What causes "Error allocating memory for pkgDataFlags.\n" in nodejs/node?

Free system memory or increase available memory (close other processes, increase VM/container memory).

Error allocating memory for pkgDataFlags.\n

Error message

Error allocating memory for pkgDataFlags.\n

What it means

uprv_malloc() returned nullptr when allocating the pkgDataFlags pointer array itself (sizeof(char*) * PKGDATA_FLAGS_SIZE). This is an out-of-memory condition at the very start of initializePkgDataFlags(). The tool cannot proceed without the flags array and exits with -1.

Source

Thrown at deps/icu-small/source/tools/pkgdata/pkgdata.cpp:872

    UErrorCode status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
    int32_t result = 0;
    int32_t currentBufferSize = SMALL_BUFFER_MAX_SIZE;
    int32_t tmpResult = 0;

    /* Initialize pkgdataFlags */
    pkgDataFlags = static_cast<char**>(uprv_malloc(sizeof(char*) * PKGDATA_FLAGS_SIZE));

    /* If we run out of space, allocate more */
#if !defined(WINDOWS_WITH_MSVC) || defined(USING_CYGWIN)
    do {
#endif
        if (pkgDataFlags != nullptr) {
            for (int32_t i = 0; i < PKGDATA_FLAGS_SIZE; i++) {
                pkgDataFlags[i] = static_cast<char*>(uprv_malloc(sizeof(char) * currentBufferSize));
                if (pkgDataFlags[i] != nullptr) {
                    pkgDataFlags[i][0] = 0;
                } else {
                    fprintf(stderr,"Error allocating memory for pkgDataFlags.\n");
                    /* If an error occurs, ensure that the rest of the array is nullptr */
                    for (int32_t n = i + 1; n < PKGDATA_FLAGS_SIZE; n++) {
                        pkgDataFlags[n] = nullptr;
                    }
                    return -1;
                }
            }
        } else {
            fprintf(stderr,"Error allocating memory for pkgDataFlags.\n");
            return -1;
        }

        if (o->options == nullptr) {
            return result;
        }

#if !defined(WINDOWS_WITH_MSVC) || defined(USING_CYGWIN)
        /* Read in options file. */

View on GitHub (pinned to 1b2de5e052)

Solutions

Free system memory or increase available memory (close other processes, increase VM/container memory).
Reduce parallelism in the build (fewer -j jobs).
Check and raise the memory ulimit: 'ulimit -v unlimited'.
If building in a container, increase its memory limit.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Before running pkgdata, check available memory
#include <sys/sysinfo.h>

bool checkMemoryAvailable() {
    struct sysinfo info;
    if (sysinfo(&info) == 0) {
        unsigned long avail = info.freeram * info.mem_unit;
        return avail > (16 * 1024 * 1024);  // need at least 16MB free
    }
    return true; // can't check, allow attempt
}

Prevention

Monitor memory usage during builds; reduce -j parallelism if memory is tight.
Increase container/VM memory limits for build jobs.
Check 'ulimit -v' and raise it if necessary.

When it happens

Trigger: System is severely memory-constrained when pkgdata starts up. PKGDATA_FLAGS_SIZE entries of char* could not be allocated. This is the outer allocation failing before any individual flag strings are allocated.

Common situations: Running pkgdata in a memory-limited container or VM; ulimit set too low; extremely large PKGDATA_FLAGS_SIZE due to a misconfigured build; system under heavy memory pressure from parallel builds.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nodejs/node@1b2de5e052 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/43d0f88855c8d0b9. Report an issue: GitHub.