Adding a library to java web app causes java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space?

Question

When I try to add a library (in this case: iText-2.0.8.jar) to my java web app (JSF) and restart Tomcat, everything seems fine. The login page also renders. When I login however, the application almost immediately throws the infamous java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space error.

Increasing the PermGen size with -XX:MaxPermGen=128M doesn't solve the issue, not even with large amounts such as 2048m. When I remove the added jar, everything's fine again.

Does anyone have an idea how to diagnose this problem?

crowne · Answer 1 · 2011-07-14T17:31:53.403

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I recently had almost exactly the same issue running XWiki on Jetty using java 6 on Windows 2000 server 64 bit.

Adding the following 2 command line switches solved it for me:

-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled
-XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled

Sorry the above didn't help.
Try this -XX:MaxPermSize=128M instead of -XX:MaxPermGen=128M

edited Jul 14 '11 at 17:31

answered Jul 14 '11 at 15:08

crowne

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Thank you for your answer, but unfortunately it didn't resolve my problem. – Stijn.V Jul 14 '11 at 16:55
Still no luck, I'm going to get some sleep and fumble some more with these options tomorrow. – Stijn.V Jul 14 '11 at 19:09

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

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After sifting through this thread, I read this blog post.

I just switched to the JRockit JVM, and so far I haven't encountered any java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space errors.

As a bonus, my web application now also runs faster.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

Community

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answered Jul 15 '11 at 08:30

Stijn.V

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Adding a library to java web app causes java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space?

2 Answers2