Eclipse says Heap is corrupted

Question

Sometimes when i run something, the eclipse says a strange thing:

eclipse(1414,0x113f48000) malloc: *** error for object 0x60000284c0f0: Heap corruption
detected, free list canary is damaged
*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug

i searched the net for this error but nothing comes up and i can't understand how to fix this

i am using:

Eclipse Java EE IDE for Web Developers.
Version: Juno Service Release 2
Build id: 20130225-0426

with OSX

this have nothing to do with a code, it just happens when i run java program or junit or server, nothing to do with the code itself

Answer 1

It looks like a corruption in the native heap while Eclipse is running. (The mention of "malloc" is the clue ...)

AFAIK, there is no easy answer ... unless you can track down similar problem reports. Without that, it is not possible to say what specifically is causing this, but the most likely explanation is some bug in one of the native libraries that Eclipse is using.

I'd recommend the following:

• See if the normal restart / reinitialization tricks make any difference.

• Install a fresh copy of Juno release 2, adding your plugins and seeing if that makes any difference.

• Try again, but this time with as few plugins as you can bear.

If at any point you are confident that you have scenario that allows you to reproduce the problem AND reproduce the Eclipse setup, submit a bug report.

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One should not entirely discount the possibility that you've installed a corrupted Eclipse download, something has corrupted your copy on disc or you have a hardware fault (a bad memory chip, flaky CPU, etc)

Answer 2

I think this issue is due to Eclipse running out of memory.

I resolved it by increasing the Java memory settings in eclipse.ini based on the following: Optimizing Eclipse for Android development