Our customer has a code (PPMApp) that is used to manage different status reports. When opening and closing an existing report a number of times it is observed that the heap size increase in an unexpected manner. The problem has been seen on the following java versions:

# java -version
java version "1.2.2"
Solaris VM (build Solaris_JDK_1.2.2_05a, native threads, sunwjit)

# java -version
java version "1.2.2"
Solaris VM (build hdong.2000.08.09.17.43, native threads, sunwjit)

# java -version
java version "1.3.0"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.3.0-RC)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.3.0-RC, mixed mode)

To repoduce:

1, Copy the test example from /net/gammelstad.sweden/export/calls/36005578/example.tar.Z or /net/sponge.sweden/export/calls/36005578/example.tar.Z

2, Unpack the tar-file with 'zcat example.tar.Z | tar xf -'. This will create the subdirectory 'example'.

3, Do a 'cd example' and unpack the src.jar file using 'unzip src.jar'.

4, Compile the java source code with 'javac *.java'.

5, Start the application with 'java PPMApp'.

6, In another window, find the PID of the java process using your favorite ps command.

7, Open a report by clicking on the 'Open Report' button on the application window and select Folder "Report" and then "example1.ppm". Then close the report window.

8, Do a 'pmap <PID>' and save the output in a file, or just check the total size by 'pmap <PID> | grep total'

9, Repeat step 7 and 8 a number of times and you will notice that the heap size of the process will increase each time. In the real application this is done a large number of times and after a while all available memory is consumed and the application has to be restarted.
jonas.edberg@sweden 2000-09-06