[R] Error: cannot allocate vector of size 3.4 Gb

[Marc Schwartz]

On Nov 6, 2009, at 4:19 PM, Peng Yu wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 3:39 PM, Charlie Sharpsteen <chuck at sharpsteen.net 
> > wrote:
>> On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Peng Yu <pengyu.ut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I run R on a linux machine that has 8GB memory. But R gives me an
>>> error "Error: cannot allocate vector of size 3.4 Gb". I'm wondering
>>> why it can not allocate 3.4 Gb on a 8GB memory machine. How to fix  
>>> the
>>> problem?
>>
>> Is it 32-bit R or 64-bit R?
>>
>> Are you running any other programs besides R?
>>
>> How far into your data processing does the error occur?
>>
>> The more statements you execute, the more "fragmented" R's available
>> memory pool becomes.  A 3.4 Gb chunk may no longer be available.
>
> I'm pretty sure it is 64-bit R. But I need to double check. What
> command I should use to check?
>
> It seems that it didn't do anything but just read a lot of files
> before it showed up the above errors.


Check the output of:

  .Machine$sizeof.pointer

If it is 4, R was built as 32 bit, if it is 8, R was built as 64 bit.   
See ?.Machine for more information.

You can also check:

  R.version$arch

and

  .Platform$r_arch

which for 64 bit should show x86_64.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz