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

Question

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]          


        

Answer 1

It looks like a memory leak in SBT for me as in my case the program compiles and runs successfully for about 3-5 times before hitting the exception which is fixed by SBT restart.

The most adequate solution indeed seems to be -XX:MaxPermSize= JVM parameter as Alexey Romanov suggests or to restart SBT periodically if it helps.

But there is another interesting way: try switching to Java 8. AFAIK it doesn't use PermGen any more and is probably immune to this exception this way.

I still hope SBT authors will address this issue in future versions.