Critical Description
We got the following exception stack trace after trying to start ApacheDS from a backup:
14:37:15] ERROR [org.apache.directory.server.wrapper.ApacheDsTanukiWrapper] - Failed to start the service.
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Can't overwrite cause
at java.lang.Throwable.initCause(Throwable.java:456)
at org.apache.directory.server.core.authz.GroupCache.initialize(GroupCache.java:190)
at org.apache.directory.server.core.authz.GroupCache.<init>(GroupCache.java:122)
at org.apache.directory.server.core.authz.AciAuthorizationInterceptor.init(AciAuthorizationInterceptor.java:295)
at org.apache.directory.server.core.DefaultDirectoryService.initInterceptors(DefaultDirectoryService.java:726)
at org.apache.directory.server.core.DefaultDirectoryService.initialize(DefaultDirectoryService.java:1863)
at org.apache.directory.server.core.DefaultDirectoryService.startup(DefaultDirectoryService.java:1272)
at org.apache.directory.server.ApacheDsService.initDirectoryService(ApacheDsService.java:316)
at org.apache.directory.server.ApacheDsService.start(ApacheDsService.java:180)
at org.apache.directory.server.wrapper.ApacheDsTanukiWrapper.start(ApacheDsTanukiWrapper.java:72)
at org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.WrapperManager$12.run(WrapperManager.java:2788)
The problem here really is, that this exception hides the real problem here. I see that even in the trunk you try to set the cause in http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/directory/apacheds/trunk/interceptors/authz/src/main/java/org/apache/directory/server/core/authz/GroupCache.java in the initializeMethod. That is not allowed and leads to that exception if the original exception already has a cause set (http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Throwable.html#initCause%28java.lang.Throwable%29). Rather just wrap the original exception and leave out the initCause or at least check first, if the initCause is allowed at that point. Also please remove the e.printStackTrace as it will land in the standard error stream rather than in the log.