Maven throws "java.lang.OutOfMemoryError"

Question

I'm compiling an open source project with "mvn install" but ended up with java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space. I tried to execute java -Xmx256m but the output was java synopsis which indicated it's an invalid command.

I'm using jdk1.5.0_08, any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks,

Solution 1

Set the environment variable:

MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx512m"

Solution 2

It depends on which JVM instance require more memory. As example, if tests are forked (by default), and fails due OutOfMemoryError then try configure plugin which launching them:

        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <argLine>-Xmx1024m</argLine>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

Solution 3

Not only heap memory. You have to increase perm size also to resolve that exception in maven use these variables in environment variable.

variable name: MAVEN_OPTS
variable value: -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m

Solution 4

Sometimes, if you use other programs inside maven, like in integration tests or Surefire, the MAVEN_OPTS is not enough. Apart from MAVEN_OPTS, try to use JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS. This did the trick for me in Maven when running some integration tests:

export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=1024m -Xms2048m"

Reference: osx maven running tests Exception: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError thrown from the UncaughtExceptionHandler in thread "main"

Solution 5

on a Unix-like system:

export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"

OutOfMemoryError

View more solutions

Comments

[Arturs Mednis]

Sometimes is good also to extend perm memory size - MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m"

[ArtOfWarfare]

How can you get the current value of Xmx and MaxPermSize? After all, I can't increase the values without knowing what they're already set to.

[James Selvakumar]

Setting MAVEN_OPTS alone is not sufficient if the build fails while running unit tests. In such cases, you may have to configure the "argLine" of maven-surefire-plugin explicitly.

[James Selvakumar]

I'm not sure of MaxPermSize, but Xmx is usually 1/4th of the physical memory. Again, this may vary depending on the JRE implementations and/or "server", "client" mode of JVM.

[Surekha]

I was getting this error on mvn install, using "mvn install -DMAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx1024m" solved my problem!

[user2568374]

-bash: export: `-XX:MaxPermSize=256m': not a valid identifier

[TomJava]

Can I add Xmx1024m -Xms1024m as well?

[Andriy Plokhotnyuk]

Yep, <argLine>-Xmx1g -Xms1g</argLine> should work