[datatable-help] Random segfaults

Chris Neff caneff at gmail.com
Thu Dec 15 18:26:48 CET 2011 

Just to come back, it still crashes at seemingly random times.   I'm
reverting back to an earlier version (1.7.1) to see if that fixes my
problem.

On 15 December 2011 11:08, Chris Neff <caneff at gmail.com> wrote:
> Internal build of R. Can't upgrade until they do.  I think it is
> unlikely to see 2.14 any time soon.
>
> On 15 December 2011 10:50, Steve Lianoglou
> <mailinglist.honeypot at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Out of curiosity, is it impossible for you to upgrade R to the latest, or?
>>
>> -steve
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 10:42 AM, Chris Neff <caneff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I always use svn up. I'll reboot and reinstall just to make sure. As
>>> for reproducible, it still doesn't seem to crash in any consistent
>>> place but I'll give it a stronger try with a test data set.
>>>
>>> All 480 tests in test.data.table() completed ok in 7.395sec
>>> R version 2.12.1 (2010-12-16)
>>> Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
>>>
>>> locale:
>>>  [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8       LC_NUMERIC=C
>>> LC_TIME=en_US.utf8        LC_COLLATE=en_US.utf8
>>>  [5] LC_MONETARY=C             LC_MESSAGES=en_US.utf8
>>> LC_PAPER=en_US.utf8       LC_NAME=C
>>>  [9] LC_ADDRESS=C              LC_TELEPHONE=C
>>> LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.utf8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>>>
>>> attached base packages:
>>> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  grid
>>> methods   base
>>>
>>> other attached packages:
>>> [1] hexbin_1.26.0      lattice_0.19-33    RColorBrewer_1.0-5
>>> data.table_1.7.8   ggplot2_0.8.9      reshape_0.8.4
>>> [6] plyr_1.6
>>>
>>> On 15 December 2011 09:52, Matthew Dowle <mdowle at mdowle.plus.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> And you did an 'svn up' (or equivalent)? Grabbing daily tar.gz snapshot
>>>> from R-Forge won't include the fix yet. So svn up, then R CMD build, then
>>>> R CMD INSTALL, right? (Just checking quick basics first).
>>>>
>>>>> Result of test.data.table(), sessionInfo() and confirm it's a clean
>>>>> install after a reboot to make sure no old .so is still knocking around
>>>>> somehow please. Definitely installed to the right library? If it's
>>>>> crashing a lot then it should be reproducible?
>>>>> Still waiting for CRAN check results for 1.7.7 in old-rel. If it's not
>>>>> fixed there either that'll help to know....
>>>>>
>>>>>> Latest SVN version, no alloccol set, still crashing a lot.  I don't
>>>>>> use [<- or $<-, the only times I modify a data.table are with :=  or
>>>>>> by doing DT=merge(DT,blah).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any more info I can provide?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 15 December 2011 08:32, Matthew Dowle <mdowle at mdowle.plus.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> Great fingers and toes crossed. If you could unset alloccol option just
>>>>>>> to
>>>>>>> be sure please, that would be great. You're our best hope of confirming
>>>>>>> it's fixed since it was biting you several times an hour. If you use
>>>>>>> [<-
>>>>>>> or $<- syntax then R will copy via *tmp* and at that point the *tmp*
>>>>>>> data.table is similar to a data.table loaded from disk in that it isn't
>>>>>>> over-allocated anymore, I realised. Also a copy() will lose
>>>>>>> over-allocation until the next column addition.  That 'should' all be
>>>>>>> fine
>>>>>>> now in both <=2.13.2 and >=2.14.0, although the bug was something
>>>>>>> simpler.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1.7.7 is on CRAN now and been built for windows so if CRAN check
>>>>>>> results
>>>>>>> tick over from "ERROR" to "OK" later today (for both windows and mac
>>>>>>> old-rel), and, you're ok too, then it's fixed.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I've updated to the latest SVN version, and I'll be sure to let you
>>>>>>>> know if it still crashes (however I do have the alloccol option set to
>>>>>>>> 1000, so I shouldn't be bumping into reallocation very often). Thanks
>>>>>>>> for finding the bug so fast!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 14 December 2011 19:56, Matthew Dowle <mdowle at mdowle.plus.com>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hm. Sounds like it could be a different problem then if it was in R
>>>>>>>>> 2.14. There have been quite a few fixes since 1.7.4 so if you can
>>>>>>>>> reproduce with 1.7.7 would be great.  Or, we've sometimes seen that
>>>>>>>>> just
>>>>>>>>> after a package upgrade that a clean re-install can often fix things.
>>>>>>>>> Perhaps if the .so was in use by another R process or a zombie, or
>>>>>>>>> something. R seems to report data.table v1.7.4 (say) but it hasn't
>>>>>>>>> fully
>>>>>>>>> installed it properly and is still (perhaps partially) at 1.7.3. So
>>>>>>>>> quit
>>>>>>>>> all R (reboot to clear zombies too perhaps) and try reinstalling
>>>>>>>>> using
>>>>>>>>> R
>>>>>>>>> CMD INSTALL. Next time it happens I mean. Can also run
>>>>>>>>> test.data.table()
>>>>>>>>> to check the install.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Wed, 2011-12-14 at 17:40 +0000, Timothée Carayol wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Hi --
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I have been having many unreproducible bugs with R 2.14, data.table
>>>>>>>>>> 1.7.4 and ubuntu 64 bits about 10 days ago. Data was getting
>>>>>>>>>> corrupted, and then R crashed. I had to go back to data.frame for
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> bits of code affected. I was doing a lot of rather unsafe
>>>>>>>>>> manipulations with row names, rbind and cbinds.
>>>>>>>>>> I didn't file a report, nor signal it, as it was occurring seemingly
>>>>>>>>>> at random, and I was doing operations which aren't really what
>>>>>>>>>> data.table was made for (tons of little manipulations on small
>>>>>>>>>> data);
>>>>>>>>>> still I guess I should now signal that 2.14 didn't fix everything
>>>>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>>>>> me. I do not know whether bugs subsist on post-1.7.4 versions.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> t
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 5:31 PM, Matthew Dowle
>>>>>>>>>> <mdowle at mdowle.plus.com>
>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>>> > Maybe, worth a try. Are you loading any data.table objects from
>>>>>>>>>> disk?
>>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>>> >> 64 bit 2.12.1 linux.
>>>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>>>> >> Is there an option I can set in my session in order to work
>>>>>>>>>> around
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> >> truelength issue? I don't care if I lose some of the
>>>>>>>>>> over-allocation
>>>>>>>>>> >> niceties if it stops things from crashing. Looking at the
>>>>>>>>>> truelength
>>>>>>>>>> >> help, would just doing:
>>>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>>>> >> options(datatable.alloc=quote(1000))
>>>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>>>> >> stop this? I never have more than about 50 columns at a time.
>>>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>>>> >> On 14 December 2011 11:43, Matthew Dowle <mdowle at mdowle.plus.com>
>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>> You're R < 2.14.0, right?  I'm really struggling in R < 2.14.0
>>>>>>>>>> to
>>>>>>>>>> make
>>>>>>>>>> >>> over-allocation work because R only started to initialize
>>>>>>>>>> truelength to
>>>>>>>>>> >>> 0
>>>>>>>>>> >>> in R 2.14.0+. Before that it's unitialized (random). Trouble is
>>>>>>>>>> my
>>>>>>>>>> >>> attempts in R < 2.14.0 to work around that work fine for me in
>>>>>>>>>> linux
>>>>>>>>>> >>> 32bit
>>>>>>>>>> >>> when I test in R 2.13.2, and I even test in 2.12.0 too. I test
>>>>>>>>>> on
>>>>>>>>>> 64bit
>>>>>>>>>> >>> too but just 2.14.0.  CRAN is also showing errors on 2.13.2
>>>>>>>>>> (old-rel)
>>>>>>>>>> >>> for
>>>>>>>>>> >>> both mac and windows.
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>> So, this is a pre-2.14.0 (only) problem that I'll continue to
>>>>>>>>>> try
>>>>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>>>>> >>> fix.
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>> Are you 64bit pre-2.14.0? Which OS?  If you are 64bit linux then
>>>>>>>>>> it
>>>>>>>>>> adds
>>>>>>>>>> >>> weight to me installing pre-2.14.0 on my 64bit instance in an
>>>>>>>>>> effort to
>>>>>>>>>> >>> reproduce.
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> This will be a crappy help request because I can't seem to
>>>>>>>>>> reproduce
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> it, but the past few days I've been getting a lot of segfaults.
>>>>>>>>>>  The
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> only common thing between every crash is that it happens when I
>>>>>>>>>> do
>>>>>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> DT[, z := x]
>>>>>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> where z was not a column that existed in DT before, and x is
>>>>>>>>>> either an
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> existing column of DT or a separate variable, doesn't matter.
>>>>>>>>>>  Beyond
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> that I can't reproduce a set of steps that gets R to crash.
>>>>>>>>>>  This
>>>>>>>>>> is
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> with the latest SVN version.
>>>>>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> Is there more information I can provide to help track this
>>>>>>>>>> down?
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> datatable-help mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> datatable-help at lists.r-forge.r-project.org
>>>>>>>>>> >>>> https://lists.r-forge.r-project.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/datatable-help
>>>>>>>>>> >>>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>>
>>>>>>>>>> >>
>>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> > datatable-help mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> > datatable-help at lists.r-forge.r-project.org
>>>>>>>>>> > https://lists.r-forge.r-project.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/datatable-help
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> datatable-help mailing list
>>>>>>>>> datatable-help at lists.r-forge.r-project.org
>>>>>>>>> https://lists.r-forge.r-project.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/datatable-help
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Steve Lianoglou
>> Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
>>  | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
>>  | Weill Medical College of Cornell University
>> Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact

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