"java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space" in Maven build [duplicate]

Question

I'm getting this error while building Maven project, I increased MAVEN_OPTS but all the same, I found some similar posts but they are refering to something else. How do I fix this?

The system is out of resources.
Consult the following stack trace for details.
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:632)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:616)
        at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.compiler.javac.IsolatedClassLoader.loadClass(IsolatedClassLoader.java:56)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.comp.Annotate.<init>(Annotate.java:52)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.comp.Annotate.instance(Annotate.java:36)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.jvm.ClassReader.<init>(ClassReader.java:215)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.jvm.ClassReader.instance(ClassReader.java:168)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler.<init>(JavaCompiler.java:293)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.main.JavaCompiler.instance(JavaCompiler.java:72)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.main.Main.compile(Main.java:340)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.main.Main.compile(Main.java:279)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.main.Main.compile(Main.java:270)
        at com.sun.tools.javac.Main.compile(Main.java:87)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.compiler.javac.JavacCompiler.compileInProcess(JavacCompiler.java:420)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.compiler.javac.JavacCompiler.compile(JavacCompiler.java:141)
        at org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractCompilerMojo.execute(AbstractCompilerMojo.java:493)
        at org.apache.maven.plugin.CompilerMojo.execute(CompilerMojo.java:114)
        at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:490)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:694)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalWithLifecycle(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:556)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:535)

I'm not as worried about how to fix as to how to fix it in the maven ecosystem

Answer 1

When you say you increased MAVEN_OPTS, what values did you increase? Did you increase the MaxPermSize, as in example:

export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m"

(or on Windows:)

set MAVEN_OPTS=-Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m

You can also specify these JVM options in each maven project separately.

Answer 2

If you want to make this part of your POM for a repeatable build, you can use the fork-variant of a few of the plugins (especially compiler:compile and surefire:test):

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.2</version>
    <configuration>
      <fork>true</fork>
      <meminitial>128m</meminitial>
      <maxmem>1024m</maxmem>
      <compilerArgs>
        <arg>-XX:MaxPermSize=256m</arg>
      </compilerArgs>
    </configuration>
  </plugin>

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.18</version>
    <configuration>
        <forkCount>1</forkCount>
        <argLine>-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m</argLine>
    </configuration>
</plugin>