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I'm about to do some work on this hideous old java web app a friend on mine inherited a while ago.

After I've set up tomcat, imported project and all that to my eclipse workspace I get this error that a method in the servlet exceeds the 65536 bytes limit.

The method may very well exceed that limit, it's several thousand loc. But the thing is, I've worked on this app before without getting this error, and according to the commit logs, no code has been added to the servlet since.

Can it be because this time I'm working on a macbook? Last time I worked on the app I used a HP desktop with ubuntu. Different java version, cpu architecture? Is this even possible?

Is there anything I can do except refactor the code?

jim
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  • possible duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5689798/why-does-java-limit-the-size-of-a-method-to-65535-byte – lukastymo May 06 '11 at 08:02
  • Also very similar, potentially the same issue: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5484253/jspservice-is-exceeding-the-65535-bytes-limit – WhiteFang34 May 06 '11 at 08:12

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Is there anything I can do except refactor the code?

No. Refactor the code. No method should be that long. Ever. Write small methods!

Seriously: any IDE there is will guide you through the refactoring, but it needs to be done. You might also want to read Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code for guidance.

Community
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Sean Patrick Floyd
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    "Ever" should be all in capital letters. – izb May 06 '11 at 08:03
  • I'm only hired to do some small changes to a completely unrelated part of the app. I'm not responsible for the monstrous servlet. I'd love to refactor the code, but since I'm on the clock I'll try to use another compiler instead. – jim May 06 '11 at 08:13
  • What's so hard with refactoring the method? Just cut'n'paste some large or duplicated block of the God Method into another method and then call this method from the God Method on. That's all. Some IDEs have a shortcut/contextmenuoption for this once you select a block of code. – BalusC May 06 '11 at 12:09
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What cpu you are using shouldn't matter. It's most likely that the compiler that you now are using is producing another output (that exceeds the limit).

I would definately refactor, but you could try to switch to the same compiler as you used the last time you compiled the code.

Kaj
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  • Thanks. I'll try to install an older version of eclipse. I'm using Helios this time, last time I used Ganymede or something. – jim May 06 '11 at 08:11
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If the code is generated by a JSP page it could be exceeding the 64k method limit. Some web containers like Weblogic will actually work around this problem for you. Tomcat won't, perhaps you were using a different web container before? To workaround the issue this page suggests changing your static includes like this:

<%@ include file="test.jsp" %>

To dynamic includes like this:

<jsp:include page="test.jsp" />

Update: since you're dealing with a servlet you're probably out of luck. This is a JVM specification limitation, see Why does Java limit the size of a method to 65535 byte? I don't believe you'll find a compiler that works around it. You might have some luck with ProGuard to minimize the compiled size.

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WhiteFang34
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  • Nope. The problem is in the servlet. Same thing applies there though, all that code should've been put in separate methods etc. – jim May 06 '11 at 08:16
  • Oh, wow! Sean has the right answer then. I'm not sure if you're going to find a compiler that works around this problem though. These are due to limitations in the JVM spec. – WhiteFang34 May 06 '11 at 08:20
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One thing which can make a method smaller is to turn off debugging. When debugging is on, each line (with code) has a statement which labels the line.

Peter Lawrey
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