Instance Size
When a build runs out of memory
Compiling anything from source, not just Python (see Install Apps), is memory hungry in a way normal application workloads aren’t. t3.micro gives you 1 GB of RAM, and a make step that dies partway through with an out of memory error is that limit, not a broken source tree.
Two ways out, and they trade off differently:
- Size up temporarily. Stop the instance, change the instance type to something with more RAM, start it back up, run the build, then size back down. This costs a few minutes of downtime and a little more spend for the duration, but nothing about the build itself changes.
- Add swap. Swap space lets the kernel page memory out to disk instead of killing the process, so the build finishes on the original instance type. It’s slower under memory pressure than real RAM would be, but for a one-time build that’s a fine trade, and it avoids touching the instance’s configuration at all.
Either way, this is a build-time problem, not a runtime one. Once the compiled artifact exists, running it day to day doesn’t need the extra headroom.