JavaMail application aborts JVM on iPlanet

Question

I am running a JavaMail application
on iPlanet Web Server 4.1 SP9 on Solaris 2.8.
The iPlanet Webserver uses JDK 1.2.2_05.
(The JDK required patches are installed.)
The application uses JavaMail 1.3.1 and
JAF 1.0.2 from Sun. The IMAP4 server is
accessed using the service provider in the
JavaMail package.
The application calls repeatedly
BodyPart.getContent()
until the returned object is of type InputStream.
When this input stream is read, the JVM aborts.
I turned the JavaMail debug on using Session.setDebug().
This shows, that part of the body of the mail is
fetched before the JVM aborts.
The application log including JavaMail:
2003-09-17 22:39:21,860 [Thread-9] DEBUG imap4.MsgBody - int readLen = -1;
2003-09-17 22:39:21,860 [Thread-9] DEBUG imap4.MsgBody - while ((readLen = body.
read()) != -1) {
2003-09-17 22:39:21,863 [Thread-9] DEBUG JAVAMAIL - A29 FETCH 11 (BODY[1]<0.16384>)
2003-09-17 22:39:21,891 [Thread-9] DEBUG JAVAMAIL - * 11 FETCH (BODY[1]<0> {16384}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The iPlanet error log shows, that at this moment the JVM is restarted:
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:21] info ( 2583): Internal Info: loading servlet /Creator/callflow/htmlsara/dbg_play_msg_body.jsp
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:21] info ( 2583): Aborting JVM
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:21] info ( 2583): Exiting JVM due to: jvm_abort () and jvm.ex
itOnAbort > 0
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:21] info ( 2583): JVM exit statistics: AttachedThreads/Max=1/
1, ActiveThreads/Max=1/1
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:22] warning ( 2585): Unable to initialize NLS property bundle
(res/cjava)
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:22] catastrophe ( 2585): Unable to create/cleanup persistent
session data cache
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:23] warning ( 2585): sjava resource bundle not found - using
default: java.util.MissingResourceException: Can't find resource for base name r
es.sjava, locale en
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:23] info ( 2585): Loading Simple Session Manager by default.
Specify MMapSessionManager in servlets.properties to load persistent session man
ager
[17/Sep/2003:22:39:23] info ( 2585): SimpleSessionManager: Default values for ma
ximum number of sessions is 1000 with a time out value of 1800 seconds
The only public interface of the application is a bean. When this bean is
used via a main method, then everything works. The same JVM is used
to run the application from the command line.
Can you give me some suggestion, how the problem can be resolved.
Thanks

Answer 1

In the mean time I found a solution to the problem.
After reading the JavaMail forum, FAQ, Notes, and
other resources it became obvious, that
large attachments exhaust JVM memory.
I minimized the memory usage of the JavaMail
and the application, that uses the JavaMail as
follows.
I decreased the fetchsize of the IMAP4 client
by setting the mail.imap.fetchsize properties to
64 bytes.
I do not buffer the InputStream returned by the
Part.getContent() method.
I decreased the buffer size used in the statement
istream.read(buf) to 128.
The istream is the InputStream returned by the
Part.getContent.
All this changes led to a JavaMail debug log, that
showed, that JavaMail used the memory efficiently.
JavaMail only read as many bytes as it was
necessary to fiil the buf buffer, then I could save
the bytes, and read the next chunk of the body.
The price of the solution is, that the decreased memory usage resulted in a much slower system.