How to Use GOMEMLIMIT (Go 1.19+)

Set the GOMEMLIMIT environment variable to a byte value with an optional unit suffix (B, KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB) to enforce a soft memory limit on the Go runtime. The runtime will attempt to keep total memory usage below this threshold by adjusting garbage collection behavior.

export GOMEMLIMIT=512MiB

Alternatively, set the limit programmatically at runtime using runtime/debug.SetMemoryLimit:

import "runtime/debug"

func main() {
    debug.SetMemoryLimit(512 * 1024 * 1024)
}

GOMEMLIMIT acts as a safety valve for your application's memory usage. It tells the Go runtime to stop growing its memory footprint once it hits a specific ceiling, preventing your program from consuming all available RAM on the server. Think of it like a speed limit sign that forces the car to slow down before it crashes.