👀 Views: 56 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-08-06

java apache-camel memory-leak garbage-collection Java

Hey everyone, I'm running into an issue that's driving me crazy. I'm experiencing a memory leak in my Apache Camel application running on Java 17, specifically when I add a custom processor to my route. The route processes a large number of messages, and over time, the heap memory usage grows significantly without being released. I've tried using VisualVM to analyze the heap dumps, and it appears that instances of my custom processor are not being garbage collected, even after the route is stopped. Here's a simplified version of the code I've implemented: ```java import org.apache.camel.builder.RouteBuilder; import org.apache.camel.Exchange; import org.apache.camel.Processor; public class MyRouteBuilder extends RouteBuilder { @Override public void configure() throws Exception { from("direct:start") .process(new MyCustomProcessor()) .to("log:myLogger"); } } class MyCustomProcessor implements Processor { @Override public void process(Exchange exchange) throws Exception { // Simulating some processing logic String body = exchange.getIn().getBody(String.class); // Assume there is some complex logic that holds onto references exchange.getIn().setBody(body.toUpperCase()); } } ``` I've also made sure to stop the Camel context properly, but the memory usage keeps climbing, and eventually, it leads to an `OutOfMemoryError`. I've tried modifying the route to remove the processor, and the memory leak appears to be resolved, indicating that the scenario is indeed tied to the `MyCustomProcessor` class. Another thing I checked is if there are any circular references within the processor, but I couldn't find anything suspicious. Currently, I'm unsure how to handle this situation. Are there any best practices or strategies for managing memory within custom processors in Apache Camel? Is there something specific I might be missing regarding resource management or cleanup in my custom logic? Am I missing something obvious? I'm working on a web app that needs to handle this.