Question

I was wondering if it is possible to specify Maven memory boundaries with a syntax similar to:

mvn -Dtest=FooTest -DXmx=512M clean test

I tried a couple of variations till now, unsuccessfully.
I am aware of MAVEN_OPTS environment variable, but I would like to avoid that.

Related to the above question, it would be nice to know if there is the possibility to specify the memory behavior of the surefire plugin in a similar manner, so that it forks the jvm using the overridden memory amount (eventually overriding the <argLine> parameter in the pom plugin configuration, if present)

Answer 1

You can configure the surefire-plugin to use more memory. Take a look on
Strange Maven out of memory error.

Update:
If you would like to set the parameter from command-line take a look on {{mvn.bat}} (or {{mvn}} shell script) in your maven installation directory. It uses with additional options specified in command line.

Next possibility is to set surefire-plugin and use properties specified in command-line, e.g. mvn ... -Dram=512

and

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.5</version>
    <configuration>
        <forkMode>once</forkMode>
        <argLine>-Xms${ram}m -Xmx${ram}m</argLine>
    </configuration>
</plugin>