Intermittent segfaults when geom_histogram has >128 groups

histfailure.r

library(ggplot2)

set.seed(12345678)

sessionInfo()
# Loading required package: methods
# R version 3.2.0 Patched (2015-05-13 r68364)
# Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)
# Running under: OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion)

# locale:
# [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

# attached base packages:
# [1] methods   stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  base     

# other attached packages:
# [1] ggplot2_1.0.1

# loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
#  [1] MASS_7.3-40      colorspace_1.2-6 scales_0.2.4     magrittr_1.5    
#  [5] plyr_1.8.2       tools_3.2.0      gtable_0.1.2     reshape2_1.4.1  
#  [9] Rcpp_0.11.6      stringi_0.4-1    grid_3.2.0       stringr_1.0.0   
# [13] digest_0.6.8     proto_0.3-10     munsell_0.4.2   

littledata = data.frame(x=1:128, y=rlnorm(128))
bigdata = data.frame(x=1:129, y=rlnorm(129))


# plots as expected
lp = ggplot(littledata, aes(x, y))+geom_histogram(stat="identity", binwidth=1)

for (i in 1:20){
	print(i)
	try(plot(lp+ggtitle(paste("128 points", i))))
}


# always warns "position_stack requires constant width", 
# intermittently throws error, hangs, or segfaults.
# See below for details.
bp = ggplot(bigdata, aes(x, y))+geom_histogram(stat="identity", binwidth=1)

for(i in 1:20){
 	print(i)
	try(plot(bp+ggtitle(paste("129 points", i))))
}

## End demo code

## As noted above, the same plotting code produces different error messages
## depending on RNG state. I show here output from three runs on my machine: 

## with set.seed(12345678) as above:

# zsh> Rscript --vanilla histfailure.r
# Loading required package: methods
# R version 3.2.0 Patched (2015-05-13 r68364)
# Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)
# Running under: OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion)

# locale:
# [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

# attached base packages:
# [1] methods   stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  base     

# other attached packages:
# [1] ggplot2_1.0.1

# loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
#  [1] MASS_7.3-40      colorspace_1.2-6 scales_0.2.4     magrittr_1.5    
#  [5] plyr_1.8.2       tools_3.2.0      gtable_0.1.2     reshape2_1.4.1  
#  [9] Rcpp_0.11.6      stringi_0.4-1    grid_3.2.0       stringr_1.0.0   
# [13] digest_0.6.8     proto_0.3-10     munsell_0.4.2   
# [1] 1
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# Error : Results must be all atomic, or all data frames
# In addition: There were 14 warnings (use warnings() to see them)
# [1] 15
# [1] 16
# [1] 17
# Error : arguments imply differing number of rows: 136, 129
# In addition: Warning messages:
# 1: In loop_apply(n, do.ply) :
#   position_stack requires constant width: output may be incorrect
# 2: In loop_apply(n, do.ply) :
#   position_stack requires constant width: output may be incorrect
# 3: In loop_apply(n, do.ply) :
#   position_stack requires constant width: output may be incorrect
# [1] 18
# [1] 19
# [1] 20
# Warning messages:
# 1: In loop_apply(n, do.ply) :
#   position_stack requires constant width: output may be incorrect
# 2: In loop_apply(n, do.ply) :
#   position_stack requires constant width: output may be incorrect
# 3: In loop_apply(n, do.ply) :
#   position_stack requires constant width: output may be incorrect
# zsh>


## with set.seed(12):

# zsh> Rscript --vanilla histfailure.r 
# Loading required package: methods
# R version 3.2.0 Patched (2015-05-13 r68364)
# Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)
# Running under: OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion)

# locale:
# [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

# attached base packages:
# [1] methods   stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  base     

# other attached packages:
# [1] ggplot2_1.0.1

# loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
#  [1] MASS_7.3-40      colorspace_1.2-6 scales_0.2.4     magrittr_1.5    
#  [5] plyr_1.8.2       tools_3.2.0      gtable_0.1.2     reshape2_1.4.1  
#  [9] Rcpp_0.11.6      stringi_0.4-1    grid_3.2.0       stringr_1.0.0   
# [13] digest_0.6.8     proto_0.3-10     munsell_0.4.2   
# [1] 1
# [1] 2
# [1] 3
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# [1] 5
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#  *** caught segfault ***
# address 0x0, cause 'unknown'

# Traceback:
#  1: dim(x)
#  2: FUN(X[[i]], ...)
#  3: lapply(res, NROW)
#  4: unlist(lapply(res, NROW))
#  5: list_to_dataframe(res, attr(.data, "split_labels"), .id, id_as_factor)
#  6: ldply(.data = pieces, .fun = .fun, ..., .progress = .progress,     .inform = .inform, .parallel = .parallel, .paropts = .paropts)
#  7: ddply(data, "xmin", strategy, width = width)
#  8: collide(data, .$width, .$my_name(), pos_stack)
#  9: get(x, envir = this, inherits = inh)(this, ...)
# 10: .$position$adjust(data)
# 11: .fun(piece, ...)
# 12: (function (i) {    piece <- pieces[[i]]    if (.inform) {        res <- try(.fun(piece, ...))        if (inherits(res, "try-error")) {            piece <- paste(capture.output(print(piece)), collapse = "\n")            stop("with piece ", i, ": \n", piece, call. = FALSE)        }    }    else {        res <- .fun(piece, ...)    }    progress$step()    res})(1L)
# 13: eval(substitute(expr), envir, enclos)
# 14: evalq((function (i) {    piece <- pieces[[i]]    if (.inform) {        res <- try(.fun(piece, ...))        if (inherits(res, "try-error")) {            piece <- paste(capture.output(print(piece)), collapse = "\n")            stop("with piece ", i, ": \n", piece, call. = FALSE)        }    }    else {        res <- .fun(piece, ...)    }    progress$step()    res})(1L), <environment>)
# 15: doTryCatch(return(expr), name, parentenv, handler)
# 16: tryCatchOne(expr, names, parentenv, handlers[[1L]])
# 17: tryCatchList(expr, classes, parentenv, handlers)
# 18: tryCatch(evalq((function (i) {    piece <- pieces[[i]]    if (.inform) {        res <- try(.fun(piece, ...))        if (inherits(res, "try-error")) {            piece <- paste(capture.output(print(piece)), collapse = "\n")            stop("with piece ", i, ": \n", piece, call. = FALSE)        }    }    else {        res <- .fun(piece, ...)    }    progress$step()    res})(1L), <environment>), error = .rcpp_error_recorder)
# 19: withCallingHandlers(tryCatch(evalq((function (i) {    piece <- pieces[[i]]    if (.inform) {        res <- try(.fun(piece, ...))        if (inherits(res, "try-error")) {            piece <- paste(capture.output(print(piece)), collapse = "\n")            stop("with piece ", i, ": \n", piece, call. = FALSE)        }    }    else {        res <- .fun(piece, ...)    }    progress$step()    res})(1L), <environment>), error = .rcpp_error_recorder), warning = .rcpp_warning_recorder)
# aborting ...
# zsh: segmentation fault  Rscript --vanilla histfailure.r
# zsh>

## With set.seed(3000):
# zsh> Rscript --vanilla histfailure.r
# Loading required package: methods
# R version 3.2.0 Patched (2015-05-13 r68364)
# Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0 (64-bit)
# Running under: OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion)

# locale:
# [1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

# attached base packages:
# [1] methods   stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  base     

# other attached packages:
# [1] ggplot2_1.0.1

# loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
#  [1] MASS_7.3-40      colorspace_1.2-6 scales_0.2.4     magrittr_1.5    
#  [5] plyr_1.8.2       tools_3.2.0      gtable_0.1.2     reshape2_1.4.1  
#  [9] Rcpp_0.11.6      stringi_0.4-1    grid_3.2.0       stringr_1.0.0   
# [13] digest_0.6.8     proto_0.3-10     munsell_0.4.2   
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# [1] 1
# <R hangs here until I kill the process>

The warnings are probably related to this previously-reported geom_bar issue, but I'm not claiming (yet) that the errors come from the same place.

On inspection, this isn't specific to geom_histogram: Switching to geom_bar produces the same behavior, though it does (predictably) change the pattern of which plots give which errors from a given seed value.

Also probably related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29710657/ggplot2-trying-to-make-repeated-stacked-area-graph-getting-inconsistent-errors