Index: oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentRootBuilder.java
===================================================================
--- oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentRootBuilder.java	(revision 1708366)
+++ oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/DocumentRootBuilder.java	(working copy)
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.spi.commit.CommitInfo;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.spi.state.ConflictAnnotatingRebaseDiff;
 import org.apache.jackrabbit.oak.spi.state.NodeState;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 /**
  * This implementation tracks the number of pending changes and purges them to
@@ -42,6 +44,9 @@
      */
     static final int UPDATE_LIMIT = Integer.getInteger("update.limit", 10000);
 
+    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(DocumentRootBuilder.class);
+
+
     /**
      * The underlying store
      */
@@ -66,6 +71,13 @@
      */
     private int updates;
 
+
+    /**
+     * Indicates when the next warning about persisted nodes is logged
+     */
+    private int updateWarnLevel;
+
+
     DocumentRootBuilder(@Nonnull DocumentNodeState base,
                         @Nonnull DocumentNodeStore store) {
         super(checkNotNull(base));
@@ -72,6 +84,7 @@
         this.store = checkNotNull(store);
         this.base = base;
         this.branch = store.createBranch(base);
+        this.updateWarnLevel = UPDATE_LIMIT;
     }
 
     //--------------------------------------------------< MemoryNodeBuilder >---
@@ -97,6 +110,10 @@
     protected void updated() {
         if (++updates > UPDATE_LIMIT) {
             purge();
+            if (updates > updateWarnLevel) {
+                LOG.warn("Updated more than {} nodes in transient space, overflowing to persistence", updateWarnLevel);
+                updateWarnLevel = 2 * updateWarnLevel;    
+            }
         }
     }
 
Index: oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/VersionGarbageCollector.java
===================================================================
--- oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/VersionGarbageCollector.java	(revision 1708366)
+++ oak-core/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/plugins/document/VersionGarbageCollector.java	(working copy)
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/*
+*
  * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
  * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
  * distributed with this work for additional information