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  1. Jenkins
  2. JENKINS-33358

Groovy and PermGen memory leak

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    • Icon: Bug Bug
    • Resolution: Fixed
    • Icon: Critical Critical
    • core

      We have recently experienced OutOfMemory errors on some large Jenkins instances that predominantly have frequently executed jobs that contain either System Groovy scripts or Build Flow project types. In one case after disabling a groovy script that was being executed via the Global Post Script Plugin after every build, the PermGen profile improved dramatically.

      We tested further with GroovyShell to run a groovy script, not depending on Jenkins.
      Java7: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space
      Java8: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space

      The tests use 2.4.6 version of groovy which is the latest version. However, the issue is still there.
      <dependency>
      <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
      <artifactId>groovy-all</artifactId>
      <version>2.4.6</version>
      </dependency>

      ---------------------------------------
      Configure 10 jobs which build per minute
      Each build triggers a groovy script by Global Post Script Plugin.

      class Main {
          static void main(String... args) {
              println 'Groovy world!'
              def p = new Person()
              p.write()
          }
      }
      
      class Person {
          def write(){
              println 'i am writing ...!'
          }
      }
      

      After sometime, the perm gen is eaten up. See the screenshot of jvisualvm.

      I checked the source code of the plugin:
      https://github.com/jenkinsci/global-post-script-plugin/blob/master/src/main/java/com/orctom/jenkins/plugin/globalpostscript/ScriptExecutor.java

      My feeling is that it is probably caused by GroovyShell. Jenkins loads and runs groovy extensively and maybe there are places in core or other plugins having similar logic, I wonder
      1. if this is a potential memory leak, and
      2. if anyone has met similar issue.

        1. after.png
          43 kB
          Wisen Tanasa
        2. before.png
          70 kB
          Wisen Tanasa
        3. permgenIssue.jpg
          35 kB
          Christian Lague
        4. Screenshot from 2016-03-07 09.43.29.png
          113 kB
          Hongkai Liu
        5. Screenshot from 2016-04-01 11.04.43.png
          182 kB
          Hongkai Liu

            ympaul2 paul young
            hongkailiu Hongkai Liu
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              Created:
              Updated:
              Resolved: