--- a/common/autoconf/boot-jdk.m4	Wed Jul 05 21:04:26 2017 +0200
+++ b/common/autoconf/boot-jdk.m4	Wed Dec 02 09:34:13 2015 -0800
@@ -375,6 +375,9 @@
   JAVA_FLAGS_BIG=$boot_jdk_jvmargs_big
   AC_SUBST(JAVA_FLAGS_BIG)
 
+  # By default, the main javac compilations use big
+  JAVA_FLAGS_JAVAC="$JAVA_FLAGS_BIG"
+  AC_SUBST(JAVA_FLAGS_JAVAC)
 
   AC_MSG_CHECKING([flags for boot jdk java command for small workloads])