future_lapply(X, FUN = with, a) looks for 'a' in the wrong environment

[HenrikBengtsson]

> X <- list(list(a = 1), list(a = 2))
> y <- lapply(X, FUN = with, a)
> X <- list(list(a = 1), list(a = 2))
> y0 <- lapply(X, FUN = with, a)
> y1 <- future.apply::future_lapply(X, FUN = with, a)
Error: object 'a' not found

Enter a frame number, or 0 to exit   

1: future.apply::future_lapply(X, FUN = with, a)
2: future_xapply(FUN = FUN, nX = nX, chunk_args = X, args = list(...), get_chu
3: getGlobalsAndPackagesXApply(FUN = FUN, args = args, MoreArgs = MoreArgs, en
4: (function () 
{
    replicate(sink.number(), sink(NULL))
    if (interactive()

Selection: 0

[HenrikBengtsson]

A lower-level reproducible example:

X <- list(list(a = 1))
future.apply:::future_xapply(nX = length(X), chunk_args = X, FUN = with, a, future.stdout = FALSE, future.seed = FALSE, future.scheduling = 1.0, future.chunk.size = 1L, future.label = "", debug = FALSE)
## Error: object 'a' not found

Enter a frame number, or 0 to exit   

1: future.apply:::future_xapply(nX = length(X), chunk_args = X, FUN = with, a,
2: getGlobalsAndPackagesXApply(FUN = FUN, args = args, MoreArgs = MoreArgs, en
3: (function () 
{
    replicate(sink.number(), sink(NULL))
    if (interactive()

This happens because a is a symbol and future.apply:::getGlobalsAndPackagesXApply() calls:

future.apply/R/globals.R

Line 4 in 81bfef5

use_args <- !is.null(args)

as the first thing.

[HenrikBengtsson]

This has to do with the globals package and a bit with the future package. I doubt there's anything to be solved in this package.

[HenrikBengtsson]

REVISIT/UPDATE: This is still the case with globals 0.18.0 and future 1.49.0;

X <- list(list(a = 1))
future.apply:::future_xapply(nX = length(X), chunk_args = X, FUN = with, a, future.stdout = FALSE, future.seed = FALSE, future.scheduling = 1.0, future.chunk.size = 1L, future.label = "", debug = FALSE)

> sessionInfo()
R version 4.5.0 (2025-04-11)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Running under: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /home/henrik/shared/software/CBI/_ubuntu22_04/R-4.5.0-gcc11/lib/R/lib/libRblas.so 
LAPACK: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lapack/liblapack.so.3.10.0  LAPACK version 3.10.0

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C              
 [3] LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8    
 [5] LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8   
 [7] LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C                 
 [9] LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C            
[11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C       

time zone: America/Los_Angeles
tzcode source: system (glibc)

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

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] compiler_4.5.0      parallelly_1.44.0   tools_4.5.0        
 [4] parallel_4.5.0      listenv_0.9.1       future.apply_1.11.3
 [7] codetools_0.2-20    digest_0.6.37       globals_0.18.0     
[10] future_1.49.0      
>