java.lang.LinkageError: loader constraint violation in Grails project

Question

I've built a Grails project with POI (include poi-3.7 and poi-ooxml-3.7). I've added these 2 external libraries to dependencies block in BuildConfig.groovy file of my project. There's nothing strange when I compiled it. But when I called the command "run-app" for that project, an error occured with below stacktrace:

Base Directory: <path-to-my-project>
Resolving dependencies...
Dependencies resolved in 5546ms.
Running script D:\_TOOLS\STS\grails-1.3.5\scripts\RunApp.groovy
Environment set to development
Running Grails application..
2011-05-23 18:51:01,225 [main] ERROR context.GrailsContextLoader  - Error executing bootstraps: java.lang.LinkageError: loader constraint violation: loader (instance of <bootloader>) previously initiated loading for a different type with name "org/w3c/dom/DOMConfiguration"
org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.InvokerInvocationException: java.lang.LinkageError: loader constraint violation: loader (instance of <bootloader>) previously initiated loading for a different type with name "org/w3c/dom/DOMConfiguration"
    at grails.spring.BeanBuilder.invokeBeanDefiningClosure(BeanBuilder.java:723)
    at grails.spring.BeanBuilder.beans(BeanBuilder.java:573)
    at grails.spring.BeanBuilder.invokeMethod(BeanBuilder.java:519)
    at org.grails.tomcat.TomcatServer.start(TomcatServer.groovy:212)
    at grails.web.container.EmbeddableServer$start.call(Unknown Source)
    at RunApp$_run_closure5_closure12.doCall(RunApp:158)
    at RunApp$_run_closure5_closure12.doCall(RunApp)
    at _GrailsSettings_groovy$_run_closure10.doCall(_GrailsSettings_groovy:280)
    at _GrailsSettings_groovy$_run_closure10.call(_GrailsSettings_groovy)
    at RunApp$_run_closure5.doCall(RunApp:149)
    at RunApp$_run_closure5.call(RunApp)
    at RunApp.runInline(RunApp:116)
    at RunApp.this$4$runInline(RunApp)
    at RunApp$_run_closure1.doCall(RunApp:59)
    at RunApp$_run_closure1.doCall(RunApp:33)
    at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure5.doCall(Gant.groovy:381)
    at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy:415)
    at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant.withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy:427)
    at gant.Gant.this$2$withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant$this$2$withBuildListeners.callCurrent(Unknown Source)
    at gant.Gant.dispatch(Gant.groovy:415)
    at gant.Gant.this$2$dispatch(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant.invokeMethod(Gant.groovy)
    at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:590)
    at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:589)

Caused by: java.lang.LinkageError: loader constraint violation: loader (instance of <bootloader>) previously initiated loading for a different type with name "org/w3c/dom/DOMConfiguration"
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredMethods(Class.java:2427)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:1791)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.util.LazyReference.getLocked(LazyReference.java:46)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.util.LazyReference.get(LazyReference.java:33)
    at grails.spring.DynamicElementReader.invokeMethod(DynamicElementReader.groovy:121)
    ... 26 more  

And here is my configuration:

dependencies {  
        provided ('com.oracle:ojdbc6_g:11.2.0.1.0')  
        runtime ('org.apache.poi:poi:3.7', 'org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:3.7')  
    }  

How can I do to make solve this? Thank you so much!

Gylys

Hi ... i have same problem expect the type that is with name "javax/management/MBeanServer". I really don't know from where to start and it's driving me crazy. Can you give me any hint? – Lichenin

Answer 1

Here's the fix we finally came around to after several hours of going back and forth. In short, exclude xmlbeans from poi and create another xmlbeans jar with the offending class removed. Here's the incantation to exorcise the evil linkage error.

• Modify BuildConfig.groovy

    dependencies {
       compile ('org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:3.6') {excludes "xmlbeans"}
    }

• Extract xmlbeans

  cd ~
  mkdir xmlbeantmp
  cd xmlbeantmp
  cp ~/.ivy2/cache/org.apache.xmlbeans/xmlbeans/jars/xmlbeans-2.3.0.jar .
  jar xf xmlbeans-2.3.0.jar
  

• Remove offending class package

  cd org
  rm -rf w3c/
  

• Recreate the jar

  cd ../
  rm xmlbean-2.3.0.jar
  jar cf xmlbean-2.3.0.jar *
  

• Copy jar into your projects lib

  cp xmlbean-2.3.0.jar your_grails_project/lib/.
  

• Show the love

  click answer up arrow. :)

Womanhood

Thanks, this fixed my LinkageError issue with a Apache POI and Batik. – Ludovika

This works for grails 1.3.6 and POI 3.8. I also cleared out .grails and .ivy2, but not positive that it was required. – Slake

Answer 2

There's a conflict between one of POI's dependencies (xmlbeans) and grails. You can exclude it as follows:

dependencies {
    compile('org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:3.7') { excludes "xmlbeans" }
}

The following links were useful in tracking down the problem:

• http://markmail.org/message/ojglzgft57ts4dgw
• http://jira.grails.org/browse/MAVEN-22

Orpha

Yes, we can exclude the dependency xmlbeans from poi-ooxml to start app successful, but we will get the ClassDefNotFoundException when running application. Because some classes in poi-ooxml actually depends on classes of xmlbeans jar. – Canossa

Answer 3

I had a similar problem and it was a cache issue. I deleted the .grails and .ivy2 directory (under the home) and it solved my troubles. Good Luck.

Instil

Answer 4

i suppose that i fix this problem. Solution of Steve Wall want not work for me on grails 2.0.0 because of Perm gen space / Out of memory during "grails run-app".

BuildConfig.groovy

....
inherits("global") {
    excludes 'xmlbeans', 'xbean'
}
....
runtime 'xmlbeans:xmlpublic:2.1.0'
runtime 'org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:3.7'
....

Then download xbean-2.1.0.jar, and apply solution of Steve Wall:

jar xf xbean-2.1.0.jar
cd org
rm -rf w3c/
cd ..
rm xbean-2.1.0.jar
jar cf xbean-2.1.0.patched.jar *
cp xbean-2.1.0.patched.jar your_grails_project/lib/

For me it works fine! Good luck!

Olivette

Answer 5

I don't know if this will fix your problem, but my guess is that your depency on POI should probably be compile-time. Try changing your dependencies to:

dependencies {  
    provided ('com.oracle:ojdbc6_g:11.2.0.1.0')  
    compile ('org.apache.poi:poi:3.7', 'org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:3.7')  
}  

Transparency

Yes, thank you for your suggestion. I tried it, but it still doesn't work. With the error: java.lang.LinkageError: loader constraint violation: loader (instance of <bootloader>) previously initiated loading for a different type with name "org/w3c/dom/DOMConfiguration", I've checked it again, and there are 2 classes DOMConfiguration in 2 different jar packages: xmlbeans-2.3.0.jar and in jdk. So I think that is the main reason which causes the error. But I don't know how to resolve, because I need the poi-ooxml library for my project while xmlbeans-2.3. is one of its dependencies. – Canossa

I have an idea to resolve this, that is excluding the package org.w3c.dom in xmlbeans jar, but I don't know what is the correct syntax to do this in BuildConfig. Here is my trial: provided ('com.oracle:ojdbc6_g:11.2.0.1.0') runtime ('org.apache.poi:poi:3.7', 'org.apache.poi:poi-ooxml:3.7') { excludes "org.w3c.dom" }. But it does not work – Canossa