TRUE) could take months.
>
>I suppose then that the best way to proceed would be to proceed
>backward from the point where the crash occurs when gctorture(FALSE).
>
>I have tried to find some concrete examples of good practices in the
>use of gctorture() to identify memory problems in R, but most of what I
>have found on the web is simply a copy of the help page. Does anybody
>know more concrete and elaborated examples that could give an
>indication on how to best proceed further?
>
>
>
>
>
>Laurent Franckx, PhD
>Senior researcher sustainable mobility
>VITO NV | Boeretang 200 | 2400 Mol
>Tel. ++ 32 14 33 58 22| mob. +32 479 25 59 07 | Skype: laurent.franckx
>| laurent.franckx at vito.be | Twitter @LaurentFranckx
>
>
>
>
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