[webkit-dev] Tools/Scripts/build-webkit --gtk --debug --makeargs="-j1" taking up to 80% of memory

[John Yani]

On Mon, 2011-12-26 at 21:45 -0800, sachin nikam wrote:
> I synced up the latest webkit code base and am trying to build webkit
> gtk on ubuntu 11.10 with 4gb of RAM and 4 CPUs
>
> I tried with --makeargs="-j2" but still got "ld process terminated
> signal[9]" error ?which indicates that it ran out of memory.
> I suspect i will still the get the same error with --makeargs="-j1".
> Is there any other flag where we can restrict the memory usage?
> Regards
> Sachin

I had the same problem after I've upgraded my PC to 12 GB of RAM.
Before upgrade I was able to build 32 bit webkit on my 4 GB computer
with Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit with PAE and 8 GB of swap.
So what I recommend is to remove 1 GB of memory (or load something
heavy to take that 1GB of RAM) and add more swap.

Physical address extension doesn't allow any process to take more than
[specific amount] of physical RAM, so swap  must be used. In your case
it seems like swap is never used, so the system fails to address
additional physical memory you have.

But I highly recommend upgrading your computer to minimum of 8 GB of
RAM and install 64 bit Ubuntu. If you really need 32-bit build,
cross-compiling might be an option.