[R] C stack error in as.vector() starting in R 3.3.0

Eric Archer - NOAA Federal eric.archer at noaa.gov
Thu Jul 7 06:02:31 CEST 2016


Luke,

Thanks for this point out. I started removing packages one-by-one in R
v.3.3.1. Oddly enough, it went away after I removed the Matrix package.
When I restarted R, the same version of Matrix (1.2-6) had been
"reinstalled" (?), but now no C stack error. Lets see if the others that
were having a similar problem have the same result.

Cheers,
Eric


----

*Eric Archer, Ph.D.*
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
NMFS, NOAA
8901 La Jolla Shores Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
858-546-7121 (work)
858-546-7003 (FAX)

Marine Mammal Genetics Group: swfsc.noaa.gov/mmtd-mmgenetics
ETP Cetacean Assessment Program: swfsc.noaa.gov/mmtd-etp
https://github/ericarcher

"


*The universe doesn't care what you believe. The wonderful thing about
science is that it   doesn't ask for your faith, it just asks   for your
eyes.*"  - Randall Munroe

"*Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.*"
   - Benjamin Franklin

   "*...but I'll take a GPS over either one.*"
       - John C. "Craig" George

On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 4:06 PM, <luke-tierney at uiowa.edu> wrote:

> I cannot reproduce this.  My best guess is that there is a problem,
> maybe a version incompatibility, with one of the packages loaded when
> load("problem.method.rdata"). This includes
>
> adegenet
> apex
> copula
> Rcpp
> DBI
> sp
> colorspace
>
> and any dependencies these are bringing in.
>
> Best,
>
> luke
>
> On Fri, 1 Jul 2016, Eric Archer - NOAA Federal wrote:
>
> Apologies for the long post. This is an issue I have been struggling with
>> and I have tried to be as complete, to the point, and reproducible as
>> possible.
>>
>> In documenting a package with roxygen2, I have come across an error that
>> does not occur in R 3.2.4 revised, but does occur in R 3.3.0 and 3.3.1.
>> Using traceback() and debug(), I've traced the error to a call made to
>> as.vector(x, "character") that seems to get stuck in a loop which
>> culminates in this error:
>>
>> Error: C stack usage  7970892 is too close to the limit
>>
>> The object that causes this error is of a signature type for a method.
>> With
>> some playing around, I've been able to work out that the error is actually
>> associated with the method that roxygen2 creates when doing its magic.
>> Something happens when this method definition with its associated
>> environment is in the workspace that causes the error.
>>
>> At this point, I should stress again that the error does NOT occur in R
>> 3.2.4 revised or earlier, but does occur in R 3.3.0 and 3.3.1. I have also
>> tested this with several versions of roxygen2 and that does not make a
>> difference. Thus, my ultimate question is what has changed in R 3.3.0 that
>> would lead to this so that the roxygen2 maintainers can correct it?
>>
>> As a test, I created a signature identical to the one that causes the
>> error
>> and tried the as.vector() command that would generate the loop. I don't
>> get
>> the error in my command line generated object, nor with the object that is
>> extracted from the method definition. However, when I load the method
>> definition into the workspace, the error will happen on either my command
>> line generated object, or the one extracted from the method definition and
>> will not stop happening until I restart R.
>>
>> I have reported this error as an issue on the roxygen2 GitHub repository
>> and it has been crossposted by another user who had a similar experience
>> with a different package on the devtools repository. Those posts, which
>> contain more information are here:
>>
>> https://github.com/klutometis/roxygen/issues/475
>> https://github.com/hadley/devtools/issues/1234
>>
>> Below is the result of sessionInfo() and the output of a session
>> demonstrating the effect. The files used are in a zip file here:
>>
>> https://github.com/klutometis/roxygen/files/335417/error.test.rdata.files.zip
>>
>> > sessionInfo()
>> R version 3.3.0 (2016-05-03)
>> Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin13.4.0 (64-bit)
>> Running under: OS X 10.11.5 (El Capitan)
>>
>> locale:
>> [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8
>>
>> attached base packages:
>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
>>
>> loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
>> [1] tools_3.3.0
>>
>> rm(list = ls())
>>>
>>> # Create test class and method
>>> setClass(Class = "gtypes", slots = c(loci = "data.frame", ploidy =
>>>
>> "numeric"), package = "roxygen_devtest")
>>
>>> setGeneric("nInd", function(x, ...) standardGeneric("nInd"), package =
>>>
>> "adegenet")
>> [1] "nInd"
>>
>>> setMethod("nInd", "gtypes", function(x, ...) nrow(x at loci) / x at ploidy)
>>>
>> [1] "nInd"
>>
>>>
>>> test.method <- getMethod("nInd", "gtypes")
>>> str(test.method)
>>>
>> Formal class 'MethodDefinition' [package "methods"] with 4 slots
>>  ..@ .Data  :function (x, ...)
>>  ..@ target :Formal class 'signature' [package "methods"] with 3 slots
>>  .. .. ..@ .Data  : chr "gtypes"
>>  .. .. ..@ names  : chr "x"
>>  .. .. ..@ package: chr "roxygen_devtest"
>>  ..@ defined:Formal class 'signature' [package "methods"] with 3 slots
>>  .. .. ..@ .Data  : chr "gtypes"
>>  .. .. ..@ names  : chr "x"
>>  .. .. ..@ package: chr "roxygen_devtest"
>>  ..@ generic: atomic [1:1] nInd
>>  .. ..- attr(*, "package")= chr "adegenet"
>>
>>>
>>> # No error:
>>> as.vector(test.method at defined, "character")
>>>
>> [1] "gtypes"
>>
>>>
>>> # This is the method that generates the error
>>> load("problem.method.rdata")
>>>
>>> # Notice the difference in the environments of the two functions:
>>> test.method at .Data
>>>
>> function (x, ...)
>> nrow(x at loci)/x at ploidy
>>
>>> problem.method at .Data
>>>
>> function (x, ...)
>> nrow(x at loci)/x at ploidy
>> <environment: 0x101f85040>
>>
>>>
>>> # Swap the problem function for the one I created:
>>> problem.method at .Data <- test.method at .Data
>>> save(problem.method, file = "fixed.method.rdata")
>>>
>>> # Here's the error (both with my method and the original):
>>> as.vector(test.method at defined, "character")
>>>
>> Error: C stack usage  7970892 is too close to the limit
>>
>>> as.vector(problem.method at defined, "character")
>>>
>> Error: C stack usage  7970892 is too close to the limit
>>
>> Restarting R session...
>>
>> # *** Restart R for this to work ***
>>> rm(list = ls())
>>>
>>> load("fixed.method.rdata")
>>> as.vector(problem.method at defined, "character")
>>>
>> [1] "gtypes"
>>
>> ----
>>
>> *Eric Archer, Ph.D.*
>> Southwest Fisheries Science Center
>> NMFS, NOAA
>> 8901 La Jolla Shores Drive
>> La Jolla, CA 92037 USA
>> 858-546-7121 (work)
>> 858-546-7003 (FAX)
>>
>> Marine Mammal Genetics Group: swfsc.noaa.gov/mmtd-mmgenetics
>> ETP Cetacean Assessment Program: swfsc.noaa.gov/mmtd-etp
>> https://github/ericarcher
>>
>> "
>>
>>
>> *The universe doesn't care what you believe. The wonderful thing about
>> science is that it   doesn't ask for your faith, it just asks   for your
>> eyes.*"  - Randall Munroe
>>
>> "*Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.*"
>>   - Benjamin Franklin
>>
>>   "*...but I'll take a GPS over either one.*"
>>       - John C. "Craig" George
>>
>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> 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.
>>
>>
> --
> Luke Tierney
> Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
> University of Iowa                  Phone:             319-335-3386
> Department of Statistics and        Fax:               319-335-3017
>    Actuarial Science
> 241 Schaeffer Hall                  email:   luke-tierney at uiowa.edu
> Iowa City, IA 52242                 WWW:  http://www.stat.uiowa.edu
>

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