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How to prevent java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space at Scala compilation?

I have noticed a strange behavior of my scala compiler. It occasionally throws an OutOfMemoryError when compiling a class. Here's the error message:

[info] Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/gruetter/Workspaces/scala/helloscala/target/scala-2.9.0/test-classes...
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space
Error during sbt execution: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space

It only happens once in a while and the error is usually not thrown on the subsequent compile run. I use Scala 2.9.0 and compile via SBT.

Does anybody have a clue as to what might be the cause for this error? Thanks in advance for your insights.

Solution

  • The cause for OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space is that it doesn't have enough permanent generation space :) If you are using Oracle JVM, you need to add the -XX:MaxPermSize=256M (or some other amount of space) argument to your sbt script. For other JVMs, look at their documentation.