Why is my Node.js process crashing with 'out of memory' errors?
Node.js processes crash due to memory overload when the heap size limit is exceeded. Increase the heap size using `--max-old-space-size`.
Node.js uses a default memory limit for its heap (the space where JavaScript objects are stored), and if your application uses more memory than this limit, the process will crash with an 'out of memory' error. To fix this, you can increase the heap size using the --max-old-space-size
flag, which allows Node to allocate more memory. For example, running node --max-old-space-size=4096 app.js
will increase the memory limit to 4GB. However, increasing memory isn’t always the best solution, as it only delays the problem. It’s important to profile your app and identify memory leaks or inefficiencies that cause excessive memory usage. Tools like clinic
or v8-profiler
can help pinpoint the source of memory bloat.