org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15

Asked 8/5, 2014 at 12:17 Answered 10/8, 2020 at 11:11

Solved java eclipse tomcat java-8 classformatexception

I'm porting a webapp from Tomcat 7 to another server with Tomcat 7 but with Java 8.

Tomcat starts successfully but in log catalina.out I get:

org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.Constant.readConstant(Constant.java:131)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ConstantPool.<init>(ConstantPool.java:60)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readConstantPool(ClassParser.java:209)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2049)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:1931)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1899)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1885)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1281)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:855)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:346)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5172)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:899)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:875)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:618)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1100)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDirectory.run(HostConfig.java:1618)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

What could be the problem?

Johnettajohnette answered 8/5, 2014 at 12:17 Comment(2)

You need aspectJ 1.8 to get Java 8 support. #23802450 – Chromoprotein 28/6, 2017 at 12:14

@AnantLaxmikantBobde That is unrelated to the cause of this problem, which is a bytecode incompatibility between that specific version of Tomcat and that version of the JDK. See this answer for the correct fix. – Curcio 16/7, 2019 at 22:9

The "offical answer" is that Tomcat 7 runs on Java 8, see http://tomcat.apache.org/whichversion.html ("Java version 6 and later").

However, if annotation scanning is enabled (metadata-complete="true" in web.xml) there are some issues due to BCEL (not able to process the new Java 8 byte codes). You will get exceptions like (at least with Tomcat 7.0.28):

SEVERE: Unable to process Jar entry [jdk/nashorn/internal/objects/NativeString.class] from Jar [jar:file:/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_5/jre/lib/ext/nashorn.jar!/] for annotations
org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.Constant.readConstant(Constant.java:131)

If not using annotation scanning, everything works fine, starting release 7.0.53 (updated compiler with better Java 8 support).

(UPDATE 2014-10-17) If your are using annotation scanning and your own code is not Java 8 based, another solution is to add the following line in /etc/tomcat7/catalina.properties (text added after "ant-launcher.jar" so part of property tomcat.util.scan.DefaultJarScanner.jarsToSkip):

junit.jar,junit-*.jar,ant-launcher.jar,\
jfxrt.jar,nashorn.jar

Tested with Tomcat 7.0.28 and Oracle JDK 8_25 on Debian 7.6.

Yoo answered 12/5, 2014 at 12:18 Comment(6)

Tomcat 7.054 still doesnt support the jdk8 -compiler flag, related question on #25280229 – Shaina 20/8, 2014 at 11:32

To clarify: If metadata-complete="true" is in web.xml annotation processing should be disabled, right? – Gibert 8/12, 2014 at 20:48

Probably, the comment is outdated, but changing the tomcat from 7.0.23 to 8.0.18 automatically solves the issue for me [Windows 7] – Chromatography 4/2, 2015 at 15:35

Modifiying tomcat.util.scan.DefaultJarScanner.jarsToSkip within catalina.properties worked for Tomcat 8 for me. (At least it revealed other issues!) – Myiasis 27/9, 2017 at 16:2

@SamuelThompson See this answer for the correct fix for Tomcat 8. – Curcio 16/7, 2019 at 22:10

The jarsToSkip method solves the OP's exception but may prevent some JARs from loading, it happened to me with log4j2, which would agree with this – Stableman 23/6, 2022 at 10:38

This was a Tomcat bug that resurfaced again with the Java 9 bytecode. The exact versions which fix this (for both Java 8/9 bytecode) are:

trunk for 9.0.0.M18 onwards
8.5.x for 8.5.12 onwards
8.0.x for 8.0.42 onwards
7.0.x for 7.0.76 onwards

Curcio answered 22/5, 2017 at 16:54 Comment(3)

This solved the problem for me (JDK 8 with Tomcat 8.0.27 failed) – Matherne 2/11, 2017 at 9:2

I get this problem with tomcat 8.0.36 and log4j-api-2.11.0.jar – Georgettageorgette 12/11, 2018 at 16:2

This solved the problem. Update your Tomcat version – Logotype 3/12, 2019 at 1:16

Update to Tomcat 7.0.58 (or newer).

See: https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=57173#c16

The performance improvement that triggered this regression has been reverted from from trunk, 8.0.x (for 8.0.16 onwards) and 7.0.x (for 7.0.58 onwards) and will not be reapplied.

Bedel answered 15/2, 2015 at 20:20 Comment(1)

I did not find any relation to java 8 in this link. – Cladding 17/2, 2015 at 9:39

I've had the same problem when running my spring boot application with tomcat7:run

It gives error with the following dependency in maven pom.xml:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.junit.vintage</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit-vintage-engine</artifactId>
    </dependency>

SEVERE: Unable to process Jar entry [module-info.class] from Jar [jar:file:/.m2/repository/org/apiguardian/apiguardian-api/1.1.0/apiguardian-api-1.1.0.jar!/] for annotations
org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 19

Jul 09, 2020 1:28:09 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig processAnnotationsJar
SEVERE: Unable to process Jar entry [module-info.class] from Jar [jar:file:/.m2/repository/org/apiguardian/apiguardian-api/1.1.0/apiguardian-api-1.1.0.jar!/] for annotations
org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 19

But when I correctly specify it in test scope, it does not give error:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.junit.vintage</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit-vintage-engine</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

Prefer answered 9/7, 2020 at 10:29 Comment(0)

This issue is happening because you have installed jre1.8.0_101-1.8.0_101-fcs.i58.rpm as well jdk-1.7.0_80-fcs.x86_64.rpm. so just uninstall your jre rpm & restart your application. It should work out.

Ungodly answered 24/5, 2017 at 11:43 Comment(0)

To me, upgrading bcel to 6.0 fixed the problem.

Zurheide answered 12/9, 2017 at 2:15 Comment(0)

For me it worked, by removing the jars in question from the war. With Maven, I just had to exclude for example

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.jboss.resteasy</groupId>
        <artifactId>resteasy-jaxb-provider</artifactId>
        <version>${resteasy.version}</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>com.sun.istack</groupId>
                <artifactId>istack-commons-runtime</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.jvnet.staxex</groupId>
                <artifactId>stax-ex</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.glassfish.jaxb</groupId>
                <artifactId>txw2</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>com.sun.xml.fastinfoset</groupId>
                <artifactId>FastInfoset</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>

Umbra answered 20/5, 2019 at 14:14 Comment(0)

Unable to process Jar entry [module-info.class] from Jar [jar:file:/xxxxxxxx/lombok-1.18.4.jar!/] for annotations
org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 19

1.update and append below argument in <root or instance tomcat folder>/conf/catalina.properties

org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.jarsToSkip=...,lombok-1.18.4.jar

2.clean and deploy the to-be-published project.

Covariance answered 10/8, 2020 at 11:11 Comment(1)

I had to revert to 1.14.8 version (AFAIK with the same principal features, so no big deal here) – Natelson 30/9, 2020 at 7:33

I faced this issue with tomcat 7 + jdk 1.8

with java 1.7 and lower versions it's working fine.

window -> preferences -> java -> installed jre

in my case I changed jre1.8 to JDK 1.7

and accordingly modify project facet , select same java version as it's there in selected Installed JRE.

Magnifico answered 10/5, 2016 at 9:24 Comment(1)

@AshishRatan See this answer for the correct fix for JDK 8. – Curcio 16/7, 2019 at 22:12

I got similar error (org.aspectj.apache.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15) while using aspectj 1.8.13. Solution was to align all compilation into jdk 8 and being careful not to put aspectj library's (1.6.13 for instance) other versions to buildpath/classpath.

Sundin answered 14/8, 2018 at 7:48 Comment(0)

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