Jetty 7: OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space on application redeploy

Question

First time app starts correctly. Then I delete webapp/*.war file and paste new version of *.war. Jetty start deploying new war but error java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space occurs. How can I configure Jetty to fix error / make correct redeploy?

This solution doesn't help me.
Jetty version: jetty-7.4.3.v20110701

Answer 1

There is probably no way to configure the problem away. Each JVM has one PermGen memory area that is used for class loading and static data. Whenever your application gets undeployed its classloader should be discarded and all classes loaded by it as well. When this fails because other references to the classloader still exist, garbage collecting the classloader and your applications classes will also fail.

A blog entry and its follow up explain a possible source of the problem. Whenever the application container's code uses a class that holds a reference to one of your classes, garbage collection of your classes is prevented. The example from the mentioned blog entry is the java.util.logging.Level constructor:

protected Level(String name, int value) {
    this.name = name;
    this.value = value;
    synchronized (Level.class) {
        known.add(this);
    }
}

Note that known is a static member of java.util.logging.Level. The constructor stores a reference to all created instances. So as soon as the Level class was loaded or instantiated from outwith your application's code, garbage collection can't remove your classes.

To solve the problem you could avoid all classes that are in use outwith your own code or ensure no references are held to your classes from outwith your code. Both problems could occur within any class delivered with Java and are thus not feasible to be fixed within your application. You cannot prevent the problem by altering only your own code!

Your options are basically:

• Increasing the memory limits and have the error strike less often
• Analyze your code as detailed in the linked blog posts and avoid using the classes that store references to your objects