java.lang.VerifyError: Expecting a stackmap frame at branch target JDK 1.7

Question

After upgrading to JDK 1.7 I am getting below exception:

java.lang.VerifyError: Expecting a stackmap frame at branch target 71 in method com.abc.domain.myPackage.MyClass$JaxbAccessorM_getDescription_setDescription_java_lang_String.get(Ljava/lang/Object;)Ljava/lang/Object; at offset 20
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2413)
    at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2723)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:345)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:327)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.reflect.opt.OptimizedAccessorFactory.instanciate(OptimizedAccessorFactory.java:184)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.reflect.opt.OptimizedAccessorFactory.get(OptimizedAccessorFactory.java:129)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.reflect.Accessor$GetterSetterReflection.optimize(Accessor.java:384)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.property.SingleElementLeafProperty.<init>(SingleElementLeafProperty.java:72)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:525)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.property.PropertyFactory.create(PropertyFactory.java:113)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.ClassBeanInfoImpl.<init>(ClassBeanInfoImpl.java:166)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.JAXBContextImpl.getOrCreate(JAXBContextImpl.java:494)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.JAXBContextImpl.<init>(JAXBContextImpl.java:311)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.JAXBContextImpl.<init>(JAXBContextImpl.java:126)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.JAXBContextImpl$JAXBContextBuilder.build(JAXBContextImpl.java:1148)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.ContextFactory.createContext(ContextFactory.java:130)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at javax.xml.bind.ContextFinder.newInstance(ContextFinder.java:248)
    at javax.xml.bind.ContextFinder.newInstance(ContextFinder.java:235)
    at javax.xml.bind.ContextFinder.find(ContextFinder.java:445)
    at javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext.newInstance(JAXBContext.java:637)
    at javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext.newInstance(JAXBContext.java:584)
    at com.abc.domain.myPackage.MyClass.marshalFacetsTest(MyClass.java:73)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at org.testng.internal.MethodInvocationHelper.invokeMethod(MethodInvocationHelper.java:80)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeMethod(Invoker.java:714)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethod(Invoker.java:901)
    at org.testng.internal.Invoker.invokeTestMethods(Invoker.java:1231)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.invokeTestMethods(TestMethodWorker.java:128)
    at org.testng.internal.TestMethodWorker.run(TestMethodWorker.java:111)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.privateRun(TestRunner.java:767)
    at org.testng.TestRunner.run(TestRunner.java:617)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runTest(SuiteRunner.java:334)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.runSequentially(SuiteRunner.java:329)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.privateRun(SuiteRunner.java:291)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunner.run(SuiteRunner.java:240)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.runSuite(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:52)
    at org.testng.SuiteRunnerWorker.run(SuiteRunnerWorker.java:86)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesSequentially(TestNG.java:1203)
    at org.testng.TestNG.runSuitesLocally(TestNG.java:1128)
    at org.testng.TestNG.run(TestNG.java:1036)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.run(RemoteTestNG.java:111)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.initAndRun(RemoteTestNG.java:204)
    at org.testng.remote.RemoteTestNG.main(RemoteTestNG.java:175)

Answer 1

Java 7 introduced stricter verification and changed the class format a bit—to contain a stack map used to verify that code is correct. The exception you see means that some method doesn't have a valid stack map.

Java version or bytecode instrumentation could both be to blame. Usually this means that a library used by the application generates invalid bytecode that doesn't pass the stricter verification. So nothing else than reporting it as a bug to the library can be done by the developer.

As a workaround you can add -noverify to the JVM arguments in order to disable verification. In Java 7 it was also possible to use -XX:-UseSplitVerifier to use the less strict verification method, but that option was removed in Java 8.