If I run foreach... %dopar%
without registering a cluster, foreach raises a warning, and executes the code sequentially:
library("doParallel")
foreach(i=1:3) %dopar%
sqrt(i)
Yields:
Warning message:
executing %dopar% sequentially: no parallel backend registered
However, if I run this same code after starting, registering, and stopping a cluster, it fails:
cl <- makeCluster(2)
registerDoParallel(cl)
stopCluster(cl)
rm(cl)
foreach(i=1:3) %dopar%
sqrt(i)
Yields:
Error in summary.connection(connection) : invalid connection
Is there an opposite of registerDoParallel()
that cleans up the cluster registration? Or am I stuck with the ghost of the old cluster until I re-start my R session?
/edit: some googling reveals the bumphunter:::foreachCleanup()
function in the bumphunter Biocondoctor package:
function ()
{
if (exists(".revoDoParCluster", where = doParallel:::.options)) {
if (!is.null(doParallel:::.options$.revoDoParCluster))
stopCluster(doParallel:::.options$.revoDoParCluster)
remove(".revoDoParCluster", envir = doParallel:::.options)
}
}
<environment: namespace:bumphunter>
However, this function doesn't seem to fix the problem.
library(bumphunter)
cl <- makeCluster(2)
registerDoParallel(cl)
stopCluster(cl)
rm(cl)
bumphunter:::foreachCleanup()
foreach(i=1:3) %dopar%
sqrt(i)
Where does foreach keep the information on the registered cluster?
The only official way to "unregister" a foreach backend is to register the sequential backend:
registerDoSEQ()
This makes sense to me because you're supposed to declare which backend to use, so I didn't see any point in providing a way to "undeclare" which backend to use. Instead, you declare that you want to use the sequential backend, which is the default.
I originally considered including an "unregister" function, but since I couldn't convince myself that it was useful, I decided to leave it out since it's much easier to add a function than to remove one.
That being said, I think all you need to do is to remove all of the variables from foreach:::.foreachGlobals
which is where foreach keeps all of its state:
unregister <- function() {
env <- foreach:::.foreachGlobals
rm(list=ls(name=env), pos=env)
}
After calling this function, any parallel backend will be deregistered and the warning will be issued again if %dopar%
is called.