Why am I getting the - too small running heap when running Java?

Question

I'm trying to run the Java program trimmomatic.jar and I'm getting an error related to "initial heap". Any idea what this is?

java -Xmx500 -jar trimmomatic.jar PE -threads 20 -phred33 ../ERR318658.1.fastq ../ERR318658.2.fastq ERR318658.1_kneaddata.trimmed.1.fastq ERR318658.1_kneaddata.trimmed.single.1.fastq ERR318658.1_kneaddata.trimmed.2.fastq ERR318658.1_kneaddata.trimmed.single.2.fastq
Error:
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Too small initial heap

Amanda Hawes · Accepted Answer

This value must be a multiple of 1024 greater than 2MB.

and

Append the letter k or K to indicate kilobytes, or m or M to indicate megabytes.

So you should get better results with -Xmx500m because -Xmx500 means you launch the JVM with max memory of 500 bytes, which is far too small a running heap AND not a multiple of 1024 !

Why am I getting the - too small running heap when running Java?

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