I'm aware that there has already been a similar question here, but the answer is out-of-date. The information I've found in the internet refers to RStudio Server rather than Desktop.
I have limited resources on my Windows 7 x64 PC. I've set the environment variable R_MAX_MEM_SIZE and this is accepted by the RGui (as seen when typing memory_limit()). However, RStudio (Version 0.98.507) ignores this setting and still uses the entire memory of my computer which sometimes leads to crashes of the whole system. How can I limit the amount of memory used by R when running it in RStudio Desktop?
This works for my PC :
# Check memory limit
memory.limit()
# Change memory limit
memory.limit(size = 15000)
If I'm not mistaken, by default the limit on Windows is 4GB. You cans use the cmd proposed by @rischan but with minor modification : rstudio.exe --max-mem-size=8GB.
For information do not forget to clean the cache when starting the execution of a new script. For this use the following cmd :
rm(list=ls()) --> for clean your environment
gc() --> for launch the ''garbage collection''
If your question is how to prevent R from crashing when it reaches the memory limit rather than figuring out why memory_limit() does not work, here are a few options.
If memory_limit()
does not allow you to limit the memory on Windows:
- Check that your version of Windows matches with your version of R (not Rstudio). I.E. if you have a windows x64bits, check that Rstudio is running on R x64bits. This can be done using
Sys.getenv("R_ARCH").
- Clean your environment with
rm(list=ls()) to get rid of previously stored datasets and functions.
- Close Rstudio and R. Press
WINDOWS + R, this opens a Run window. Write cmd and press enter. Navigate to this directory C:\Program Files\RStudio\bin then start rstudio.exe using cd. You may need to adapt this depending on where your RStudio folder is located on your computer. Then write --max-mem-size=4GB and press enter. You will need to repeat this every time you want to start an R session. This may not work on every computer.
- Most computers can handle more memory than what is previously installed. Check what is the maximum memory capacity that your computer can handle, and consider buying more physical RAM.
- Press
Ctrl+Alt+Del and select task manager. Under Processes, check which program is using significant amounts of memory and whether you can end them safely. Windows users tend to accumulate unnecessary programs.
