MoveIt Colcon build can't finish installing, because it uses the entire RAM and crashes Ubuntu

Question

To move a robotic arm (UR5e) I am instructed to use ROS2 Galactic and MoveIt in Ubuntu 20.04 Debian. I followed the instructions given in the MoveIt Documentation up until

colcon build --mixin release

The command itself isn't the problem*[1], it just keeps on devouring my CPU and RAM. In the last three days I managed to deal with the CPU, but I can't seem to be able to limit the RAM & SWAP.

So I manage to get to 37/45 completed. But that's when the RAM and SWAP are at 100% and the system freezes.

*[1] on 37/45 completed I get the following:

Failed   <<< pilz_industrial_motion_planner

With my endless tries to get this under control, I modified the command to

systemd-run --scope -p MemoryLimit=3000M -p CPUQuota=70% -- colcon build --mixin release --parallel-workers 3

I tried cpulimit, but an Ubuntu extension to manage the output works right now. The combination Ctrl + Z stops the process and continues by typing fg without complications. But that just keeps the RAM at that percentage.

I also played with swappiness, ulimit and nice, but I haven't noticed a difference.

Answer 1

Try appending —-executor sequential to the Colvin command. This will build one package at a time. Optionally you can also add --allow-overriding which will override packages that are already built in