The OOM at Jenkins is of a particular kind - "unable to create native thread" (different from "OutOfMemoryError Java Heap Space") which means the stack associated with a thread could not be allocated. The thread stack is not allocated on the heap. So heap size is immaterial is such OOM error. (this can be confirmed by setting -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/clopts-139448.html#gbzrr> and verifying the occupied heap from the dump.
Though stack size for a thread can be configured (-Xss) but I don't think we should fiddle with it. Ian, do you know what has been the corresponding number of threads from previous stable builds? Regards, Raman
