R help - Aug 2003 - read.spss doesn't work anymore

A couple of months ago, probably using an older version of R, R used to 
run the following code just fine:

  library("foreign")
  data.exp1 <- as.data.frame(read.spss("dataDef.sav"))

Issuing the same commands now (after starting R using --vanilla), gives 
me the following behavior:

 > library("foreign")
 > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
Error in read.spss("dataDef.sav") : Calloc could not allocate 
(-2147483648 of 1) memory
 > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
 > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
Segmentation fault

The first two assignments return instantaneously, after the second x 
contains all original SPSS variable/column names but no data, after the 
last read.spss - it takes a while before R returns with the 
Segmentation fault. During that time, the harddisk seems to be working 
quite hard.

Does anyone know what the problem might be?

  - Hedderik.

 > version
          _
platform i386-pc-linux-gnu
arch     i386
os       linux-gnu
system   i386, linux-gnu
status
major    1
minor    7.1
year     2003
month    06
day      16
language R

Some more information about my read.spss issues: on a cleanly installed 
Debian Woody machine:

~/TMP % R

R : Copyright 2003, The R Development Core Team
Version 1.7.1  (2003-06-16)

[...]

 > library(foreign); x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
Error in read.spss("dataDef.sav") : Calloc could not allocate 
(-2147483648 of 1) memory
 > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
 > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
Segmentation fault

However, using R Version 1.7.0  (2003-04-16) installed using Fink on 
Mac OS X, the .sav file reads without a problem.

The .sav file has in its header the following reference:

SPSS DATA FILE SPSS for Unix Release 6.1 (HP9000 700 )

Although for the moment I'm reading in a Mac OS X R save'd version of 
the SPSS data file, I would like to read in the original .sav file. 
Does anyone know what the problem might be? The .sav file can be 
downloaded from:

   http://viropage.psy.cmu.edu/~rijn/dataDef.sav.bz2  (approx 100 kb)

  - Hedderik.


On Sunday, Aug 10, 2003, at 17:15 US/Eastern, Hedderik van Rijn wrote:
> A couple of months ago, probably using an older version of R, R used 
> to run the following code just fine:
>
>  library("foreign")
>  data.exp1 <- as.data.frame(read.spss("dataDef.sav"))
>
> Issuing the same commands now (after starting R using --vanilla), 
> gives me the following behavior:
>
> > library("foreign")
> > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
> Error in read.spss("dataDef.sav") : Calloc could not allocate 
> (-2147483648 of 1) memory
> > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
> > x <- read.spss("dataDef.sav")
> Segmentation fault
>
> The first two assignments return instantaneously, after the second x 
> contains all original SPSS variable/column names but no data, after 
> the last read.spss - it takes a while before R returns with the 
> Segmentation fault. During that time, the harddisk seems to be working 
> quite hard.
>
> Does anyone know what the problem might be?
>
>  - Hedderik.
>
> > version
>          _
> platform i386-pc-linux-gnu
> arch     i386
> os       linux-gnu
> system   i386, linux-gnu
> status
> major    1
> minor    7.1
> year     2003
> month    06
> day      16
> language R
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>