[R-sig-hpc] unstable repeated spawning with Rmpi under Windows 7

[Till Francke]

Dear list,
I observed irregular hang-ups when repeatedly performing this code (R  
2.15.0, Windows 7 64, MPICH-II, Rmpi_0.6-2):

<code>

library(Rmpi)
mpi.spawn.Rslaves(nslaves=8)
mpi.close.Rslaves()

</code>

When I repeatedly call this code, my system hangs at  
"mpi.spawn.Rslaves(nslaves=8)" - sometimes at the second, sometimes at the  
third try. Then, killing R remains the only option.
When I use the program "Process Explorer" to see what is happening I  
observed that mpi.spawn.Rslaves() creates mpiexec.exe and a service  
smpd.exe, comprising a tree of 8 consoles (cmd.exe) each holding an  
instance of R (Rterm.exe). Apparently, mpi.close.Rslaves() is supposed to  
close these. However, evidently this sometimes fails and the subsequent  
call of mpi.spawn.Rslaves() stalls the system. If I remove the consoles  
(but not the parent smpd.exe) manually, the next call works as supposed.
Is there anything I can do about it (except switching to Linux)?

Thanks for your advice,

Till

> sessionInfo()

R version 2.15.0 (2012-03-30)
Platform: x86_64-pc-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=German_Germany.1252  LC_CTYPE=German_Germany.1252     
LC_MONETARY=German_Germany.1252
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                    LC_TIME=German_Germany.1252

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base

other attached packages:
[1] Rmpi_0.6-2