From 9c2db0c1bb8cbfc7fac9e783f1b43e379c060dad Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ben Soares
When launched as an Application, Jalview automatically tries to
- maximise the amount of memory allocated to it, but sometimes it may
- run out of memory. This is because of the way that Java runs on a
- computer - what is actually run is a program called a virtual
- machine (the JVM) which executes the java instructions. The JVM has
- limits on the memory that can be allocated to the java program - and
+ maximise the amount of memory allocated to it (default settings are
+ to try and use up to 90% of physical memory available to it).
+ Sometimes it may require more memory, or if you are working in a
+ shared memory environment you may want to limit the maximum amount
+ of memory that it might use.
+ This has to be set at the time Jalview is launched because of the way
+ that Java runs on a computer - what is actually run is a program called
+ a Java virtual machine (a JVM) which executes the java program instructions.
+ The JVM has limits on the memory that can be allocated to the java program - and
you might need to increase them if you are working with particularly
large datasets.
- Increasing the memory available to Jalview
If Jalview has not explicitly told you that
it has run out of memory, then a common sign is that a function that
@@ -54,8 +58,81 @@
window's background.
- Since Jalview 2.11, the program automatically configures the JVM memory settings to set the maximum memory available to Jalview to be 90% of physical memory.
-
+ Since Jalview 2.11, the program automatically configures the JVM memory settings to set the maximum memory available to Jalview to be 90% of physical memory.
+ This default setting can be altered in a number of different ways, depending on how you prefer to launch Jalview and how specific you want to be with the maximum memory setting.
+
+ The easiest way to launch Jalview with a different percentage of physical memory available is to + create a text file with extension .jvl and with content that looks like +
+ jalview.jvmmempc=50 ++ Replace the value with the percentage of memory you wish to allocate to Jalview. + +
+ In Windows and in macOS you can then launch Jalview by double clicking on this file, and your memory setting will be used instead of the default value of 90. +
++ In Linux or other unix variants you can launch Jalview on the command line and provide your JVL file as an argument with +
+ /PATH_TO_JALVIEW/Jalview /path/to/file/mymemorysetting.jvl ++ + +
+ If you want to use a memory setting like this and open a file you can use both files as arguments in the command line, but you must put the jvl file first, e.g. +
+ /PATH_TO_JALVIEW/Jalview /path/to/file/mymemorysetting.jvl /path/to/alignments/myalignment.fa ++ + + +
+
++
++
++
++
+