OutOfMemoryError trying to run Cactus unit tests

Question

We have a Hudson/Ant build setup. I have just added a series of Apache Cactus (version 1.8.1) unit tests to the project and am trying to run them after the project builds. I get the following error when it tries to execute the cactus task: "java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space."

We have already bumped up the Java heap space as much as we can. Is there a way to make the Cactus task use less memory? Or something else I can do within the test cases themselves to reduce the memory footprint?

Answer 1

Are you absolutely certain the tests do not reveal a memory leak?

Answer 2

When you say you already bumped up the heap 'as much as you can', can you be more specific? 1g? 2g? Also, why don't you run the Java process with:

-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath="my_dump.out"

and view the heap dump in a tool like HPjmeter to see what is being held onto in memory? Otherwise, your sort of operating in the dark. Can you also menion whether you're running with a 32-bit or 64-bit JVM?