R help - Jan 2009 - Memory issue?

I have a script that sometimes produces the following error:

Error in assign(".target", method at target, envir = envir) :
  formal argument "envir" matched by multiple actual arguments

Do you think this is a memory issue?  I don't know what else it could be
as it doesn't always occur even if the script is run with exactly the
same data.

Does rm() actually free up memory?

Thanks

Dan

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Daniel Brewer, Ph.D.

Institute of Cancer Research
Molecular Carcinogenesis
Email: daniel.brewer at icr.ac.uk
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Daniel Brewer wrote:
> I have a script that sometimes produces the following error:
>
> Error in assign(".target", method at target, envir = envir) :
>   formal argument "envir" matched by multiple actual arguments
>
> Do you think this is a memory issue?  I don't know what else it could
be
> as it doesn't always occur even if the script is run with exactly the
> same data.
>
> Does rm() actually free up memory?
>
> Thanks
>
> Dan
>
>   
Hi,

There are multiple threads on this subject on the R-help list, googling 
for "formal argument matched by mutiple actual arguments" lead me to:

http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/05/08/10698.html

So this is probably not a memory issue. Freeing up memory can be done 
using gc().

cheers and hth,
Paul

-- 
Drs. Paul Hiemstra
Department of Physical Geography
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Utrecht
Heidelberglaan 2
P.O. Box 80.115
3508 TC Utrecht
Phone: 	+31302535773
Fax:	+31302531145
http://intamap.geo.uu.nl/~paul

I had similar issues with memory occupancy. You should explicitly call
gc() to call the garbage collector (free memory routine) after you do
rm() of the big objects. 

D.