I wasn't able to reproduce this behavior on my Mac laptop. When I run the analyzer tests I use the following command:

./tools/test.py --mode release --compiler dartanalyzer --runtime none --progress color --report --tasks=2

This starts two JVM's, both of which reach a maximum memory usage of around 625MB (as reported by Activity Monitor).

So then I tried the command you are using:

./tools/test.py --time --report --mode=release -p verbose --compiler=dartanalyzer --runtime=none -j 1

And it started a single JVM that never went above 615MB.

Rico: any insight you can offer would be appreciated.

Set owner to @ricowind.
Removed Priority-Unassigned label.
Added Priority-Medium label.

Couple of clarifications.

1. On my linux box it uses 6G, on my mac laptop it peaks out at 615M or so, as you observe.
2. Nonetheless, the out of memory error is pretty reproducible on my laptop, just ran it again with the crash log below (again, with the peak memory as reported by the activity monitor at 615M or so). This was using the command line you suggested above.
3. This isn't really blocking me - I just have to remember to run analyzer tests on my linux box and use -j n with small n. Just reported it since I thought it might be of interest. It looks a lot like something is leaking memory over time, since the memory usage grows over time, and is much larger than the memory needed for any single file (and since apparently much of the heap is live, per the out of memory error below).

Here's the java version from my machine:

leafp-macbookpro:dart leafp$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_65"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_65-b17)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.65-b04, mixed mode)

Expected: Pass
Actual: Crash
CommandOutput[dartanalyzer]:

stderr:
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded
    at java.nio.HeapCharBuffer.subSequence(HeapCharBuffer.java:576)
    at java.nio.HeapCharBuffer.subSequence(HeapCharBuffer.java:42)
    at com.google.dart.engine.scanner.CharSequenceReader.getString(CharSequenceReader.java:62)
    at com.google.dart.engine.scanner.Scanner.tokenizeIdentifier(Scanner.java:773)
    at com.google.dart.engine.scanner.Scanner.tokenizeKeywordOrIdentifier(Scanner.java:826)
    at com.google.dart.engine.scanner.Scanner.bigSwitch(Scanner.java:231)
    at com.google.dart.engine.scanner.Scanner.tokenize(Scanner.java:183)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.task.ScanDartTask.internalPerform(ScanDartTask.java:147)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.task.AnalysisTask.safelyPerform(AnalysisTask.java:119)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.task.AnalysisTask.perform(AnalysisTask.java:73)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.cacheDartScanData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:2731)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.cacheDartParseData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:2654)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.computeResolvableCompilationUnit(AnalysisContextImpl.java:1269)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.resolver.Library.getAST(Library.java:139)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.resolver.Library.getDefiningCompilationUnit(Library.java:181)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.resolver.LibraryElementBuilder.buildLibrary(LibraryElementBuilder.java:87)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.resolver.LibraryResolver.buildElementModels(LibraryResolver.java:559)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.resolver.LibraryResolver.resolveLibrary(LibraryResolver.java:291)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.task.ResolveDartLibraryTask.internalPerform(ResolveDartLibraryTask.java:97)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.task.AnalysisTask.safelyPerform(AnalysisTask.java:119)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.task.AnalysisTask.perform(AnalysisTask.java:73)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.cacheDartResolutionData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:2695)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.getDartResolutionData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:3434)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.getDartResolutionData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:3466)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.resolveCompilationUnit(AnalysisContextImpl.java:1993)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.resolveCompilationUnit(AnalysisContextImpl.java:1987)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.cacheDartVerificationData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:2773)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.getDartVerificationData(AnalysisContextImpl.java:3541)
    at com.google.dart.engine.internal.context.AnalysisContextImpl.computeErrors(AnalysisContextImpl.java:1171)
    at com.google.dart.command.analyze.AnalyzerImpl.getAllErrors(AnalyzerImpl.java:257)
    at com.google.dart.command.analyze.AnalyzerImpl.performAnalysis(AnalyzerImpl.java:141)
    at com.google.dart.command.analyze.AnalyzerImpl.analyze(AnalyzerImpl.java:110)

Command[dartanalyzer]: sdk/bin/dartanalyzer_developer --ignore-unrecognized-flags --show-package-warnings --package-root=xcodebuild/ReleaseIA32/packages/ --fatal-warnings --fatal-type-errors --show-sdk-warnings --machine --no-hints /Users/leafp/src/dart-repo/dart/sdk/lib/_internal/pub/bin/pub.dart

@rico: Changed area in case you filter by area when looking at issues.

Removed Area-Analyzer label.
Added Area-Infrastructure label.

Added AssumedStale label.