Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/servlet/ServletException

Question

I am planning to use Java servlets in my application. I included the following in my project's POM.xml file to load Java servlet 3.0 implementation jar.

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
    <artifactId>javax.servlet</artifactId>
    <version>3.2-b05</version>
</dependency>

The project compiles fine. However, when I run it, I get the following error:

java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/servlet/ServletException

I searched for it here and found some good answers.

I figured out from them that this error happens when we include the JAR which contains only interfaces defined by servlet API and not the actual implementation. So, I checked that the glassfish jar I am using is just interfaces or it contains implementation too. I found that it is an implementation and not just interfaces.

So now, I am wondering why I am getting this error at runtime. Anyone?

UPDATE:

Just now, I found out that it was a blatant error from my side (I was adding the jar to one project, while, was running an altogether different project!). I am sorry for this. Adding the glassfish servlet implementation DOES solve the issue.

Thanks, Sandeep

You shouldn't include the servlet jar file in your deployed dependencies, since GlassFish already has it in its classpath. This dependency should have the "provided" scope. — JB Nizet, May 22 '12 at 21:07
@JBNizet: I am not using Glassfish as servlet container. I am using Jetty for that. — schauhan, May 23 '12 at 04:03
Jetty jars (for server, utils, servlet etc) do not seem to have any implementation of Servlet API. So if I do not explicitly include the implementation jar, how will it work? — schauhan, May 23 '12 at 07:08
How could Jetty be a servlet container by not instantiating the servlet requests and responses it passes to your servlet? — JB Nizet, May 23 '12 at 07:10

RickB · Answer 1 · 2012-07-23T04:48:48.503

I have been fighting the last 2 hours or so with an issue related to the javaee-api and javaee-web-api dependencies used for surefire plugin. As the guys at JBoss forum kindly posted a while ago, it appears as the whole JEE6 library was divided (as per Sun/Oracle decision) into an API (interfaces/stubs only) JAR and the providers.

How does that relate to this? If you have a problem with, say FacesContext class, you get an error like this:

java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/faces/context/FacesContext

If you take a look at the dependency tree you'll find a default API JAR in the compile classpath that is also getting in the way for runtime matters:

javax.faces:javax.faces-api:jar:2.1:provided

Adding an explicit exclusion for surefire plugin configuration will enforce the provider JAR dependencies usage at test time:

<plugin>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.12</version>
    <configuration>
        <classpathDependencyExcludes>
            <!-- exclude code absent api -->
            <classpathDependencyExclude>javax.faces:javax.faces-api</classpathDependencyExclude>
        </classpathDependencyExcludes>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

Hope that helps, it did work for me.

Thank you! Had a similar problem with javax from the javaee-web-api. Excluding it like you described (but then javax:javaee-web-api) solved it. — GreatBittern, May 20 '13 at 09:04

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered May 31 '13 at 13:55

I traded to glassfish-embedded-all and resolved this.

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.glassfish.main.extras</groupId>
        <artifactId>glassfish-embedded-all</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2.2</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 03 '15 at 06:16

<dependency>
<groupId>org.glassfish.main.extras</groupId>
<artifactId>glassfish-embedded-all</artifactId>
<version>3.1.2.2</version>
<scope>provided</scope>

It worked for me. Thanks. But order in pom.xml also matters as for me

 <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
        <version>6.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.glassfish.main.extras</groupId>
        <artifactId>glassfish-embedded-all</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2.2</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

Above order Does not Work

<dependency>
        <groupId>org.glassfish.main.extras</groupId>
        <artifactId>glassfish-embedded-all</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2.2</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
 <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
        <version>6.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

Above Order Works

Yes. Its because of conflict in come some package or class. It means some class is same in both dependencies and order of its inclusion in POM.xml decides priority for its injection for other users of these classes. — Dhaval Patel, Aug 11 '15 at 09:42

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 29 '13 at 20:48

3

I faced same error using Jersey specifically when I run my tests (JUnit + Mockito). What works for me was adding the code below to my pom.xml file.

<dependency>
   <groupId>com.sun.jersey</groupId>
   <artifactId>jersey-test-framework</artifactId>
   <version>1.1.5.1</version>
   <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

Note: I'm using Jersey 1.17

answered Jul 29 '13 at 20:48

josdem

196
2
8

It's actually lighter than Glassfish dependencies – Duc Tran Aug 04 '15 at 03:56

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 12 '14 at 15:30

I recently encountered this same error and, thanks to this question and the above answers - especially leandro.freitos - I was able to resolve it using

 <dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish.main.extras</groupId>
    <artifactId>glassfish-embedded-all</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.2.2</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

Turns out mine had to do with javax.servlet

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 08 '14 at 15:39

I had a similar case to the one josdem had (same error, also while running JUnit with Mockito), but without Jersey. So here's a Jersey-independent solution that worked for me:

    <dependency> 
        <groupId>org.apache.geronimo.specs</groupId>
        <artifactId>geronimo-servlet_3.0_spec</artifactId>
        <version>1.0</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 04 '17 at 15:31

Same problem here. Though it turned out for me to be the order in which I was declaring dependencies. The glassfish embedded dependency needs to be declared ahead of the provided javaee-web-api dependency.

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.glassfish.extras</groupId>
        <artifactId>glassfish-embedded-all</artifactId>
        <version>3.0</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
        <version>6.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

I'm not sure why the class path gets muddled when the glassfish embedded is placed after the javaee-web-api in tests. I suppose the JVM tries to resolve the javax classes in the provided first and then gives up during testing. I would figure that declaring scope for test would take precedence but that appears to not be the case in my situation. Hope this helps someone.

score -2 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 07 '13 at 00:00

-2

got same problem compiling with netbeans 7.2.1. However the output specified one of my own java source files as having "absent code attribute.......etc"

At same time, I could compile and run same project using JDeveloper. After a few "cleans" and restarts the netbeans still threw up the same problem.

I finally fixed it by adding a main method into the java being reported as having "absent code attribute" and using same as the debug target. All returned to normal.

answered Jun 07 '13 at 00:00

Vince Stewart

1
1

however it continued to pop up again and finally my massaging techniques failed. I then downloaded glassfish and added javaee.jar to my netbeans project library with immediate success. – Vince Stewart Jun 18 '13 at 23:45

Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/servlet/ServletException

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