[NETBEANS-4988] Ant java web application in Netbeans 10 and later won't debug

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Information Provided
• Affects Version/s: 10.0, 11.3
• Component/s: debugger - Ant, serverplugins - Tomcat
• Labels: ANT Tomcat classfile debugger java

Environment

Windows 10 pro, OpenJDK11, Tomcat 9, Netbeans 10, Netbeans 11.3

• Flags: Important
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Roy Damman
• Created: 03/Nov/20 14:50
• Updated: 05/Feb/21 21:12
• Resolved: 02/Jan/21 17:13

Description

I have a Wicket java webapplication Ant project created in Netbeans 7.x. In the past the project has moved to Netbeans 8.2 and 9.0. I use currently the OpenJDK11. I can still build, run and debug the project in Netbeans 9. But in Netbeans 10 and later (11.3), the project won't run in Tomcat 9. I have searched for the cause and found out that the class files are changed or deleted on the first attempt to run or debug after a clean and build. All the innerclasses and anonymous classes ($.class) files in the projects build directory are deleted. Also the normal other class files were shrunked in size. After a clean and build command there is also a war file created in the dist directory. When I restore the class files in the war file to the build directory suddenly the project will run. In Netbeans 9 everything works normally with the same project and Ant file. Also the Tomcat installation and JDK is the same. Later I found out that the problem depends on the project settings. When settings Project->Build->Compiling->Compile-on-Save and Project->Run->Deploy-on-Save are switched off, you can debug the project with Tomcat and the problem doesn't occur. But then you don't have that options. I haven't checked if this a sole Ant problem or that Maven projects also are affected.