R help - Jan 2010 - Server hanging despite efforts to correct memory limits

My group is working with datasets between 100 Mb and 1 GB in size, using
multiple log ins.  From the documentation, it appears that vsize is limited
to 2^30-1, which tends to prove too restrictive for our use.  When we drop
that restriction (set vsize = NA) we end up hanging the server, which
requires a restart.  Is there any way to increase the memory limits on R
while keeping our jobs from hanging?  Having to restart the server is a
major inconvenience, second only to memory limitations in R.
> mem.limits()
    nsize     vsize
100000000        NA
> mem.limits(vsize=2^30)
     nsize      vsize
 100000000 1073741824
> mem.limits(vsize=2^31)
     nsize      vsize
 100000000 1073741824
Warning message:
In structure(.Internal(mem.
limits(as.integer(nsize), as.integer(vsize))),  :
  NAs introduced by coercion

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

I am running into a separate, but related issue. On Linux, one may impose
memory limits via the --max-vsize, --max-nsize, and --max-ppsize arguments
upon starting R. I do not know if similar arguments are available on
Windows. HTH
-- 
View this message in context:
http://n4.nabble.com/Server-hanging-despite-efforts-to-correct-memory-limits-tp1017618p1017654.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

You should be able to set limits on memory use for a process in the operating
system, eg with limits or ulimits under Unix-alike shells.

      -thomas

On Tue, 19 Jan 2010, Nathan Stephens wrote:
> My group is working with datasets between 100 Mb and 1 GB in size, using
> multiple log ins.  From the documentation, it appears that vsize is limited
> to 2^30-1, which tends to prove too restrictive for our use.  When we drop
> that restriction (set vsize = NA) we end up hanging the server, which
> requires a restart.  Is there any way to increase the memory limits on R
> while keeping our jobs from hanging?  Having to restart the server is a
> major inconvenience, second only to memory limitations in R.
>
>> mem.limits()
>    nsize     vsize
> 100000000        NA
>
>> mem.limits(vsize=2^30)
>     nsize      vsize
> 100000000 1073741824
>
>> mem.limits(vsize=2^31)
>     nsize      vsize
> 100000000 1073741824
> Warning message:
> In structure(.Internal(mem.
> limits(as.integer(nsize), as.integer(vsize))),  :
>  NAs introduced by coercion
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
Thomas Lumley			Assoc. Professor, Biostatistics
tlumley at u.washington.edu	University of Washington, Seattle