[R] memory use of copies

Martin Morgan mtmorgan at fhcrc.org
Mon Jan 27 15:33:55 CET 2014


Hi Ross --

On 01/23/2014 05:53 PM, Ross Boylan wrote:
> [Apologies if a duplicate; we are having mail problems.]
>
> I am trying to understand the circumstances under which R makes a copy
> of an object, as opposed to simply referring to it.  I'm talking about
> what goes on under the hood, not the user semantics.  I'm doing things
> that take a lot of memory, and am trying to minimize my use.
>
> I thought that R was clever so that copies were created lazily.  For
> example, if a is matrix, then
> b <- a
> b & a referred to to the same object underneath, so that a complete
> duplicate (deep copy) wasn't made until it was necessary, e.g.,
> b[3, 1] <- 4
> would duplicate the contents of a to b, and then overwrite them.

Compiling your R with --enable-memory-profiling gives access to the tracemem() 
function, showing that your understanding above is correct

 > b = matrix(0, 3, 2)
 > tracemem(b)
[1] "<0x7054020>"
 > a = b        ## no copy
 > b[3, 1] = 2  ## copy
tracemem[0x7054020 -> 0x7053fc8]:
 > b = matrix(0, 3, 2)
 > tracemem(b)
 > tracemem(b)
[1] "<0x680e258>"
 > b[3, 1] = 2  ## no copy
 >

The same is apparent using .Internal(inspect()), where the first information 
@7053ec0 is the address of the data. The other relevant part is the 'NAM()' 
field, which indicates whether there are 0, 1 or (have been) at least 2 symbols 
referring to the data. NAM() increments from 1 (no duplication on modify 
required) on original creation to 2 when a = b (duplicate on modify)

 > b = matrix(0, 3, 2)
 > .Internal(inspect(b))
@7053ec0 14 REALSXP g0c4 [NAM(1),ATT] (len=6, tl=0) 0,0,0,0,0,...
ATTRIB:
   @7057528 02 LISTSXP g0c0 []
     TAG: @21c5fb8 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [LCK,gp=0x4000] "dim" (has value)
     @7056858 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 3,2
 > b[3, 1] = 2
 > .Internal(inspect(b))
@7053ec0 14 REALSXP g0c4 [NAM(1),ATT] (len=6, tl=0) 0,0,2,0,0,...
ATTRIB:
   @7057528 02 LISTSXP g0c0 []
     TAG: @21c5fb8 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [LCK,gp=0x4000] "dim" (has value)
     @7056858 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 3,2
 > a = b
 > .Internal(inspect(b))      ## data address unchanced
@7053ec0 14 REALSXP g0c4 [NAM(2),ATT] (len=6, tl=0) 0,0,0,0,0,...
ATTRIB:
   @7057528 02 LISTSXP g0c0 []
     TAG: @21c5fb8 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [LCK,gp=0x4000] "dim" (has value)
     @7056858 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 3,2
 > b[3, 1] = 2
 > .Internal(inspect(b))      ## data address changed
@7232910 14 REALSXP g0c4 [NAM(1),ATT] (len=6, tl=0) 0,0,2,0,0,...
ATTRIB:
   @7239d28 02 LISTSXP g0c0 []
     TAG: @21c5fb8 01 SYMSXP g0c0 [LCK,gp=0x4000] "dim" (has value)
     @7237b48 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 3,2


>
> The following log, from R 3.0.1, does not seem to act that way; I get
> the same amount of memory used whether I copy the same object repeatedly
> or create new objects of the same size.
>
> Can anyone explain what is going on?  Am I just wrong that copies are
> initially shallow?  Or perhaps that behavior only applies for function
> arguments?  Or doesn't apply for class slots or reference class
> variables?
>
>   > foo <- setRefClass("foo", fields=list(x="ANY"))
>   > bar <- setClass("bar", slots=c("x"))

using the approach above, we can see that creating an S4 or reference object in 
the way you've indicated (validity checks or other initialization might change 
this) does not copy the data although it is marked for duplication

 > x = 1:2; .Internal(inspect(x))
@7553868 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(1)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
 > .Internal(inspect(foo(x=x)$x))
@7553868 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
 > .Internal(inspect(bar(x=x)@x))
@7553868 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2

On the other hand, lapply is creating copies

 > x = 1:2; .Internal(inspect(x))
@757b5a8 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(1)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
 > .Internal(inspect(lapply(1:2, function(i) x)))
@7551f88 19 VECSXP g0c2 [] (len=2, tl=0)
   @757b428 13 INTSXP g0c1 [] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @757b3f8 13 INTSXP g0c1 [] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2

One can construct a list without copies

 > x = 1:2; .Internal(inspect(x))
@7677c18 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(1)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
 > .Internal(inspect(list(x)[rep(1, 2)]))
@767b080 19 VECSXP g0c2 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0)
   @7677c18 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @7677c18 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2

but that (creating a list of identical elements) doesn't seem to be a likely 
real-world scenario and the gain is transient

 > x = 1:2; y = list(x)[rep(1, 4)]
 > .Internal(inspect(y))
@507bef8 19 VECSXP g0c3 [NAM(2)] (len=4, tl=0)
   @514ff98 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @514ff98 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @514ff98 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @514ff98 13 INTSXP g0c1 [NAM(2)] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
 > y[[1]][1] = 2L                  ## everybody copied
 > .Internal(inspect(y))
@507bf40 19 VECSXP g0c3 [NAM(1)] (len=4, tl=0)
   @51502c8 13 INTSXP g0c1 [] (len=2, tl=0) 2,2
   @51502f8 13 INTSXP g0c1 [] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @5150328 13 INTSXP g0c1 [] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2
   @5150358 13 INTSXP g0c1 [] (len=2, tl=0) 1,2


Probably it is more helpful to think of reducing the number of times an object 
is _modified_, e.g., representing data as vectors and doing vectorized updates.

Martin

>   > mycoef <- list(a=matrix(rnorm(200000), ncol=2000), b=array(rnorm(200000),
> dim=c(4, 5, 10000)))
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2650747  141.6    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 799751724 6101.7 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
>   > a <- lapply(1:100, function(i) bar(x=mycoef))   # create 100 objects that
> contain copies
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2652156  141.7    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 839752640 6406.9 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
> # +305 Mb
>   > b <- lapply(1:100, function(i) foo(x=mycoef))   # same with a reference class
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2654761  141.8    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 879756752 6712.1 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
> # also + 305 Mb
>   > rm("a", "b")
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2650660  141.6    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 799751664 6101.7 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
> # write to "copy" to see if it uses more memory
>   > a <- lapply(1:100, function(i) {r <- bar(x=mycoef); r at x$a[5, 10] <- 33; r} )
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2652174  141.7    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 839752684 6406.9 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
> # also + 305 Mb
>   > rm("a", "b")
>   Warning message:
>   In rm("a", "b") : object 'b' not found
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2650680  141.6    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 799751684 6101.7 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
> # now create completely distinct objects
>   > a <- lapply(1:100, function(i) {acoef <- list(a=matrix(rnorm(200000),
> ncol=2000), b=array(rnorm(200000), dim=c(4, 5, 10000)))
> !+                                 bar(x=acoef)})
>   > gc()
>               used   (Mb) gc trigger    (Mb)   max used    (Mb)
>   Ncells   2652191  141.7    4170209   222.8    4170209   222.8
>   Vcells 839752699 6406.9 1711485496 13057.6 1711485493 13057.6
> # + 305 Mb
>
> Thanks.
> Ross Boylan
>
> P.S. I also tried posting this from a google-managed email account, and have got
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