Hi all, Thanks Simon and Duncan for the help. Sorry to be dense, but I'm still unsure how to interrupt such processes. Here's an example:
for (i in 1:100000){ a <- matrix(rnorm(100000*100000),ncol=100000) b <- svd(a) } If you run this, R will hang (i.e., it's a legitimate execution, it will just take a really long time to execute). The most obvious solution is to write code that doesn't do unintended things, but that's not always possible. Is there a way to interrupt it? I tried: kill -s INT <PID> and at least on Mac it had no effect. Thanks again, Matt On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:19 PM, Simon Urbanek <simon.urba...@r-project.org> wrote: > > On Mar 15, 2010, at 14:42 , Adam D. I. Kramer wrote: > >> +1--this is the single most-annoying issue with R that I know of. >> >> My usual solution, after accomplishing nothing as R spins idly for a >> couple >> hours, is to kill the process and lose any un-saved work. save.history() >> is >> my friend, but is a big delay when you work with big data sets as I do, so >> I >> don't run it after every command. >> >> I have cc'd r-help here, however, because I experience this problem with >> non-OSX R as well...when I run it in Linux or from the OSX command-line (I >> compile R for Darwin without aqua/R-framework), the same thing happens. >> >> Is there some way around this? Is this a known problem? >> > > "Hanging" for a long period of time is usually caused by poorly written > C/Fortran code. You can always interrupt R as long as it is in the R code. > Once you load a package that uses native code (C/Fortran/..) you have to > rely on the sanity of the developer to call R_CheckUserInterrupt() or > rchkusr() often enough (see 6.12 in R-ext). If you have some particular > package that does not do that, I would suggest alerting the author. By > definition this requires cooperation from authors, because interrupting > random code forcefully (as it was possible many years ago) creates leaks and > unstable states. > > Cheers, > Simon > > > >> Google searching suggests no solution, timeline, or anything, but the >> problem has been annoying users for at least twelve years: >> http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/9704/0151.html >> >> Cordially, >> Adam >> >> On Mon, 15 Mar 2010, Matthew Keller wrote: >> >>> HI all, >>> >>> Apologies for this question. I'm sure it's been asked many times, but >>> despite 20 minutes of looking, I can't find the answer. I never use >>> the GUI, I use emacs, but my postdoc does, so I don't know what to >>> tell her about the following: >>> >>> Occasionally she'll mess up in her code and cause R to hang >>> indefinitely (e.g., R is trying to do something that will take days). >>> In these situations, is there an option other than killing R (and the >>> work you've done on your script to that point)? >>> >>> Thank you, >>> >>> Matthew Keller >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Matthew C Keller >>> Asst. Professor of Psychology >>> University of Colorado at Boulder >>> www.matthewckeller.com >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> R-SIG-Mac mailing list >>> r-sig-...@stat.math.ethz.ch >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> R-SIG-Mac mailing list >> r-sig-...@stat.math.ethz.ch >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac >> >> > > -- Matthew C Keller Asst. Professor of Psychology University of Colorado at Boulder www.matthewckeller.com ______________________________________________ R-help@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.