Severe exception on servlet with java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError - java-8

Question

I get this exception on my tomcat8 running on this java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_121-8u121-b13-0ubuntu1.16.04.2-b13)
SEVERE [http-nio-80-exec-9]
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke Servlet.service() for servlet [restSdkService] in context with path [/RestService] threw exception [java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.example.bean.SomeBean] with root cause
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.example.bean.SomeBean at com.example.service.SomeService.getStuff(SomeService.java:118)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor451.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.InvokeMethodHandler.handleRequest(InvokeMethodHandler.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandler.handleRequest(AbstractHandler.java:33)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.CreateInvocationParametersHandler.handleRequest(CreateInvocationParametersHandler.java:54)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.FindResourceMethodHandler.handleSubResourceMethod(FindResourceMethodHandler.java:183)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.FindResourceMethodHandler.handleRequest(FindResourceMethodHandler.java:110)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.FindRootResourceHandler.handleRequest(FindRootResourceHandler.java:95)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.HeadMethodHandler.handleRequest(HeadMethodHandler.java:53)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.OptionsMethodHandler.handleRequest(OptionsMethodHandler.java:46)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.handlers.SearchResultHandler.handleRequest(SearchResultHandler.java:33)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.log.ResourceInvocation.handleRequest(ResourceInvocation.java:92)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.log.Requests.handleRequest(Requests.java:76)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:26)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.RequestHandlersChain.handle(RequestHandlersChain.java:22)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.doChain(AbstractHandlersChain.java:63)
at org.apache.wink.server.handlers.AbstractHandlersChain.run(AbstractHandlersChain.java:48)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.RequestProcessor.handleRequestWithoutFaultBarrier(RequestProcessor.java:207)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.RequestProcessor.handleRequest(RequestProcessor.java:154)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.servlet.RestServlet.service(RestServlet.java:119)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:292)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:207)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:240)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:207)
at org.apache.wink.server.internal.servlet.contentencode.ContentEncodingResponseFilter.doFilter(ContentEncodingResponseFilter.java:122)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:240)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:207)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:106)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:141)
at psiprobe.Tomcat80AgentValve.invoke(Tomcat80AgentValve.java:40)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:79)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:616)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:88)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:522)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1095)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:672)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1504)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(NioEndpoint.java:1460)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
and this is how my web.xml looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
"-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
"http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >
<web-app>
<display-name>Wink SDK demo</display-name>
<description>Demonstration of SDK features</description>
<filter>
<filter-name>ContentEncodingResponseFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.apache.wink.server.internal.servlet.contentencode.ContentEncodingResponseFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>ContentEncodingResponseFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<listener>
<listener-class>com.example.listener.ApplicationLifeCycleListener</listener-class>
</listener>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>restSdkService</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.apache.wink.server.internal.servlet.RestServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>applicationConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/application</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>propertiesLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/bookmarks.properties</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>javax.ws.rs.Application</param-name>
<param-value>com.example.WinkApplication</param-value>
</init-param>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>restSdkService</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
and here is my pom.xml:
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>de.some.service</groupId>
<artifactId>RestService</artifactId>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<version>current-SNAPSHOT</version>
<parent>
<groupId>de.some.parent</groupId>
<artifactId>parent</artifactId>
<version>current-SNAPSHOT</version>
</parent>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
<artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
<version>${lombok.version}</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.wink</groupId>
<artifactId>wink-server</artifactId>
<version>1.1.3-incubating</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.wink</groupId>
<artifactId>wink-client</artifactId>
<version>1.1.3-incubating</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<artifactId>mongo-java-driver</artifactId>
<groupId>org.mongodb</groupId>
<version>${mongo-java-driver.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>de.some.entities</groupId>
<artifactId>someinternalentities</artifactId>
<version>current-SNAPSHOT</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>asm</groupId>
<artifactId>asm</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>de.some.utils</groupId>
<artifactId>someinternalutils</artifactId>
<version>current-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>de.some.lib</groupId>
<artifactId>someinternallib</artifactId>
<version>current-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
<artifactId>jackson-module-jaxb-annotations</artifactId>
<version>2.7.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>2.5-20081211</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
<version>${slf4j.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
<version>${slf4j.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>log4j</groupId>
<artifactId>apache-log4j-extras</artifactId>
<version>1.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>net.sf.cron4j</groupId>
<artifactId>cron4j</artifactId>
<version>2.2.5</version>
</dependency>
<!-- JETTY DEPENDENCIES FOR TESTING -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>jetty</artifactId>
<version>6.1.25</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>jetty-util</artifactId>
<version>6.1.25</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>jetty-management</artifactId>
<version>6.1.25</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
<artifactId>mail</artifactId>
<version>1.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>de.some.internal.library</groupId>
<artifactId>someinternal-svc</artifactId>
<version>current-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<!-- JUNIT DEPENDENCY FOR TESTING -->
<dependency>
<groupId>junit</groupId>
<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
<version>${junit.version}</version>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/asm/asm-attrs -->
<dependency>
<groupId>asm</groupId>
<artifactId>asm-attrs</artifactId>
<version>2.2.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
<version>1.2</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<resources>
<resource>
<filtering>false</filtering>
<directory>src/main/resources</directory>
</resource>
<resource>
<filtering>false</filtering>
<directory>src/main/java</directory>
<includes>
<include>**</include>
</includes>
<excludes>
<exclude>**/*.java</exclude>
</excludes>
</resource>
</resources>
<testResources>
<testResource>
<directory>src/main/config</directory>
<filtering>true</filtering>
</testResource>
<testResource>
<filtering>false</filtering>
<directory>src/test/java</directory>
<includes>
<include>**</include>
</includes>
<excludes>
<exclude>**/*.java</exclude>
</excludes>
</testResource>
</testResources>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<inherited>true</inherited>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<source>1.6</source>
<target>1.6</target>
<optimize>true</optimize>
<debug>true</debug>
</configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.1</version>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<addDefaultImplementationEntries>true</addDefaultImplementationEntries>
<addDefaultSpecificationEntries>true</addDefaultSpecificationEntries>
</manifest>
</archive>
<archiveClasses>true</archiveClasses>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
Does anybody have any clue why this is happening?

Answer 1

We solved the problem by removing the folders that tomcat creates in the path /tomcat8/work/Catalina/localhost.
Reading #Jared answer here Why am I getting a NoClassDefFoundError in Java?
Usually this indicates that we previously attempted to load a class from the classpath, but it failed for some reason - now we're trying to use the class again (and thus need to load it, since it failed last time), but we're not even going to try to load it, because we failed loading it earlier
and regarding the fact that the work directory of tomcat is where tomcat writes any file that it needs during run time (for more info read here tomcat8 configuration reference)
This directory will be made visible to servlets in the web application by a servlet context attribute (of type java.io.File) named javax.servlet.context.tempdir as described in the Servlet Specification
, I believe that these two things correlate with each other