maven "Compilation failure" but no issue displayed - maven-compiler-plugin

Question

When running mvn install the build fails intermittently with Compilation failure, particuarly at AbstractCompilerMojo.java:1165 however no warnings or errors are displayed. Setting <verbose>true</verbose> in the maven-compiler-plugin has no effect.
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 7.209 s (Wall Clock)
[INFO] Finished at: 2018-03-13T16:49:32Z
[INFO] Final Memory: 147M/611M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.7.0:compile (default-compile) on project PROJECTNAME: Compilation failure -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.7.0:compile (default-compile) on project PROJECTNAME: Compilation failure
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:213)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:154)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:146)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject (LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:117)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.multithreaded.MultiThreadedBuilder$1.call (MultiThreadedBuilder.java:200)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.multithreaded.MultiThreadedBuilder$1.call (MultiThreadedBuilder.java:196)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run (FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call (Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run (FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
at java.lang.Thread.run (Thread.java:748)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.compiler.CompilationFailureException: Compilation failure
at org.apache.maven.plugin.compiler.AbstractCompilerMojo.execute (AbstractCompilerMojo.java:1165)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.compiler.CompilerMojo.execute (CompilerMojo.java:168)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo (DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:134)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:208)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:154)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute (MojoExecutor.java:146)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject (LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:117)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.multithreaded.MultiThreadedBuilder$1.call (MultiThreadedBuilder.java:200)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.multithreaded.MultiThreadedBuilder$1.call (MultiThreadedBuilder.java:196)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run (FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call (Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run (FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
at java.lang.Thread.run (Thread.java:748)
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException

Answer 1

I managed to invoke javac manually with the same arguments and the following error was output
The system is out of resources.
Consult the following stack trace for details.
java.lang.StackOverflowError
at com.sun.tools.javac.code.Type.map(Type.java:220)
at com.sun.tools.javac.code.Type.map(Type.java:220)
at com.sun.tools.javac.code.Type.map(Type.java:220)
at com.sun.tools.javac.code.Type.map(Type.java:220)
at com.sun.tools.javac.code.Type.map(Type.java:220)
...
The issue can be solved by increasing the stack size to say 4 MB with -J-Xss4m
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.7.0</version>
<inherited>true</inherited>
<configuration>
<compilerArgs>
<arg>-J-Xss4m</arg>
</compilerArgs>
</configuration>
</plugin>
The root cause of the issue was a 3000-line Map field initialization. So the real solution was to move that data to a file.
Similar to this issue: https://github.com/google/guava/issues/2234

Answer 2

pass argument "-verbose" to compilerArgs as shown below to get details of the failure.
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<verbose>false</verbose>
<fork>true</fork>
<source>${jdk.version}</source>
<target>${jdk.version}</target>
<!-- false means true here -->
<useIncrementalCompilation>true</useIncrementalCompilation>
<compilerArgs>
<arg>-J-Xss512m</arg>
<arg>-J-noverify</arg>
<arg>-verbose</arg>
<arg>-Xlint:all,-options,-path</arg>
</compilerArgs>
</configuration>
</plugin>