How can I reduce Eclipse Ganymede's memory use?

Question

I use the recent Ganymede release of Eclipse, specifically the distro for Java EE and web developers. I have installed a few additional plugins (e.g. Subclipse, Spring, Find

Answer 1

I don't think the JVM does a lot of garbage collection unless it has to (i.e. it's getting to its limits). Therefore it grabs all the memory it can get, probably up to the limit set in the eclipse.ini (the -Xmx argument, set to 512MiB here).

You can get a visual representation of the current heap status by checking 'Preferences' -> 'General' -> 'Show heap status'. It will create a small gauge in the status bar which also has a 'trash can' button you can use to trigger a manual garbage collection.