AspectJ LTW (weaving) not working with Spring Boot - spring

Question

I'm on Spring Boot 2.1.2.RELEASE - Java 11 - Fat JAR
Following the documentation, I have:
added the required dependencies to the Gradle build
implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-aop'
implementation 'org.aspectj:aspectjrt:1.9.2'
implementation 'org.aspectj:aspectjweaver:1.9.2'
enabled LoadTimeWeaving
#SpringBootApplication
#EnableLoadTimeWeaving
public class MyApplication { ... }
provided the aop.xml under META-INF
<!DOCTYPE aspectj PUBLIC "-//AspectJ//DTD//EN" "http://www.eclipse.org/aspectj/dtd/aspectj.dtd">
<aspectj>
<weaver>
<!-- only weave classes in our application-specific packages -->
<include within="my.base.package.*" />
</weaver>
<aspects>
<!-- weave in just this aspect -->
<aspect name="my.base.package.spring.aop.MyAspects" />
</aspects>
</aspectj>
created the new #Aspect class
#Aspect
public class MyAspects {
#Around("methodsToBeProfiled()")
public Object profile(final ProceedingJoinPoint pjp) throws Throwable {
final var sw = new StopWatch(getClass().getSimpleName());
try {
sw.start(pjp.getSignature().getName());
return pjp.proceed();
} finally {
sw.stop();
System.out.println(sw.prettyPrint());
}
}
#Pointcut("execution(* my.base.package.other.MyClass.*(..))")
public void methodsToBeProfiled() {}
}
added the Jar for instrumentation
-javaagent:/home/myuser/spring-instrument-5.1.5.RELEASE.jar
Log, which as you see, show MyAspects as recognized
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info AspectJ Weaver Version 1.9.2 built on Wednesday Oct 24, 2018 at 15:43:33 GMT
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register classloader jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$AppClassLoader#2c13da15
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info using configuration /home/edoardo/IdeaProjects/scheduler/scheduler-engine/out/production/resources/META-INF/aop.xml
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info using configuration file:/home/edoardo/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/org.springframework/spring-aspects/5.1.5.RELEASE/3bb95e05b646ef93e2a4cf0b600924c2979fc723/spring-aspects-5.1.5.RELEASE.jar!/META-INF/aop.xml
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect my.base.package.spring.aop.MyAspects
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect org.springframework.beans.factory.aspectj.AnnotationBeanConfigurerAspect
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect org.springframework.scheduling.aspectj.AnnotationAsyncExecutionAspect
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect org.springframework.transaction.aspectj.AnnotationTransactionAspect
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect org.springframework.transaction.aspectj.JtaAnnotationTransactionAspect
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info deactivating aspect 'org.springframework.transaction.aspectj.JtaAnnotationTransactionAspect' as it requires type 'javax.transaction.Transactional' which cannot be found on the classpath
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect org.springframework.cache.aspectj.AnnotationCacheAspect
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info register aspect org.springframework.cache.aspectj.JCacheCacheAspect
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info deactivating aspect 'org.springframework.cache.aspectj.JCacheCacheAspect' as it requires type 'org.springframework.cache.jcache.interceptor.JCacheAspectSupport' which cannot be found on the classpath
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] info deactivating aspect 'org.springframework.cache.aspectj.JCacheCacheAspect' as it requires type 'javax.cache.annotation.CacheResult' which cannot be found on the classpath
[AppClassLoader#2c13da15] warning javax.* types are not being woven because the weaver option '-Xset:weaveJavaxPackages=true' has not been specified
However MyAspects is never instantiated (so no debug), and methods are not being weaved with my aspect code.
Did I miss something?
Edit: seems both Jars, aspectjweaver and spring-instrument are required as agents. Is this normal?

Answer 1

You do need the aspectjweaver agent jar. You don't need spring-instrument (ever for a fat jar - AFAIK it was used in app servers to work around some historical issues with their class loaders). You also don't need to #EnableLoadTimeWeaving (also an app server feature, redundant if you control the agent). Also (minor niggle) aspectjrt is a transitive dependency of aspectjweaver, so you don't need both. So you have it working it seems, even though you have done more work than you needed. Sample Spring Boot apps with various weaving options: here.