How to solve "GC overhead limit exceeded" using maven jvmArg?

Question

When running a class I have the following exception:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

I've tried to increase the jvmArg heap size from inside maven pom.xml of the class package:

http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"> 4.0.0

<parent>     (...) </parent>   <artifactId>(...)</artifactId> <name>(...)</name>  <properties>     <javaOpts.Xmx>4g</javaOpts.Xmx> <!-- default that can be adjusted on the command line with -DjavaOpts.Xmx=... -->     <(...).basedir>${project.basedir}/..</(...).basedir> </properties>  <build>     <plugins>         <plugin>             <groupId>net.alchim31.maven</groupId>             <artifactId>scala-maven-plugin</artifactId>             <configuration>                 <launchers>                     <launcher>                         <id>MyClassName</id>                         <mainClass>(...)</mainClass>                         <jvmArgs>                             <jvmArg>-Xmx${javaOpts.Xmx}</jvmArg>                         (...)  

I've tried the last cited line with many values:

• <jvmArg>-Xmx512m{javaOpts.Xmx}</jvmArg>
• <jvmArg>-Xmx4096M{javaOpts.Xmx}</jvmArg>
• ...
• <jvmArg>-Xmx10000000000M{javaOpts.Xmx}</jvmArg>

But for all of them I have the same error.

Anyone can help me? Observation: I'm running from IntelliJ IDEA.

Answer 1

Java 7

It's not a Maven issue, you need to give more memory to the VM. You do this via environment variables, and the Maven Launcher will automatically pick up these settings on load, and use them to configure the underlying Java VM.

The simple way to do it is to:

export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx1024M -Xss128M -XX:MaxPermSize=1024M -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled"

Windows:

set MAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx1024M -Xss128M -XX:MaxPermSize=1024M -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled

(No double quotes)

Java 8

Java 8 has replaced permanent generation with metaspace, and the new settings look like this:

export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx1024M -Xss128M -XX:MetaspaceSize=512M -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=1024M -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled"

Answer 2

I had kind of the same problem: My project wokspace consists of >250 maven modules and when opening a pom.xml in IDEA, the <project> and <parent> tags were underlined in red and this error showed up, when hovering over the broken tags:

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

My solution:

• set high values in >Settings >Build, Execution, Deployment >Build Tools >Maven >Importing - e.g. -Xmx1g and
• change the maven implementation under >Settings >Build, Execution, Deployment >Build Tools >Maven (Maven home directory) from (Bundled) Maven 3 to my local maven installation (not the one bundled with IDEA), e.g. to /opt/maven/apache-maven-3.3.9:

Since I had problems with the bundled maven before, I just don't trust the bundled maven.