React-native: Increasing node memory not possible when building straight from Xcode

[gretzky]

• [x] Review the documentation: https://facebook.github.io/react-native
• [x] Search for existing issues: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues
• [x] Use the latest React Native release: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/releases

Environment

React Native Environment Info:
    System:
      OS: macOS 10.14
      CPU: x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770HQ CPU @ 2.20GHz
      Memory: 2.80 GB / 16.00 GB
      Shell: 5.6.1 - /usr/local/bin/zsh
    Binaries:
      Node: 9.11.2 - /usr/local/bin/node
      Yarn: 1.10.1 - /usr/local/bin/yarn
      npm: 5.6.0 - /usr/local/bin/npm
      Watchman: 4.9.0 - /usr/local/bin/watchman
    SDKs:
      iOS SDK:
        Platforms: iOS 12.0, macOS 10.14, tvOS 12.0, watchOS 5.0
      Android SDK:
        Build Tools: 25.0.1, 26.0.1, 26.0.3, 27.0.3, 28.0.0, 28.0.3
        API Levels: 23, 25, 26, 27, 28
    IDEs:
      Android Studio: 3.2 AI-181.5540.7.32.5056338
      Xcode: 10.0/10A255 - /usr/bin/xcodebuild
    npmPackages:
      react: 16.6.0-alpha.8af6728 => 16.6.0-alpha.8af6728
      react-native: 0.57.3 => 0.57.3
    npmGlobalPackages:
      react-native-cli: 2.0.1
      react-native-git-upgrade: 0.2.7

Description

I need to use the profiling tool in Xcode, which requires building the app from Xcode. My app requires extra memory. I can successfully build my app from the command line with node --expose-gc --max_old_space_size=4096 ./node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js bundle [...], but I have to rewrite react-native-xcode.sh in order to get this working in Xcode. If I skip bundling entirely, Xcode complains that the bundle doesn't exist. If I don't increase the space manually in the script, Xcode hangs on Building 1 of 2 shell scripts (the shell script being react-native-xcode.sh, and then it runs out of memory (throws Allocation: JS heap out of memory).

I can either add in main.jsbundle manually, or edit the script. There doesn't seem to be any _real_ way to accomplish increasing node memory for Xcode without using a hack, or nothing I could find in old issues or documentation. There's no obvious way of how to use the flags that exist in react-native-xcode.sh.

Somewhat related issues: #5196, #12686

Reproducible Demo

Run react-native init, open that project in Xcode, try to increase node memory. Obviously this works better if you have an app that requires more memory.

[bartolkaruza]

In Xcode, Target > Build Phases > Bundle React Native code and images change the line export NODE_BINARY=node to NODE_BINARY="node --expose-gc --max_old_space_size=4096"

[gretzky]

Unfortunately it doesn't look like this is the same in Xcode 10

[bartolkaruza]

Unfortunately it doesn't look like this is the same in Xcode 10

Are you sure?

[gretzky]

I guess no, I'm not sure, because I can't navigate to the same screen-- but that's a me problem 😅 . Regardless, I think your solution should do it, thanks!

[Blutude]

I am trying to use aws-sdk but it uses a lot of memory. I am able to run my simulator only if I run the node server with the "--max_old_space_size=8192" command beforehand, but when I try to upload my app to the app store via Xcode --> Archive, I keep getting the out of memory error.

I tried the following from @bartolkaruza: In Xcode, Target > Build Phases > Bundle React Native code and images change the line export NODE_BINARY=node to NODE_BINARY="node --expose-gc --max_old_space_size=4096"
But that does not fix it. Here is my stack-trace:

Did anyone of you figure it out? I cannot use aws-sdk without fixing this issue!

[timkuilman]

I was running into the same issue and found a work around. The extra arguments for node were not picked up when I added them in Xcode, Target > Build Phases > Bundle React Native code so I changed the following line in react-native-xcode.sh

[ -z "$NODE_ARGS" ] && export NODE_ARGS=""

to:

[ -z "$NODE_ARGS" ] && export NODE_ARGS="--max_old_space_size=4096"

I am not too familiar with shell script but I guess that the second NODE_ARGS in that line is the fallback?

--

npm install will overwrite these c hanges but at least I can make a release build now again. In my app the aws-sk package is also responsible for the out of memory error. @Blutude let me know if this helps you or if you have fixed the issue in another way.

[marstankev]

@timkuilman Instead of modifying react-native-xcode.sh (which as you point out is temporary), you can specify NODE_ARGS in the Xcode, Target > Build Phases > Bundle React Native code and images script like so:

export NODE_BINARY=node
export NODE_ARGS="--max_old_space_size=8192"
../node_modules/react-native/scripts/react-native-xcode.sh

This was the only way I could get my productions builds working again, as passing in the memory allocation argument as suggested here and in other similar issues ( export NODE_BINARY='node --max_old_space_size=8192') did not solve the problem for me.