[R-SIG-Mac] [Rd] crash after using graphics in Rcmdr (PR#13679)

[John Fox]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for checking this out. I wonder whether it's worthwhile to advise
Rcmdr Mac users to avoid R.app, and instead to run R and the Rcmdr from a
terminal, since presumably they'll be making minimal use of the command
line.

Best,
 John


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rob Goedman [mailto:robjgoedman at me.com]
> Sent: May-02-09 6:47 PM
> To: John Fox
> Cc: nhepburn at ualberta.ca; r-sig-mac at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [Rd] crash after using graphics in Rcmdr (PR#13679)
> 
> Hi John,
> 
> Thanks for your procedure to reliably 'crash' R.app.
> 
> On my system sometimes this leads to an immediate crash, sometimes it
> happens when I ask for a 2nd plot or use another application after
> closing the 1st graphics window. I think using Rcmdr creates a similar
> condition as sourcing a file with graphics commands from TextMate.
> 
> As a workaround, in all cases, if I go back to the R Console window
> and e.g. enter a CR that condition is 'cleared', closing the graphics
> window will no longer create an issue.
> 
> I've several times tried to track this problem down but never with any
> luck. I take it as another artifact of the way documents are created/
> deleted in the current R.app.
> 
> Rob
> 
> 
> On May 1, 2009, at 9:16 AM, John Fox wrote:
> 
> > Dear Rob,
> >
> > Thanks for picking this up. Please see my remarks below:
> >
> > On Fri, 01 May 2009 07:55:46 -0700
> > Rob Goedman <goedman at mac.com> wrote:
> >> John,
> >>
> >> To the best of my knowledge this problem in R.app has been around at
> >> least since the R-2.8 days, but likely much longer. I never use R
> >> from  a Terminal, so don't know if it occurs or not outside R.app.
> >
> > I figured that the Rcmdr wasn't directly implicated, but my guess was
> > that it was a tcltk issue, so this is very useful information. The
> > problem didn't occur for me outside of R.app, but then I wasn't using
> > the Quartz graphics device.
> >
> >>
> >> It's not related to Rcmdr and you're observation is indeed one of the
> >> better ways to kind of reproduce the issue. Not sure if it always
> >> does  though. If you have a 'hard' way of crashing R.app, please let
> >> me know  the sequence. In cases when no output is written to the
> >> console of  R.app I tend to make sure I enter an empty line before
> >> closing the  graphics window.
> >
> > This "works" for me every time: (1) In a fresh R.app session, load the
> > Rcmdr, library(Rcmdr). (2) "Data -> Data in packages -> Read data set
> > from an attached package." Pick any data set. I used Prestige from the
> > car package. (3) Draw any graph on the Quartz device. I used "Graphs
> > ->
> > Histogram" and selected education. Close the Quartz device, and watch
> > the crash.
> >
> > I hope that this proves of some use in diagnosing the problem.
> >
> >>
> >> This issue and sometimes very long sequences of plots (never have
> >> been  able to make that reproducible, sometimes the crash happens up
> >> to a  minute after R finishes a series of plots and I'm working in an
> >> external editor like TextMate) are hard to pin down.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Rob
> >>
> >> Note: Hope you don't mind I've removed the R-bugs & R-devel Cc's.
> >
> > No -- this is more natural on r-sig-mac.
> >
> > Thanks for your help,
> > John
> >
> >>
> >> On Apr 30, 2009, at 6:29 AM, John Fox wrote:
> >>
> >>> Dear Neil,
> >>>
> >>> I had R 2.8.0 installed on my Mac Book, also with OS X 10.5.6, and
> >> was
> >>> unable to duplicate this problem. I then installed R 2.9.0 and
> >>> observed the
> >>> same problem that you did. In both cases, I used the latest version
> >>
> >>> of the
> >>> Rcmdr package, 1.4-10.
> >>>
> >>> I also observed the following: (1) The problem occurred only if I
> >>> closed the
> >>> Quartz graphics device after the first graph was plotted; if I
> >> plotted
> >>> another graph and then closed the device, the problem did not
> >> occur.
> >>> (2) The
> >>> problem did not occur if I ran R from a terminal with an X11
> >>> graphics device
> >>> rather than using R.app.
> >>>
> >>> I'm afraid that there's not much more that I can do at this point,
> >>
> >>> since my
> >>> familiarity with Macs is minimal. I'm copying this message to Rob
> >>> Goedman,
> >>> who has proven helpful in the past. Of course, if there's something
> >>
> >>> in the
> >>> Rcmdr that's causing the problem and I can fix it, I will.
> >>>
> >>> Regards,
> >>> John
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: r-devel-bounces at r-project.org
> >> [mailto:r-devel-bounces at r-project.org
> >>>> ]
> >>> On
> >>>> Behalf Of nhepburn at ualberta.ca
> >>>> Sent: April-28-09 1:25 PM
> >>>> To: r-devel at stat.math.ethz.ch
> >>>> Cc: R-bugs at r-project.org
> >>>> Subject: [Rd] crash after using graphics in Rcmdr (PR#13679)
> >>>>
> >>>> Full_Name: Neil Hepburn
> >>>> Version: 2.81 and 2.90
> >>>> OS: OS-X 10.5.6
> >>>> Submission from: (NULL) (142.244.28.93)
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> When I create graphs using Rcmdr and then close the quartz
> >> display, R
> >>> blows
> >>>> up
> >>>> and tells me of a segmentation fault. It then gives me
> >>>> *** caught segfault ***
> >>>> address 0xc0000023, cause 'memory not mapped'
> >>>>
> >>>> Possible actions:
> >>>> 1: abort (with core dump, if enabled)
> >>>> 2: normal R exit
> >>>> 3: exit R without saving workspace
> >>>> 4: exit R saving workspace
> >>>>>
> >>>> Selection:
> >>>>
> >>>> This only happens if I create the graphics from within Rcmdr. If I
> >>
> >>>> create
> >>> the
> >>>> graphics manually, there is no problem. This occurs on my laptop
> >>>> with R
> >>> 2.8.1
> >>>> (I
> >>>> uninstalled 2.9 and reinstall 2.8.1 to see if the problem existed
> >>
> >>>> there)
> >>> and
> >>>> also on my iMac with R2.9.
> >>>>
> >>>> ______________________________________________
> >>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
> > --------------------------------
> > John Fox, Professor
> > Department of Sociology
> > McMaster University
> > Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
> > http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/