Java 17 with Maven Wrapper results in Unrecognized VM option 'MaxPermSize=512m'

Question

I use OpenJDK 17 with Maven Wrapper 3.8.2 from Spring Initializr (Maven project, JAR packaging, Java 17, Spring Boot 2.6.0). No additional dependencies.

user@DESKTOP-U2OU5HG MINGW64 /c/Projects/my-project (master)
$ java -version
openjdk version "17" 2021-09-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17+35-2724)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17+35-2724, mixed mode, sharing)

Upon running any of ./mvnw.cmd -version or ./mvnw.cmd clean install, I always get the following message:

Unrecognized VM option 'MaxPermSize=512m'
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.

Switching to OpenJDK 16.0.2 resolves the issue, however, I need to work with Java 17.

How to get it run? There is nowhere MaxPermSize=512m set.

Unbalance

It's possible that it came from .mvn/jvm.config. – Finzer

It is set somewhere. Consider searching all your files – Runagate

Isn't this answers your question, #47112912 . After Java9 it seems MaxPermSize=512m is removed. – Albatross

@JoachimSauer There is no .mvn/jvm.config file. Only wrapper folder. – Unbalance

@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen: The only thing I switch is the home folder for Java 16 and 17 respectively. There is nothing set in my project as it is nearly empty and using downloaded Maven Wrapper. – Unbalance

Yes. The newer JVM does not like a command option which comes from somewhere. You may want to single step your mvnw script. – Runagate

@ManeeshaIndrachapa even Java 8 does not support this option. – Undergrown

Answer 1

Indeed -XX:MaxPermSize=size is labelled as follows according to Java® Development Kit Version 16/17 Tool Specifications (see the links):

• For Java 16 it is obsolete.
• For Java 17 it is removed.

The Maven Wrapper in the mvnw.cmd script, however, aside from the required JAVA_HOME, uses also a bunch of optional environment variables such as M2_HOME and these starting with MAVEN_ prefix.

The important one is MAVEN_OPTS where such a removed Java option can appear causing the inability to start the JVM on the newer version. In my case, I had something like:

MAVEN_OPTS="-Xmx4g -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8"

The solution is either to remove the option from the environment variables or add this line to the Maven Wrapper script to override the MAVEN_OPTS value, In the minimal form:

MAVEN_OPTS=

Unbalance

for me (using Java 17), removing -XX:MaxPermSize=512m in pom.xml surefire configuration (<argLine>@{argLine} -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m</argLine>), leaving me with <argLine>@{argLine} -Xmx1024m</argLine>, fixed my issues. – Gabon

@Gabon Yes, your case is luckily discoverable using the full-text search in the IDE. :) – Unbalance

Answer 2

Use MaxMetaspaceSize in place of MaxPermSize and MetaspaceSize in place of PermSize in jdk17.

Refer to : https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/specs/man/java.html

Rung

Answer 3

In addition to the above answers, You can add to the command line which starts your app a flag -XX:+IgnoreUnrecognizedVMOptions.

In this case, JVM will ignore all unrecognized flags.

Philipps

This really helped me out when I had issues with testng. – Lothar

I don't think it is a good practice to ignore unsupported flags, though thanks for this option. – Unbalance