Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space

Question

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
                at java.awt.image.DataBufferInt.<init>(Unknown Source)
                at java.awt.image.Raster.createPackedRaster(Unknown Source)
                at java.awt.image.DirectColorModel.createCompatibleWritableRaster(Unknown Source)
                at java.awt.image.BufferedImage.<init>(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.loops.GraphicsPrimitive.convertFrom(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.loops.GraphicsPrimitive.convertFrom(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.loops.MaskBlit$General.MaskBlit(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.loops.Blit$GeneralMaskBlit.Blit(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.pipe.DrawImage.blitSurfaceData(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.pipe.DrawImage.renderImageCopy(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.pipe.DrawImage.copyImage(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.pipe.DrawImage.copyImage(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.pipe.ValidatePipe.copyImage(Unknown Source)
                at sun.java2d.SunGraphics2D.drawImage(Unknown Source)

Iam getting this error message when I load the Web start application from production. When I load the same production code from eclipse, the above error "java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space" disappear and everything works fine. What could the reason, why it is working in eclipse and not in standalone.

-Pad

Answer 1

Java's default heap size (at least the last time I researched it) is 128 MB. The latest version of Ecipse (i.e. Helios) is set to run with a default heap size of 512 MB. (see the eclipse.ini file in your Eclipse base path)

Therefore, you're probably seeing this behavior because your application needs a heap size greater than 128 MB... which it doesn't get from your system JVM's defaults, but DOES get within the Eclipse JVM process.

In your Web Start ".jnlp" file, look for the first <j2se> element, and add a max-heap-size attribute like this:

<j2se version="1.3" initial-heap-size="256m" max-heap-size="512m"/>

Reference

http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/javaws/developersguide/syntax.html

Answer 2

Your default max-heap-size setting in eclipse is probably different to what is configured as a default for your java webstart.
You can edit the jnlp descriptor to provide a max-heap-size parameter by adding the following tag:

<j2se version="1.4+" max-heap-size="512m"/>