org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15 - Tomcat 7, JDK incompatibilty?

tomcat tomcat7 classformatexception
user48956 picture user48956 · May 6, 2014 · Viewed 35.9k times · Source

I tried upgrading to Java 8. When starting our tomcat7 server, with a Java 7-compiled .war file, I get the mysteriously error below.

Should I expect this to work? This post says tomcat 7 should work with 1.6 and up. I can't tell if Tomcat is to blame, or the .war. Switching out different Java versions I get:

  • JDK 7.45 installed - works (same version used to compile .war)
  • JDK 7.55 installed - fails as below
  • JDK 8.05 installed - fails as below

Is tomcat to blame, or the .war?

Caused by: org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 15
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.Constant.readConstant(Constant.java:131)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ConstantPool.<init>(ConstantPool.java:60)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readConstantPool(ClassParser.java:209)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:119)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2032)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:1923)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1891)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1877)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1270)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:855)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:345)
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5161)
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)

Answer

Bernie picture Bernie · May 7, 2014

I was seeing this error with Tomcat 7.0.26.

To answer your question, Tomcat is to blame: https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=53735

Upgrading to version 7.0.53 fixed it for me (according to the linked issue, the fix should be in 7.0.30 and later).

Related questions

How to set the context path of a web application in Tomcat 7.0

I know that I can rename my webapp (or it's WAR file) to ROOT but this is a terrible way to do it, IMHO. Now I checked out the tomcat doc & it says It is NOT recommended to place …

Read More
Tomcat 7 "SEVERE: A child container failed during start"

Basically, I've written a springMVC application (with a relatively shotgun my way first-timer approach with regards to Spring). The project works fine on Tomcat 6. My Tomcat server doesn't start and throws the following exception: Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.…

Read More
How to set level logging to DEBUG in Tomcat?

I would like to set level logging to DEBUG in tomcat but in console nevertheless only INFO and WARN output. Could anybody tell me what's wrong? My C:\tomcat\logging.properties: # Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one …

Read More