[GERONIMO-2222] Application errors in static initialization blocks during serialization of configuration during deployment due to incorrect TCCL

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Blocker
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.0, 1.1
• Fix Version/s: 1.1.1, 1.2
• Component/s: deployment
• Security Level: public (Regular issues)
• Assignee: John Sisson
• Reporter: John Sisson
• Created: 24/Jul/06 13:05
• Updated: 07/Aug/06 15:07
• Resolved: 28/Jul/06 01:07

Description

Problem

Exceptions and/or errors may occur in static initialization blocks invoked whilst loading classes when serializing a configuration during deployment.
These same exceptions/errors don't occur when starting the configuration.

Symptoms

Deployment of an EAR that has dependencies on its own copy of Xerces will cause an exception similar to the following if Xerces is initialised in a static block.

java.lang.ClassCastException
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at com.foo.server.ejb.MyEJB.<clinit>
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.hasStaticInitializer(Native Method)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.computeDefaultSUID(ObjectStreamClass.java:1557)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.access$100(ObjectStreamClass.java:47)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass$1.run(ObjectStreamClass.java:173)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.getSerialVersionUID(ObjectStreamClass.java:170)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.writeNonProxy(ObjectStreamClass.java:557)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeClassDescriptor(ObjectOutputStream.java:591)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeNonProxyDesc(ObjectOutputStream.java:1142)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeClassDesc(ObjectOutputStream.java:1100)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeClass(ObjectOutputStream.java:1082)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:996)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1332)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1304)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1247)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1052)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1332)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1304)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1247)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1052)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1332)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1304)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1247)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1052)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1332)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1304)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1247)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1052)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:278)
        at org.apache.geronimo.gbean.GBeanData.writeExternal(GBeanData.java:187)
        at org.apache.geronimo.kernel.config.SerializedGBeanState.storeGBeans(SerializedGBeanState.java:139)
        at org.apache.geronimo.kernel.config.SerializedGBeanState.writeObject(SerializedGBeanState.java:92)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.invokeWriteObject(ObjectStreamClass.java:809)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1296)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1247)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1052)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.defaultWriteFields(ObjectOutputStream.java:1332)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeSerialData(ObjectOutputStream.java:1304)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeOrdinaryObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:1247)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject0(ObjectOutputStream.java:1052)
        at java.io.ObjectOutputStream.writeObject(ObjectOutputStream.java:278)
        at org.apache.geronimo.kernel.config.SerializedConfigurationMarshaler.writeConfigurationData(SerializedConfigurationMarshale
r.java:66)
        at org.apache.geronimo.kernel.config.ConfigurationUtil.writeConfigurationData(ConfigurationUtil.java:163)
        at org.apache.geronimo.system.configuration.ExecutableConfigurationUtil.writeConfiguration(ExecutableConfigurationUtil.java:
155)
        at org.apache.geronimo.system.configuration.RepositoryConfigurationStore.install(RepositoryConfigurationStore.java:323)
        at org.apache.geronimo.deployment.Deployer.deploy(Deployer.java:322)
        at org.apache.geronimo.deployment.Deployer.deploy(Deployer.java:124)

Deployment of an EAR that has dependencies on its own copy of Log4j will cause errors similar to the following if Log4j is initialised in a static block.

log4j:ERROR A "org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender" object is not assignable to a "org.apache.log4j.Appender" variable.
log4j:ERROR The class "org.apache.log4j.Appender" was loaded by
log4j:ERROR [[org.apache.geronimo.kernel.classloader.JarFileClassLoader id=groupId/artifactId/1.0/ear]] whereas object of type
log4j:ERROR "org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender" was loaded by [sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader@53ba3d].
log4j:ERROR Could not instantiate appender named "WSSysOut".
log4j: Parsing appender named "WSFile1".
log4j:ERROR A "org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender" object is not assignable to a "org.apache.log4j.Appender" variable.
log4j:ERROR The class "org.apache.log4j.Appender" was loaded by
log4j:ERROR [[org.apache.geronimo.kernel.classloader.JarFileClassLoader id=groupId/artifactId/1.0/ear]] whereas object of type
log4j:ERROR "org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender" was loaded by [sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader@53ba3d].
log4j:ERROR Could not instantiate appender named "WSFile1".

Cause

The org.apache.geronimo.deployment.deploy(..) method at approx line 187 serializes the configuration by calling store.install(configurationData) but at the time when the configuration is serialized (and static blocks in EJBs invoked) the thread context classloader is set to [org.apache.geronimo.kernel.classloader.JarFileClassLoader id=geronimo/j2ee-security/1.1.1-SNAPSHOT/car].

Xerces and Log4j are examples of libraries that rely upon the thread context classloader to be set correctly during initialization.

Solution

Set the context classloader before serializing the configuration.

Workaround

If you have access to the application source code, modify the application's static blocks to call setContextClassLoader(..). For example:

ClassLoader oldClassloader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader( this.getClass().getClassLoader());
try {
   // application processing
} finally {
    Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader( oldClassloader );
}

Alternatively for Log4j problems (Log4j 1.2.6 or later) you could try setting log4j.ignoreTCL=true.