[CALCITE-4393] ExceptionInInitializerError due to NPE in SqlCallBinding caused by circular dependency

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 1.27.0
• Labels: pull-request-available
• Assignee: Ruben Q L
• Reporter: Ruben Q L
• Created: 11/Nov/20 14:39
• Updated: 03/Jun/21 22:31
• Resolved: 24/Nov/20 08:53

Description

See discussion here: https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/red0fc146f78a196af6fdaa5393b2c0906e0a49361a1734a850185777%40%3Cdev.calcite.apache.org%3E

ExceptionInInitializerError on WebSphere 9 (on Ubuntu) when trying to start an application that uses Calcite (shaded) library. The exception message reads:

 **         error [-]: Unexpected error.
 **               ...
 **               Caused by: java.lang.BootstrapMethodError: java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
 **               com.onwbp.org.apache.calcite.sql.type.InferTypes.<clinit>(InferTypes.java:41)
 **               com.onwbp.org.apache.calcite.sql.fun.SqlMultisetSetOperator.<init>(SqlMultisetSetOperator.java:43)
 **               com.onwbp.org.apache.calcite.sql.fun.SqlStdOperatorTable.<clinit>(SqlStdOperatorTable.java:118)
 **               com.onwbp.org.apache.calcite.adapter.enumerable.RexToLixTranslator.<clinit>(RexToLixTranslator.java:93)
 **               java.lang.Class.forNameImpl(Native Method)
 **               java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:348)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodType.nonPrimitiveClassFromString(MethodType.java:311)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodType.parseIntoClasses(MethodType.java:373)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodType.fromMethodDescriptorString(MethodType.java:286)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle.getCPMethodTypeAt(Native Method)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle.resolveInvokeDynamic(MethodHandle.java:849)
 **               ... 74 more
 **               Caused by: java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
 **               java.lang.J9VMInternals.ensureError(J9VMInternals.java:141)
 **               java.lang.J9VMInternals.recordInitializationFailure(J9VMInternals.java:130)
 **               java.lang.Class.forNameImpl(Native Method)
 **               java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:348)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodType.nonPrimitiveClassFromString(MethodType.java:311)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodType.parseIntoClasses(MethodType.java:373)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodType.fromMethodDescriptorString(MethodType.java:286)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle.getCPMethodTypeAt(Native Method)
 **               java.lang.invoke.MethodHandle.resolveInvokeDynamic(MethodHandle.java:849)
 **               ... 85 more
 **               Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
 **               com.onwbp.org.apache.calcite.sql.SqlCallBinding.<clinit>(SqlCallBinding.java:60)
 **               ... 92 more
 ****** 1 errors, 5 infos. 

As we can see there is a NPE in SqlCallBinding:60, when it tries to call a method on SqlStdOperatorTable.DEFAULT, which seems to be null.

According to the logs, what I think is happening is a circular dependency issue when classes get loaded (more details in first comment).
However, so far I have only seen this error in WebSphere, in other environments the same application is correctly initialized and launched, and this exception does not happen.
Since WebSphere uses IBM's own JVM, my hypothesis is that its class loader follows a different (and unlucky) order to load Calcite classes.

So far I have not been able to reproduce the issue with a unit test, neither on Github CI, nor in a local environment.

Issue Links

• is related to: CALCITE-4492 ExceptionInInitializerError caused by ImmutableBeans
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #2255