spring-boot upgrade from 1.3.2 to 1.3.3: logback issue

Question

We've hit an issue when upgrading from spring-boot 1.3.2 to the recently released 1.3.3.

Our application has been making use of the following dependencies, each the latest, without issue:

    <neo4j.version>2.3.2</neo4j.version>
    <sdn.version>4.0.0.RELEASE</sdn.version>
    <sdn.rest.version>3.4.0.RELEASE</sdn.rest.version>
    <neo4j.ogm.version>1.1.5</neo4j.ogm.version>

Today I upgraded our spring-boot and Spring Data Neo4j -based application, which starts and works well with spring-boot 1.3.2.RELEASE, by changing the pom.xml from:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.3.2.RELEASE</version>
</parent>

to

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.3.3.RELEASE</version>
</parent>

With this being literally the only change, the application now fails to start with the following error:

...

Failed to instantiate [ch.qos.logback.classic.LoggerContext]
Reported exception:
java.lang.AbstractMethodError: ch.qos.logback.classic.pattern.EnsureExceptionHandling.process(Lch/qos/logback/core/pattern/Converter;)V
    at ch.qos.logback.core.pattern.PatternLayoutBase.start(PatternLayoutBase.java:88)
    at ch.qos.logback.classic.encoder.PatternLayoutEncoder.start(PatternLayoutEncoder.java:28)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.action.NestedComplexPropertyIA.end(NestedComplexPropertyIA.java:167)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.Interpreter.callEndAction(Interpreter.java:317)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.Interpreter.endElement(Interpreter.java:196)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.Interpreter.endElement(Interpreter.java:182)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.EventPlayer.play(EventPlayer.java:62)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:149)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:135)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:99)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:49)
    at ch.qos.logback.classic.util.ContextInitializer.configureByResource(ContextInitializer.java:77)
    at ch.qos.logback.classic.util.ContextInitializer.autoConfig(ContextInitializer.java:152)
    at org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder.init(StaticLoggerBinder.java:85)
    at org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder.<clinit>(StaticLoggerBinder.java:55)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.bind(LoggerFactory.java:143)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.performInitialization(LoggerFactory.java:122)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory(LoggerFactory.java:378)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:328)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:349)
    at com.mycompany.Application.<clinit>(Application.java:35)

As expected, returning to 1.3.2.RELEASE does not cause any issues.

Searching so far reveals no trail to follow. Comparing the mvn dependency:tree output between using spring-boot 1.3.2.RELEASE and 1.3.3.RELEASE, I can see that the transient dependencies of ch.qos.logback:logback-classic and ch.qos.logback:logback-access jars have changed from 1.1.3 for spring-boot 1.3.2.RELEASE to 1.1.5 for spring-boot 1.3.3.RELEASE, while ch.qos.logback:logback-core remains at 1.1.3 for both spring-boot flavors.

Does anyone have any idea of what the underlying issue is (I'm guessing the class failing to instantiate has been removed or relocated) and/or -- more importantly -- what I can do to resolve it?

Please add the output of `mvn dependency:tree`. You probably have another dependency which is forcing it back to 1.1.3 instead of using spring boots 1.1.5. — M. Deinum, Mar 02 '16 at 07:06

Andy Wilkinson · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-22T11:43:40.650

24

Spring Boot is missing some dependency management for logback-core which is allowing different versions to creep in. I've opened an issue to address that.

In the meantime, you can avoid the problem by adding your own dependency management for it to your pom:

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
            <artifactId>logback-core</artifactId>
            <version>${logback.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

edited Mar 22 '16 at 11:43

answered Mar 02 '16 at 07:33

Andy Wilkinson

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Thanks Andy, your suggestion of explicitly adding the logback-core dependency fixed the issue. In our case, I set it to make use of 1.1.5. and added a comment that this dependency should only be required while using spring-boot 1.3.3. – Eric Spiegelberg Mar 02 '16 at 16:23
@Andy looks like there is a mistake with schema. element should be declared. – ivanenok Mar 22 '16 at 03:39
@ivanenok Thanks. Not sure why the reviewers rejected your edit. I've made it myself. – Andy Wilkinson Mar 22 '16 at 11:44

spring-boot upgrade from 1.3.2 to 1.3.3: logback issue

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