[Bug]: Memory Leak in Dev Server Causing System to Run Out of Application Memory

[Fausto95]

Edited by @h-a-n-a:

For further issue reporting, please provide the system info. For example, Apple M2 Max, macOS 15.0.

---

Original Issue:

Version

System:
    OS: macOS 14.6.1
    CPU: (11) arm64 Apple M3 Pro
    Memory: 119.66 MB / 18.00 GB
    Shell: 5.9 - /bin/zsh
  Browsers:
    Safari: 17.6
  npmPackages:
    @rsbuild/core@1.11.13
    @rsbuild/plugin-react@1.1.0

Details

While using rsbuild dev, I encountered a significant memory leak that caused the system to run out of application memory. This issue makes the system unstable and forces the user to quit applications to free up resources.

CodeSandbox: https://codesandbox.io/p/github/Fausto95/react-native-web-rsbuild/main?import=true

Reproduce link

https://github.com/Fausto95/react-native-web-rsbuild

Reproduce Steps

1. pnpm install
2. pnpm start:web
3. Keep on applying changes to /apps/rnw/src/App.js
4. Use Activity Monitor and observe the continuous increase in memory usage for the rsbuild-node process

[uladzimirdev]

I can report the same issue with rspack, rspack-node process can take ~30Gb of RAM.

I use @rspack/core@1.1.6, rspack config can be found here

[h-a-n-a]

Not sure how to reproduce this amount of memory consumption, but I found there might be something related to memory reseting in mimalloc. I changed memory semantic from MADV_FREE to MADV_DONTNEED to reflect memory consumption accurately in statistics like RSS.

[uladzimirdev]

@h-a-n-a I'm ready to test possible fixes as just running dev server for a while increases memory consumption for me, it wasn't a problem in v1

[h-a-n-a]

@h-a-n-a I'm ready to test possible fixes as just running dev server for a while increases memory consumption for me, it wasn't a problem in v1

@uladzimirdev Do you mind adding a reproducible demo? Which version of rspack do you use that doesn't have this issue? You may also try @rspack-canary/core@1.2.0-canary-c47c2431-20250117114227

[uladzimirdev]

@h-a-n-a

this is what I got on rspack serve

/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:14665
[js]     this.#instance = new instanceBinding.Rspack(
[js]                      ^
[js]
[js] Error: Missing field `enforceRelative`
[js]
[js]     at #getInstance (/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:14665:22)
[js]     at #build (/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13879:22)
[js]     at /node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13851:18
[js]     at done (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:473:13)
[js]     at AsyncSeriesHook.callAsyncStageRange (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:480:20)
[js]     at AsyncSeriesHook.callAsync (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:82:21)
[js]     at _Compiler.compile (/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13845:30)
[js]     at /node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13251:21
[js]     at done (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:473:13)
[js]     at next (/metabase/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:533:25) {
[js]   code: 'GenericFailure'
[js] }
[js]
[js] Node.js v18.20.5
error Command failed with exit code 1.

[1yasa]

+1 leaking at macos intel.

[h-a-n-a]

@h-a-n-a

this is what I got on rspack serve

/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:14665
[js]     this.#instance = new instanceBinding.Rspack(
[js]                      ^
[js]
[js] Error: Missing field `enforceRelative`
[js]
[js]     at #getInstance (/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:14665:22)
[js]     at #build (/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13879:22)
[js]     at /node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13851:18
[js]     at done (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:473:13)
[js]     at AsyncSeriesHook.callAsyncStageRange (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:480:20)
[js]     at AsyncSeriesHook.callAsync (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:82:21)
[js]     at _Compiler.compile (/node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13845:30)
[js]     at /node_modules/@rspack/cli/node_modules/@rspack/core/dist/index.js:13251:21
[js]     at done (/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:473:13)
[js]     at next (/metabase/node_modules/@rspack/lite-tapable/dist/index.js:533:25) {
[js]   code: 'GenericFailure'
[js] }
[js]
[js] Node.js v18.20.5
error Command failed with exit code 1.

@uladzimirdev Would you please try again with install-rspack?

[uladzimirdev]

@h-a-n-a I used it to install canary, let me try one more time.

yeah, no difference. It looks like it happens mostly when I switch branches without restarting dev server, memory grows with every HMR in action

[hnrchrdl]

Same here. Our application starts out with under 2GB of RAM usage for the rspack-node process, and easily accumulates around 20GB during usage. We are on 1.2.1 and i am using a Apple M3 Pro.

Are there any plans to investigate / fix this? Thank you for consideration.

[rafael-zilberman]

Same for us, when starting rspack the memory usage is ±4GB and growth to around 50GB while developing.
Using 1.2.1 with Apple M2 Pro

[xenokratos]

Hello

I'm having the same issue

System

	OS: macOS 15.2
	Chip: Apple M2 Pro
	Memory: 16 GB

Dependencies

	"@rsbuild/core": "^1.2.2",
	"@rsbuild/plugin-babel": "^1.0.3",
	"@rsbuild/plugin-react": "^1.1.0",
	"@rsdoctor/rspack-plugin": "^0.4.13"