Memory error on windows vista with .mod files

Dynare help (legacy posts)
1

Just installed Octave 3.0.5 and Dynare 4.0.4. Octave works OK on simple scripts. When I try to run any .mod (example1.mod ramst.mod) file I get the error message "error: memory exhausted or requested size too large for range of

Octave’s index type – trying to return to prompt" Has anyone else had this problem? Have a windows vista machine with 2 GBytes. Thanks for any help you might be able to give.

Ron

2

Hi,

Please try the new Octave 3.2.2 which has been recently released.
The Wiki page on Dynare for Octave has been updated accordingly:
dynare.org/DynareWiki/DynareOctave

I know that older versions of Octave had problems with Windows Vista. Maybe this new release will help.

Best,

S.V.

3

Installed Octave 3.2.2. Now the problem seems to be at line 84 in dynare.m in command dir(fname) -> returns 0 and throws the error. Tried different dynare calls with and without the extension .mod. and calling dir from the DOS window. Something appears to be wrong with the DOS dir command. The path command shows the correct path to C:\dynare\4.0.4\matlab where the .mod files are located. Thanks for any help.

Ron

4

My understanding is that it is an Octave issue, not a Dynare issue.

Your problem is described in this thread, and a workaround is given:
nabble.com/dir-on-Octave-3.2 … 76418.html

It is specific to Windows Vista, and does not appear on Windows XP.

What I don’t understand is that this bug is supposed to be fixed in 3.2.2.
Excerpt from the changelog of 3.2.2:

Maybe you could post a message on the octave-dev mailing list:
lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/octave-dev

It is difficult for me to deal with your problem, since I don’t have any Windows Vista installed.

Best,

Sébastien

5

Thanks for the reply. I already discovered the fix in the link and tried it. It doesn’t work on my machine. I guess Dynare with Octave is dead on Vista since it is unable to parse the *.mod file. Probably ought to alert people on the install page before they waste their time.

Ron

6

You’re so pessimistic! Dynare for Octave on Vista is certainly not dead.

It looks like you’ve hit an Octave bug which has not yet been fixed. So we need to submit a bug report to Octave people. They are quite responsive and dynamic, so this can be done quickly.

I’m going to look for someone who has a Vista machine to do that.

In order to help me, could you send me the exact error message that you’re getting with Dynare 4.0.4 and Octave 3.2.2 (and with which MOD file)?

Thanks,

Sébastien

7

Sorry about the negativity. Been so long since I used a DOS window I can’t remember how to save the output. So copying from the DOS window:

dynare((‘RBC_Monop_Det’)

…

error: c:\dynare\4.0.4\matlab\dynare.m at line 85. column 3

…

error apparently has to do with %T

but the fix doesn’t work at least on my machine. line 85 call is to dir.m and it apparently hanges with on dir.m line 117 where strftime is called. I substituted the new dir.m for the old one (which contains %T) but it still dosn’t work at least on my machine. Thanks for your kind reply.

Ron

8

I have tested with a friend who has Windows Vista, with Octave 3.2.2 and Dynare 4.0.4.

It works fine with ramst.mod and example1.mod.

So I suppose your problem is specific to your machine, unless I’m missing something. Maybe you should try to reinstall Octave and Dynare?
Also, please make a complete copy of the crash that you encounter. It is located in the .log file created by Dynare.

Best,

9

Your friend must have a better Vista than I have, Nothing works. Maybe some other Vista users can help. Thanks

Ron

10

Please post the MOD file which generates the error, and the complete log file. I can’t help without that.

Best,

11

Hi all,

I have quite the same problem with dynare 4.0.4 and octave 3.2.2.

There isn’t any *.mod files in my dynare directories after instalation.
So, I create a subdirectory “examples” in c:/dynare/4.0.4/matlab/
I put in this folder the file “rbc.mod”: dynare.org/manual/ch05.html

screen shot:
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/859/bug3z.jpg

What did I do wrong?

best,

12

I thought that octave (or dynare?) didn’t find the file directory.
So, I tried this: dynare (‘c:/dynare/4.0.4/matlab/examples/rbc.mod’)
The result is better but it doesn’t work :frowning:

screen shot:
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/6485/bug4.jpg

Please help me :’(

best,

13

Hi,

I guess it has to do with your using slashes instead of anti-slashes in paths. Slashes are used under Unix, while anti-slashes are used under Windows.

Try with addpath(‘c:\dynare\4.0.4\matlab’) instead of addpath(‘c:/dynare/4.0.4/matlab’)

Best

14

Hi,
Thank you for your answer.
It still doesn’t work with anti-slashes.
There is the same error with my other PC (with XP).
Perhap’s I did something wrong when I installed octave or dynare :confused:

best,

15

Hi

I missed something when I read your message.

Actually you should not give a full path when invoking Dynare. You should rather move to the right directory (using the “cd” command), and then invoke Dynare without a prepending path.

The right sequence is the following (assuming that rbc.mod is in c:\dynare\work):

addpath c:\dynare\4.0.4\matlab
cd c:\dynare\work
dynare rbc.mod

Note that it is bad practice to run examples in a subdirectory of c:\dynare\4.0.4\matlab, because that directory will be erased whenever you uninstall Dynare. Better use c:\dynare\work (or something similar).

Hope this helps

Best,

16

It works :slight_smile:
Thanks a lot!