--- a/common/autoconf/boot-jdk.m4	Tue Nov 24 11:25:16 2015 +0100
+++ b/common/autoconf/boot-jdk.m4	Tue Nov 24 15:36:32 2015 +0100
@@ -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])