gcc cc1: out of memory allocating

Question

I am trying to compile a source code in my BeagleBoard with Angstrom Linux. Yesterday I was able to compile my code. But today I can not compile the code and it says:

ccl: out of memory allocating 268439608 bytes after a total of 405504 bytes
make *** [getimagefromcam1.o] Error 1

My compilation string is:

gcc getimagefromcam1.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs opencv` -o getimagefromcam1 -lpthread

Code is:

#include <cv.h>
#include <highgui.h>
#include <cxcore.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{    
  CvCapture* camera = cvCreateCameraCapture(0); // Use the default camera

  IplImage*     frame = 0;
  IplImage      img;

  cvSetCaptureProperty(camera,CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH,2016) ;
  cvSetCaptureProperty(camera,CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT,1512); 

  frame = cvQueryFrame(camera); //need to capture at least one extra frame
  frame = cvQueryFrame(camera);

  if (frame != NULL) {
    printf("got frame 1\n\r");
        cvSaveImage("webcam1.jpg", frame,0);
  } else {
      printf("Null frame 1\n\r");
  }

    frame = cvQueryFrame(camera); //need to capture at least one extra frame
  frame = cvQueryFrame(camera);

  if (frame != NULL) {
    printf("got frame 1\n\r");
        cvSaveImage("webcam1.jpg", frame,0);
  } else {
      printf("Null frame 1\n\r");
  }
  cvReleaseCapture(&camera);
  return 0;
}

when I write "free" is says

 total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        241260     221256      20004          0      13748     116184
-/+ buffers/cache:      91324     149936
Swap:            0          0          0

How can I solve it?

Answer 1

You're obviusly out of memory there (268439 > 221256). Now you have two options:

1. Create a temporary swap file like this. It boils down to:

   su - root
   # for one GB of swap
   dd if=/dev/zero of=tmpswap bs=1024 count=1M
   mkswap tmpswap
   swapon tmpswap
   

   I would opt for this way as a quick fix, not to mention that you really should have a bit of swap with that small amount of memory.

   Read the article if you want to make this change permanent, it contains some valuable hints regarding permissions and fstab.

2. Try to simplify your code so that cc1 does not need so much memory. No idea how to do that though.