How to expand TeX's "main memory size"? (pgfplots memory overload)

Question

I'm compiling one pretty simple LaTeX file with few dozen of pgfplots. Now, I can compile part by part, but am unable to compile it all at once. I really need good precision for all those plots (noise plots) and would like to avoid decimating graphs more. When I run compile, I get this error message:

[...] TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [main memory size=3000000].

Is there a way to avoid this message somehow? How am I supposed to use pgfplots if I can't plot couple dozen of figures with it without having TeX overloaded? How to expand TeX memory size, please?

Answer 1

The pgfplots package can be particularly heavy on TeX's memory, especially if you are creating plots with lots of data points. Indeed, there is a section in the pgfplots manual about expanding TeX's memory. However, that does not mean that expanding TeX's memory is the best solution. Instead, I would recommend using the 'externalization' approach (section 7.1 of the pgfplots manual).

The idea of externalization is to compile each plot as a separate TeX job. This leads to a graphic which can be used in the main job. Thus each plot has its own memory requirement, separate from all of the other plots. This usually avoids needing to make TeX's memory bigger. At the same time, the resulting files can be kept between TeX runs, which will speed up compilation for the second and subsequent runs. The latest version of the externalization system needs you to do two things. First, you put

\usepgfplotslibrary{external} 
\tikzexternalize

in your preamble, to turn the system on. Secondly, you will need to enable 'shell escape'. This is done at the command line by adding the -shell-escape switch:

pdflatex -shell-escape <filename>

The same can be done in LaTeX editors: there is usually a place in the settings for this type of thing. I'll just add that shell escape does has some security implications: use only with documents that you trust!

Answer 2

Every now and then I have the same problem when compiling certain files. Of course, I have forgotten every time how I solved it in the past. Then, I google and I am getting to this page. Next, I remember that I landed on this page for several times, but, unfortunately, the answers did'nt help me in the past for my kind of problem. To break that Groundhog Day circle, I write down this answer which may help myself (for the next circle) and hopefully other people. The bad news is that it works only (?) for MikTeX users.

pdflatex --enable-write18 --extra-mem-bot=10000000 --synctex=1 <filename>

You may replace 10000000 by another ridiculous high number.

As was commented by @coatless, you may have to add --extra-mem-top=10000000 for other document types than my test example. The MiKTeX manual contains the following explanations:

• --extra-mem-bot=n: Set the extra size (in memory words) for large data structures like boxes, glue, breakpoints, et al. Relevant only after the memory dump file has been read.

• --extra-mem-top=n: Set the extra size (in memory words) for chars, tokens, et al. Relevant only after the memory dump file has been read.

For illustration some example log entries from a test document:

Failing example without the extra memory:

21229 strings out of 493921
360228 string characters out of 3152094
3000000 words of memory out of 3000000
24030 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
49729 words of font info for 45 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
841 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191

Working example with --extra-mem-bot=10000000:

23652 strings out of 493921
401787 string characters out of 3152094
10571134 words of memory out of 13000000
24308 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
49729 words of font info for 45 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
841 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191

Working example with --extra-mem-bot=100000000:

23652 strings out of 493921
401787 string characters out of 3152094
100571134 words of memory out of 103000000
24308 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
49729 words of font info for 45 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
841 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191

I guess that my example in truth needed 571134 words of memory (and the the rest is eaten up for fun).

Answer 3

Due to AlexG's comment, the memory size has been a constant large value for recent versions of TeX Live. It seems you don't need to extend this.

In older TeX Live, you can modify /some/path/to/texlive/some/subpath/web2c/texmf.cnf, which can be found by typing on the terminal:

kpsewhich -a texmf.cnf 

Then modify the memory size by including, e.g. :

main_memory = 3000000 

(See comments in texmf.cnf file for more details.)

Then run the following command as root to recreate the format files:

fmtutil-sys --all

Answer 4

after trying all the options (changing texmf.cnf file, etc.) I found on the web, the only one that worked for me was to use lualatex. This is the simplest and more elegant way to do it. Lualatex is available in the Texlive distribution by default.

Answer 5

In MikTex, the memory size can be permanently increased by this way:

1, For Windows, Open a command Window and enter:

initexmf --edit-config-file=latex

For Ubuntu, try this:

gedit .miktex/texmfs/config/miktex/config/latex.ini

2. In the file opened (it may be empty), add:

   main_memory=12000000

3. Save the file and quit. Then in the command window, enter:

   initexmf --dump=latex

Then repeat the above steps for pdflatex (replace latex with pdflatex). If the error persists, try increasing the main_memory value. For lualatex, the memory allocation is dynamic, hence the aforementioned steps are unnecessary, but if the compilation fails for lualatex, try for that as well.

Answer 6

Just to add to this if anyone still has this problem, I found a pretty simple way to fix it. I was getting this error:

TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [main memory size=5000000]

I went through a lot of guides to increase the main memory and nothing was working :/

But I read a few articles where they talked about save_size instead of main_memory.

I edited my texmf.cnf but not the one in the web2c folder, I changed the at in the ..../texlive/yyyy/texmf.cnf (since I'm using Windows my path was C:\texlive\2015\texmf.cnf). The file looked as follows:

% (Public domain.)
% This texmf.cnf file should contain only your personal changes from the
% original texmf.cnf (for example, as chosen in the installer).
%
% That is, if you need to make changes to texmf.cnf, put your custom
% settings in this file, which is .../texlive/YYYY/texmf.cnf, rather than
% the distributed file (which is .../texlive/YYYY/texmf-dist/web2c/texmf.cnf).
% And include *only* your changed values, not a copy of the whole thing!
%
OSFONTDIR = $SystemRoot/fonts//

So I added the following two lines:

main_memory = 7999999
save_size  = 7999999

I then opened up command prompt and ran:

fmtutil-sys --all

And that was it :) I was able to build my stuff! I know that save_size wasn't mentioned at all in the error message but I found that adding that line fixed the issue :)!

Answer 7

It wasn't working for me either (MikTex on Win10 x64). I tried to change the pdflatex.ini file (see here point 4) but ended with the error after the dump:

Sorry, but "C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\x64\miktex-pdftex.exe" did not succeed.

Therefore I did following: MikeTex Settings -> Formats, looked for pdflatex and clicked "Build". Again an error, but then I opened the pdflatex.ini, changed line for line the maximum value and looked up to which it still was able to succesful "Build".

Now it works with these values (8GB RAM):

main_memory=79999999 
save_size=79999
extra_mem_bot=79999999 
extra_mem_top=79999999 
font_mem_size=799999
pool_size=7999999
buf_size=7999999
EnableWrite18=p
stack-size=200000
max-strings=79999999

Answer 8

Try with \clearpage command, it worked for me.

Answer 9

By writing my document I also got this error. I found a nice workaround without using LuaLaTeX, changing any properties or making somehow a picture of your desired diagram. You can still using pdfLaTeX.

The following steps describe how you have to proceed:

(1)

As usual, create your *.tex-file with matlab2tikz.

(2)

Create a minimal working example (MWE) like the one. The example has some additional packages with the standalone class too remove unneeded margin:

\documentclass[preview]{standalone}
%I don't know, why I have to include the preview as an optional argument. Without I got an error.
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.16}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[h]
    \input{< your generated *.tex-file >}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

(3)

With step (2) you can now include the generated *.pdf-file in your "normal" document:

...
\begin{figure}[h]
    \includegraphics{< your generated *.pdf-file from step (2) >}
\caption[short text]{longer text}
\label{fig:figure1}
\end{figure}
...

As you can see the advantages of this methode is that you can also include captions and labels.

Answer 10

If you are using TeXstudio go to Options > Configure TeXstudio, and on the Build tab change the Default Compiler from PdfLaTex to LuaLaTeX.

This solved my problem, I hope it can help somebody out there.

Answer 11

I had trouble to find how to increase the memory in a container of github action like mattnotmitt/doxygen-action, so saving for the future, in Doxyfile put this line:

LATEX_CMD_NAME = "\"pdflatex\" -cnf-line=extra_mem_top=12000000 -cnf-line=extra_mem_bot=12000000 -cnf-line=main_memory=12000000"