bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #37636, Octave/gnuplot consuming too much...

 
 

bug #37636: Octave/gnuplot consuming too much memory with large files

Submitter:  Rodrigo <rudregues>
Submitted:  Sat 27 Oct 2012 01:53:42 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  Plotting with gnuplot Severity:  3 - Normal
Priority:  5 - Normal Item Group:  Performance
Status:  Wont Fix Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Rodrigo Open/Closed:  * Closed
Release:  * 3.6.3 Operating System:  * GNU/Linux
Fixed Release:  None Planned Release:  None
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Tue 30 Oct 2012 04:39:34 AM UTC, comment #3: 

The gnuplot interface uses pipes for communication between Octave and the gnuplot process and it is always going to be slow.  This is why Octave development is shifting towards using the native FLTK interface.

To use the fltk toolkit by default, just put the command 'graphics_toolkit fltk' in your ~/.octaverc file.

Rik <rik5>
Group administrator
Sat 27 Oct 2012 08:50:29 PM UTC, comment #2: 

Mike, your solution worked flawlessly today, with those two files. Then I tried to plot with mesh for 3D it and worked too. Thank you very much.

Both cases, 2D and 3D plot, was very, VERY quicker than with gnuplot. And both cases, did not consume 10% of the RAM gnuplot consumed. There is something really strange with gnuplot....

Is there a way to turn fltk plotting default, without using "graphics_toolkit fltk" command every time I start octave?

Documentation about plotting with fltk in octave is very few, but I've found a limitation with fltk compared to gnuplot:
"Caution: The FLTK toolkit uses single precision variables internally which limits the maximum value that can be displayed to approximately 10^38. If your data contains larger values you must use the gnuplot toolkit which supports values up to 10^308."
http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/Introduction-to-Plotting.html
Is there any other limitation I must know?

Rodrigo <rudregues>
Sat 27 Oct 2012 03:26:12 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Is using FLTK an acceptable solution for you?

I downloaded your file and ran:


octave:1> load 50.mat
octave:2> sizeof (x)
ans =  161280000
octave:3> graphics_toolkit fltk
octave:4> plot (x)


Memory usage of octave is 223.4 MB. There are no gnuplot processes so that is the total memory consumption.

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Sat 27 Oct 2012 01:53:42 AM UTC, original submission:  

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 64 bits

After downloaded the file(102.4MB)
http://aquarius.ime.eb.br/~apolin/CorpusCAEx2011/OriginalSignals/300m_MicArray1/50.mat
octave> load "50.mat"
octave>  plot(x(:,:))
Verifying gnome system monitor by processes and sorting by RAM usage, can see three resource hungry processes:
-gnuplot using 2.4GB
-gnuplot_x11 using 1.5GB
-octave using 247.8MB

Cannot plot this other whole file(223MB):
http://aquarius.ime.eb.br/~apolin/CorpusCAEx2011/OriginalSignals/300m_MicArray1/FAL.mat
It causes memory leak. Just can plot parts of this file.

There is no problem with the .mat files, for they have worked with both windows and linux matlab version, consuming much less RAM in both systems.

Rodrigo <rudregues>

 

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  • -email is unavailable- added by jordigh (Updated the item)
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    Follow 3 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2012-10-30 jordigh StatusNone Wont Fix
    2012-10-30 rik5 Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2012-10-27 rudregues Carbon-Copy- Added -email is unavailable-

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