Running Cucumber tests fails with OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space exception

Question

I'm applying BDD methodology using Cucumber, which is GREAT!

The problem is that my test suite getting bigger and bigger and now I get the following exception which fails my test from the wrong reason...

I'm using all sort or Cucumber features, such as: Background, Scenario Outline and simple scenarios. I run the tests like this:

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)
@Cucumber.Options(features={"...../controller1"})
public class RunCukes1Test {
}

I split my feature files to different directories (controller1, controller2...) and runners (RunCukes1Test, RunCukes2Test...), but this didn't help.

When I run each test itself everything is ok, but when I run it all using mave lifecycle test, it fails. Does anyone know of any best practices in Java Cucumber to avoid problems of such.

    Tests run: 5896, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 33.082 sec
Running com.kenshoo.urlbuilder.appservice.controller.RunCukes4Test

Tests run: 11838, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 80.833 sec
Exception in thread "Thread-73" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
    at java.util.Arrays.copyOf(Arrays.java:2882)
    at java.lang.AbstractStringBuilder.expandCapacity(AbstractStringBuilder.java:100)
    at java.lang.AbstractStringBuilder.append(AbstractStringBuilder.java:515)
    at java.lang.StringBuffer.append(StringBuffer.java:306)
    at java.io.BufferedReader.readLine(BufferedReader.java:345)
    at java.io.BufferedReader.readLine(BufferedReader.java:362)
    at org.codehaus.plexus.util.cli.StreamPumper.run(StreamPumper.java:129)
Exception in thread "ThreadedStreamConsumer" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
    at java.util.Arrays.copyOfRange(Arrays.java:3209)
    at java.lang.String.<init>(String.java:215)
    at java.lang.StringBuffer.toString(StringBuffer.java:585)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.report.PrettyPrintXMLWriter.escapeXml(PrettyPrintXMLWriter.java:167)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.report.PrettyPrintXMLWriter.addAttribute(PrettyPrintXMLWriter.java:178)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.shade.org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.Xpp3DomWriter.write(Xpp3DomWriter.java:50)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.shade.org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.Xpp3DomWriter.write(Xpp3DomWriter.java:55)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.shade.org.codehaus.plexus.util.xml.Xpp3DomWriter.write(Xpp3DomWriter.java:39)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.report.XMLReporter.testSetCompleted(XMLReporter.java:128)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.report.MulticastingReporter.testSetCompleted(MulticastingReporter.java:51)
    at org.apache.maven.surefire.report.TestSetRunListener.testSetCompleted(TestSetRunListener.java:115)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.output.ForkClient.consumeLine(ForkClient.java:97)
    at org.apache.maven.plugin.surefire.booterclient.output.ThreadedStreamConsumer$Pumper.run(ThreadedStreamConsumer.java:67)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

Results :

Tests run: 11790, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

Answer 1

I got an answer to another java-heap-space exception I had, after the cucumber tests running. You can see it here - related problem

My theory is that the -XX:MaxPermSize is a factor for during Cucumber running , as Cucumber generates tests code and PermSize is related to amount of code as described what is permsize in java

The -Xmx is a factor for the post Cucumber running , while parsing the tests results.

So the solution is to find the balance between them both and the actual available memory.