On 04/07/2017 8:46 AM, Nathan Sosnovske wrote:
This doesn't really strike me as a bug. Lots of (most?) programming languages
expect you to handle this as an error condition. If you tried the same thing in
C you would get the same error.
The bug is that there is no error signalled. It looks as though the
write succeeded, when it didn't.
Duncan Murdoch
-----Original Message-----
From: R-devel [mailto:r-devel-boun...@r-project.org] On Behalf Of Lipatz
Jean-Luc
Sent: Tuesday, July 4, 2017 5:40 AM
To: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.dun...@gmail.com>
Cc: r-devel@r-project.org
Subject: Re: [Rd] write.csv
I would really like the bug fixed. At least this one, because I know people in
my institute using this function.
I understand your arguments about open source, but I also saw in this mail list
a proposal for a fix for this bug for which there were no answer from the
people who are able to include it in the distribution. It looks like if there
were interesting bugs and the other ones.
I don't understand the other arguments : the example was reproduced with a
simple USB key and you cannot state that a disk will eternally be empty enough,
specially when it has several users.
JLL
-----Message d'origine-----
De : Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch.dun...@gmail.com] Envoyé : mardi 4 juillet
2017 14:24 À : Lipatz Jean-Luc; r-devel@r-project.org Objet : Re: [Rd] write.csv
On 04/07/2017 5:40 AM, Lipatz Jean-Luc wrote:
Hi all,
I am currently studying how to generalize the usage of R in my statistical
institute and I encountered a problem that I cannot declare on bugzilla (cannot
understand why).
Bugzilla was badly abused by spammers last year, so you need to have your
account created manually by one of the admins to post there. Write to me
privately if you'd like me to create an account for you. (If you want it
attached to a different email address, that's fine.)
Sorry for trying this mailing list but I am really worried about the problem
itself and the possible implications in using R in a professionnal data
production context.
The issue about 'write.csv' is that it just doesn't check if there is enough
space on disk and doesn't report failure to write data.
Example (R 3.4.0 windows 32 bits, but I reproduced the problem with
older versions and under Mac OS/X)
fwrite(as.list(1:1000000),"G:/Test")
Error in fwrite(as.list(1:1e+06), "G:/Test") :
No space left on device: 'G:/Test'
write.csv(1:1000000,"G:/Test")
I have a big concern here, because it means that you could save some important
data at one point of time and discover a long time after that you actually lost
them.
> I suppose that the fix is relatively straightforward, but how can we be sure
that there is no another function with the same bad properties?
R is open source. You could work out the patch for this bug, and in the
process see the pattern of coding that leads to it. Then you'll know if other
functions use the same buggy pattern.
Is the lesson that you should not use a R function, even from the core, without
having personnally tested it against extreme conditions?
I think the answer to that is yes. Most people never write such big files that
they fill their disk: if they did, all sorts of things would go wrong on their
systems. So this kind of extreme condition isn't often tested. It's not easy
to test in a platform independent way: R would need to be able to create a
volume with a small capacity. That's a very system-dependent thing to do.
And wouldn't it be the work of the developpers to do such elementary tests?
Again, R is open source. You can and should contribute code (and therefore
become one of the developers) if you are working in unusual conditions.
R states quite clearly in the welcome message every time it starts: "R is free
software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY." This is essentially the same lack
of warranty that you get with commercial software, though it's stated a lot more clearly.
Duncan Murdoch
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