Rcppparallel bootstrap - bootstrap-modal

Question

I presume, or rather hope, that I have a singular fixable problem or perhaps many smaller ones and should give up. Either way I am relatively new to Rcpp and extremely uninformed on parallel computation and can't find a solution online.
The problem is typically, a 'fatal error' in R or R gets stuck in a loop, something like 5 minuets for 10 iterations, when the non-parallel version will do 5K iterations in the same time, roughly speaking.
As this algorithm fits into a much larger project I call on several other functions, these are all in Rcpp and I rewrote them with only 'arma' objects as that seemed to help other people, here. I also ran the optimization part with a 'heat map' optimizer I wrote in Rcpp, again exclusively in 'arma' without improvement - I should also point out this returned as an 'arma::vec'.
// [[Rcpp::depends("RcppArmadillo")]]
// [[Rcpp::depends("RcppParallel")]]
#include <RcppArmadillo.h>
#include <RcppParallel.h>
using namespace Rcpp;
using namespace std;
using namespace arma;
using namespace RcppParallel;
struct Boot_Worker : public Worker {
//Generate Inputs
// Source vector to keep track of the number of bootstraps
const arma::vec Boot_reps;
// Initial non-linear theta parameter values
const arma::vec init_val;
// Decimal date vector
const arma::colvec T_series;
// Generate the price series observational vector
const arma::colvec Y_est;
const arma::colvec Y_res;
// Generate the optimization constants
const arma::mat U;
const arma::colvec C;
const int N;
// Generate Output Matrix
arma::mat Boots_out;
// Initialize with the proper input and output
Boot_Worker( const arma::vec Boot_reps, const arma::vec init_val, const arma::colvec T_series, const arma::colvec Y_est, const arma::colvec Y_res, const arma::mat U, const arma::colvec C, const int N, arma::mat Boots_out)
: Boot_reps(Boot_reps), init_val(init_val), T_series(T_series), Y_est(Y_est), Y_res(Y_res), U(U), C(C), N(N), Boots_out(Boots_out) {}
void operator()(std::size_t begin, std::size_t end){
//load necessary stuffs from around
Rcpp::Environment stats("package:stats");
Rcpp::Function constrOptim = stats["constrOptim"];
Rcpp::Function SDK_pred_mad( "SDK_pred_mad");
arma::mat fake_data(N,2);
arma::colvec index(N);
for(unsigned int i = begin; i < end; i ++){
// Need a nested loop to create and fill the fake data matrix
arma::vec pool = arma::regspace(0, N-1) ;
std::random_shuffle(pool.begin(), pool.end());
for(int k = 0; k <= N-1; k++){
fake_data(k, 0) = Y_est[k] + Y_res[ pool[k] ];
fake_data(k, 1) = T_series[k];
}
// Call the optimization
Rcpp::List opt_results = constrOptim(Rcpp::_["theta"] = init_val,
Rcpp::_["f"] = SDK_pred_mad,
Rcpp::_["data_in"] = fake_data,
Rcpp::_["grad"] = "NULL",
Rcpp::_["method"] = "Nelder-Mead",
Rcpp::_["ui"] = U,
Rcpp::_["ci"] = C );
/// fill the output matrix ///
// need to create an place holder arma vector for the parameter output
arma::vec opt_param = Rcpp::as<arma::vec>(opt_results[0]);
Boots_out(i, 0) = opt_param[0];
Boots_out(i, 1) = opt_param[1];
Boots_out(i, 2) = opt_param[2];
// for the cost function value at optimization
arma::vec opt_value = Rcpp::as<arma::vec>(opt_results[1]);
Boots_out(i, 3) = opt_value[0];
// for the number of function calls (?)
arma::vec counts = Rcpp::as<arma::vec>(opt_results[2]);
Boots_out(i, 4) = counts[0];
// for thhe convergence code
arma::vec convergence = Rcpp::as<arma::vec>(opt_results[3]);
Boots_out(i, 5) = convergence[0];
}
}
};
// [[Rcpp::export]]
arma::mat SDK_boots_test(arma::vec init_val, arma::mat data_in, int boots_n){
//First establish theta_sp, estimate and residuals
const int N = arma::size(data_in)[0];
// Create the constraints for the constrained optimization
// Make a boundry boundry condition matrix of the form Ui*theta - ci >= 0
arma::mat U(6, 3);
U(0, 0) = 1;
U(1, 0) = -1;
U(2, 0) = 0;
U(3, 0) = 0;
U(4, 0) = 0;
U(5, 0) = 0;
U(0, 1) = 0;
U(1, 1) = 0;
U(2, 1) = 1;
U(3, 1) = -1;
U(4, 1) = 0;
U(5, 1) = 0;
U(0, 2) = 0;
U(1, 2) = 0;
U(2, 2) = 0;
U(3, 2) = 0;
U(4, 2) = 1;
U(5, 2) = -1;
arma::colvec C(6);
C[0] = 0;
C[1] = -data_in(N-1, 9)-0.5;
C[2] = 0;
C[3] = -3;
C[4] = 0;
C[5] = -50;
Rcpp::Function SDK_est( "SDK_est");
Rcpp::Function SDK_res( "SDK_res");
arma::vec Y_est = as<arma::vec>(SDK_est(init_val, data_in));
arma::vec Y_res = as<arma::vec>(SDK_res(init_val, data_in));
// Generate feed items for the Bootstrap Worker
arma::vec T_series = data_in( span(0, N-1), 9);
arma::vec Boots_reps(boots_n+1);
// Allocate the output matrix
arma::mat Boots_out(boots_n, 6);
// Pass input and output the Bootstrap Worker
Boot_Worker Boot_Worker(Boots_reps, init_val, T_series, Y_est, Y_res, U, C, N, Boots_out);
// Now finnaly call the parallel for loop
parallelFor(0, Boots_reps.size(), Boot_Worker);
return Boots_out;
}
So I wrote back in my 'heat algorithm' to solve the optimization, this is entirely in Rcpp-armadillo, this simplifies the code massively as the constraints are written into the optimizer. Additionally, I removed the randomization, so it just has to solve the same optimization; just to see if that was the only problem. Without fail I am still having the same 'fatal error'.
as it stands here is code:
// [[Rcpp::depends("RcppArmadillo")]]
// [[Rcpp::depends("RcppParallel")]]
#include <RcppArmadillo.h>
#include <RcppParallel.h>
#include <random>
using namespace Rcpp;
using namespace std;
using namespace arma;
using namespace RcppParallel;
struct Boot_Worker : public Worker {
//Generate Inputs
// Source vector to keep track of the number of bootstraps
const arma::vec Boot_reps;
// Initial non-linear theta parameter values
const arma::vec init_val;
// Decimal date vector
const arma::colvec T_series;
// Generate the price series observational vector
const arma::colvec Y_est;
const arma::colvec Y_res;
const int N;
// Generate Output Matrix
arma::mat Boots_out;
// Initialize with the proper input and output
Boot_Worker( const arma::vec Boot_reps, const arma::vec init_val, const arma::colvec T_series, const arma::colvec Y_est, const arma::colvec Y_res, const int N, arma::mat Boots_out)
: Boot_reps(Boot_reps), init_val(init_val), T_series(T_series), Y_est(Y_est), Y_res(Y_res), N(N), Boots_out(Boots_out) {}
void operator()(std::size_t begin, std::size_t end){
//load necessary stuffs from around
Rcpp::Function SDK_heat( "SDK_heat");
arma::mat fake_data(N,2);
arma::colvec index(N);
for(unsigned int i = begin; i < end; i ++){
// Need a nested loop to create and fill the fake data matrix
//arma::vec pool = arma::shuffle( arma::regspace(0, N-1) );
for(int k = 0; k <= N-1; k++){
fake_data(k, 0) = Y_est[k] + Y_res[ k ];
//fake_data(k, 0) = Y_est[k] + Y_res[ pool[k] ];
fake_data(k, 1) = T_series[k];
}
// Call the optimization
arma::vec opt_results = Rcpp::as<arma::vec>( SDK_heat(Rcpp::_["data_in"] = fake_data, Rcpp::_["tol"] = 0.1) );
/// fill the output matrix ///
// need to create an place holder arma vector for the parameter output
Boots_out(i, 0) = opt_results[0];
Boots_out(i, 1) = opt_results[1];
Boots_out(i, 2) = opt_results[2];
// for the cost function value at optimization
Boots_out(i, 3) = opt_results[3];
}
}
};
// [[Rcpp::export]]
arma::mat SDK_boots_test(arma::vec init_val, arma::mat data_in, int boots_n){
//First establish theta_sp, estimate and residuals
const int N = arma::size(data_in)[0];
Rcpp::Function SDK_est( "SDK_est");
Rcpp::Function SDK_res( "SDK_res");
const arma::vec Y_est = as<arma::vec>(SDK_est(init_val, data_in));
const arma::vec Y_res = as<arma::vec>(SDK_res(init_val, data_in));
// Generate feed items for the Bootstrap Worker
const arma::vec T_series = data_in( span(0, N-1), 9);
arma::vec Boots_reps(boots_n+1);
// Allocate the output matrix
arma::mat Boots_out(boots_n, 4);
// Pass input and output the Bootstrap Worker
Boot_Worker Boot_Worker(Boots_reps, init_val, T_series, Y_est, Y_res, N, Boots_out);
// Now finnaly call the parallel for loop
parallelFor(0, Boots_reps.size(), Boot_Worker);
return Boots_out;
}

Answer 1

Looking at your code I see the following:
struct Boot_Worker : public Worker {
[...]
void operator()(std::size_t begin, std::size_t end){
//load necessary stuffs from around
Rcpp::Environment stats("package:stats");
Rcpp::Function constrOptim = stats["constrOptim"];
Rcpp::Function SDK_pred_mad( "SDK_pred_mad");
[...]
// Call the optimization
Rcpp::List opt_results = constrOptim(Rcpp::_["theta"] = init_val,
Rcpp::_["f"] = SDK_pred_mad,
Rcpp::_["data_in"] = fake_data,
Rcpp::_["grad"] = "NULL",
Rcpp::_["method"] = "Nelder-Mead",
Rcpp::_["ui"] = U,
Rcpp::_["ci"] = C );
You are calling an R function from a multi-threaded C++ context. That's something you should not do. R is single-threaded so this will lead to undefined behavior or crashes:
API Restrictions
The code that you write within parallel workers should not call the R or Rcpp API in any fashion. This is because R is single-threaded and concurrent interaction with it’s data structures can cause crashes and other undefined behavior. Here is the official guidance from Writing R Extensions:
Calling any of the R API from threaded code is ‘for experts only’: they will need to read the source code to determine if it is thread-safe. In particular, code which makes use of the stack-checking mechanism must not be called from threaded code.
Besides, calling back to R from C++ even in a single threaded context is not the best thing you can do for performance. It should be more efficient to use a optimization library that offers a direct C(++) interface. One possibility might be the development version of nlopt, c.f. this issue for a discussion and references to examples. In addition, std::random_shuffle is not only deprecated in C++14 and removed from C++17, but it is also not thread-safe.
In your second example, you say that the function SDK_heat is actually implemented in C++. In that case you can call it directly:
Remove importing the corresponding R function, i.e. the Rcpp::Function SDK_heat( "SDK_heat");
Make sure that the compiler knows the declaration of the C++ function and that the linker has the actual function:
Quick and dirty: Copy the function definition into your cpp file before the definition of BootWorker.
For a cleaner approach, see section "1.10 Sharing code" in the Rcpp attributes vignette
Call the function like any other C++ function, i.e. using positional arguments with types compatible to the function declaration.
All this assumes you are using sourceCpp as indicated by your usage of [[Rcpp::depends(...)]]. You are reaching a complexity that warrants to build a package from this.