Styjun

I'm aware that there has already been a similar question here, but the answer is out-of-date.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?

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 FilesRStudiobin 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.

This works for my PC :

 # Check memory limit
 memory.limit()
 # Change memory limit
 memory.limit(size = 15000)