Is this Android build time & memory increase expected? #268

bhandanyan-nomad · 2025-02-22T20:14:38Z

bhandanyan-nomad
Feb 22, 2025

I am on react-native version "0.76.6" at the moment with the new architecture off. My builds are failing in CircleCI when trying to turn on the new architecture. I did a test build with a larger executor and it passed, but I'm hoping to not have to pay 2x or more for android builds just to be on the new architecture. I'm mainly wondering if this memory jump is expected and caused by react-native itself or possibly some dependency of my app.

Build memory usage without new arch stays just below 8GB and takes 12-14 mins

Build memory usage with new arch gets above 12GB and taks >20 mins

The only difference between these two builds, besides the larger executor in circleci config, is that I changed newArchEnabled=false to newArchEnabled=true in gradle.properties.

We use the react native community circleci orb and their linux_android executor as such:

    executor:
      name: rn/linux_android
      # See: https://hub.docker.com/r/reactnativecommunity/react-native-android/tags
      build_image_version: v15.0
      gradle_options: '-Xmx4g -Xms2g -Dorg.gradle.daemon=false -Dorg.gradle.workers.max=2 -Dorg.gradle.jvmargs="-Xmx4g -Xms2g -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+UseContainerSupport -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8"'
      resource_class: large

I'll be happy to try to share any additional information that I can. I'm hopeful that others have run into this and solved or, or just know what I can look into to try to mitigate this memory increase if its possible to do so. Thanks in advance for any help.

Answered by cortinico

Feb 23, 2025

I'll be happy to try to share any additional information that I can. I'm hopeful that others have run into this and solved or, or just know what I can look into to try to mitigate this memory increase if its possible to do so.

Without seeing your project is hard to say if there is anything that is causing this in particular.

What I can say is that with newArchEnabled=true, you'll be also compiling C++ code. That's due to the New Architecture of React Native being in C++, so there is one compiler more to invoke so builds we be (sadly) a bit slower than old arch.

We invested significant amount of time on build optimizations though, so you should probably look into setting up some caching …

View full answer

bhandanyan-nomad · 2025-02-22T20:33:20Z

bhandanyan-nomad
Feb 22, 2025
Author

android_build_output.txt

The failed build output is here, and it ends with:

...
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :react-native-share:processReleaseJavaRes NO-SOURCE
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :react-native-svg:processReleaseJavaRes NO-SOURCE
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :react-native-ui-lib:processReleaseJavaRes NO-SOURCE
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :react-native-webview:processReleaseJavaRes
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :rn-pendo-sdk:processReleaseJavaRes NO-SOURCE
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :segment_analytics-react-native:processReleaseJavaRes
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :segment_sovran-react-native:processReleaseJavaRes
[21:17:59]: ▸ > Task :splitsoftware_splitio-react-native:processReleaseJavaRes
[21:18:00]: ▸ > Task :app:mergeProductionReleaseGlobalSynthetics
[21:18:01]: ▸ > Task :app:mergeProductionReleaseJavaResource
[21:18:02]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:configureCMakeRelWithDebInfo[arm64-v8a]
[21:18:03]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:configureCMakeRelWithDebInfo[armeabi-v7a]
[21:18:04]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:configureCMakeRelWithDebInfo[x86]
[21:18:04]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:configureCMakeRelWithDebInfo[x86_64]
[21:18:04]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:generateJsonModelRelease
[21:18:04]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:prefabReleaseConfigurePackage
[21:18:05]: ▸ > Task :app:configureCMakeRelWithDebInfo[arm64-v8a]
[21:18:23]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:buildCMakeRelWithDebInfo[arm64-v8a]
[21:18:40]: ▸ > Task :app:mergeDexProductionRelease
[21:18:43]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:buildCMakeRelWithDebInfo[armeabi-v7a]
[21:18:59]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:buildCMakeRelWithDebInfo[x86]
[21:19:16]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:buildCMakeRelWithDebInfo[x86_64]
[21:19:17]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:externalNativeBuildRelease
[21:19:17]: ▸ > Task :react-native-reanimated:prefabReleasePackage
[21:19:47]: ▸ > Task :app:buildCMakeRelWithDebInfo[arm64-v8a]

Too long with no output (exceeded 10m0s): context deadline exceeded

Coul it be react-native-reanimated that is the issue?

0 replies

cortinico · 2025-02-23T09:40:28Z

cortinico
Feb 23, 2025
Maintainer

I'll be happy to try to share any additional information that I can. I'm hopeful that others have run into this and solved or, or just know what I can look into to try to mitigate this memory increase if its possible to do so.

Without seeing your project is hard to say if there is anything that is causing this in particular.

What I can say is that with newArchEnabled=true, you'll be also compiling C++ code. That's due to the New Architecture of React Native being in C++, so there is one compiler more to invoke so builds we be (sadly) a bit slower than old arch.

We invested significant amount of time on build optimizations though, so you should probably look into setting up some caching for your CI. If you're rebuilding everything from scratch everytime, the time is going to add up. But if you cache the build output, normally an app rebuild should take a couple of minutes. That's particularly true if you have 3rd party deps such as reanimated which also have a lot of C++ code for their New Architecture implementation

2 replies

bhandanyan-nomad Feb 23, 2025
Author

Thank you for the reply. I'll share some additional things about how the app is built in CI and list the major dependencies of the app as well below. If there is anything else that would be helpful for me to share I'd be happy to do so.

The first thing that might be related to the caching you mention is that when we build in CI (using fastlane) we run these commands every time:

lane :build_upload_production do
    gradle(task: "clean")
    gradle(
        task: 'bundle',
        flavor: 'Production',
        build_type: 'Release',
    )
    ...
end

Should I consider removing the clean step?

Our entire android build step in Circle CI looks something like this:

  fastlane_android:
    working_directory: ~/repo
    executor:
      name: rn/linux_android
      # See: https://hub.docker.com/r/reactnativecommunity/react-native-android/tags
      build_image_version: v15.0
      gradle_options: '-Xmx4g -Xms2g -Dorg.gradle.daemon=false -Dorg.gradle.workers.max=2 -Dorg.gradle.jvmargs="-Xmx4g -Xms2g -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+UseContainerSupport -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8"'
    resource_class: large
    steps:
      - attach_workspace:
          at: .
      - node/install-packages:
          include-branch-in-cache-key: false
          pkg-manager: yarn
          cache-version: v4
      - ruby/install-deps:
          app-dir: android
          key: gems-v1
          include-branch-in-cache-key: false
      - run:
          command: cd android && bundle exec fastlane build_upload_production
          name: Running lane build_upload_production

Here is a list of dependencies in our package.json:

"dependencies": {
    "@datadog/mobile-react-native": "2.6.2",
    "@datadog/mobile-react-navigation": "2.6.2",
    "@expo/react-native-action-sheet": "4.1.0",
    "@fullstory/react-native": "1.7.2",
    "@hookform/resolvers": "4.1.0",
    "@iterable/react-native-sdk": "1.3.21",
    "@react-native-async-storage/async-storage": "2.1.1",
    "@react-native-community/slider": "4.5.5",
    "@react-native-firebase/analytics": "21.7.1",
    "@react-native-firebase/app": "21.7.1",
    "@react-navigation/bottom-tabs": "7.2.0",
    "@react-navigation/devtools": "7.0.15",
    "@react-navigation/drawer": "7.1.1",
    "@react-navigation/material-top-tabs": "7.1.0",
    "@react-navigation/native": "7.0.14",
    "@react-navigation/native-stack": "7.2.0",
    "@reduxjs/toolkit": "2.5.1",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native": "2.20.3",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-amplitude-session": "0.4.0",
    "@segment/analytics-react-native-plugin-firebase": "0.4.3",
    "@segment/sovran-react-native": "1.1.3",
    "@splitsoftware/splitio-react-native": "1.1.0",
    "@tanstack/react-query": "5.66.8",
    "color": "4.2.3",
    "lodash": "4.17.21",
    "luxon": "3.5.0",
    "query-string": "7.1.3",
    "react": "18.3.1",
    "react-hook-form": "7.54.2",
    "react-native": "0.76.6",
    "react-native-bootsplash": "6.3.3",
    "react-native-calendars": "1.1309.1",
    "react-native-config": "1.5.5",
    "react-native-date-picker": "5.0.10",
    "react-native-device-info": "14.0.4",
    "react-native-document-picker": "9.3.1",
    "react-native-element-dropdown": "2.12.4",
    "react-native-email-link": "1.16.1",
    "react-native-fs": "2.20.0",
    "react-native-gesture-handler": "2.24.0",
    "react-native-get-random-values": "1.11.0",
    "react-native-image-picker": "8.1.0",
    "react-native-in-app-review": "4.3.3",
    "react-native-keyboard-aware-scroll-view": "0.9.5",
    "react-native-linear-gradient": "2.8.3",
    "react-native-map-link": "3.7.0",
    "react-native-mask-input": "1.2.3",
    "react-native-modal": "13.0.1",
    "react-native-notifications": "5.1.0",
    "react-native-page-indicator": "2.4.1",
    "react-native-pager-view": "6.7.0",
    "react-native-paper": "5.13.1",
    "react-native-permissions": "5.2.5",
    "react-native-reanimated": "3.16.7",
    "react-native-safe-area-context": "5.2.0",
    "react-native-screens": "4.8.0",
    "react-native-share": "12.0.9",
    "react-native-shimmer-placeholder": "2.0.9",
    "react-native-signature-canvas": "4.7.2",
    "react-native-svg": "15.11.1",
    "react-native-tab-view": "4.0.5",
    "react-native-ui-lib": "7.6.2",
    "react-native-uuid": "2.0.3",
    "react-native-webview": "13.13.2",
    "react-redux": "9.2.0",
    "redux-persist": "6.0.0",
    "rn-pendo-sdk": "3.6.0",
    "url-parse": "1.5.10",
    "use-interval": "1.4.0",
    "usehooks-ts": "3.1.1",
    "yup": "1.6.1"
  },

cortinico Feb 24, 2025
Maintainer

Yup so definitely running clean every time is probably unnecessary (unless you have a valid reason to do so).

On setting up your CI cache, there are plenty of articles online on how to do it: https://circleci.com/blog/enhancing-ai-model-experimentation-with-multiple-ci-cd-pipelines/

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Is this Android build time & memory increase expected? #268

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Is this Android build time & memory increase expected? #268

bhandanyan-nomad Feb 22, 2025

Build memory usage without new arch stays just below 8GB and takes 12-14 mins

Build memory usage with new arch gets above 12GB and taks >20 mins

Replies: 2 comments · 2 replies

bhandanyan-nomad Feb 22, 2025 Author

cortinico Feb 23, 2025 Maintainer

bhandanyan-nomad Feb 23, 2025 Author

cortinico Feb 24, 2025 Maintainer

bhandanyan-nomad
Feb 22, 2025

Replies: 2 comments 2 replies

bhandanyan-nomad
Feb 22, 2025
Author

cortinico
Feb 23, 2025
Maintainer

bhandanyan-nomad Feb 23, 2025
Author

cortinico Feb 24, 2025
Maintainer