Getting NoSuchMethodError: javax.servlet.ServletCo

Question

I am getting below exception when I am trying to run a Spring MVC application using Spring boot...

ContainerBase: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.report(FutureTask.java:122)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:188)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1123)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:799)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1559)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1549)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    ... 6 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.servlet.ServletContext.addServlet(Ljava/lang/String;Ljavax/servlet/Servlet;)Ljavax/servlet/ServletRegistration$Dynamic;
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.ServletRegistrationBean.onStartup(ServletRegistrationBean.java:166)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext$1.onStartup(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:214)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.ServletContextInitializerLifecycleListener.lifecycleEvent(ServletContextInitializerLifecycleListener.java:54)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5355)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 6 more

Answer 1

I solved it excluding a transitive servlet-api dependency.

In my case, it was com.github.isrsal:spring-mvc-logger

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.github.isrsal</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-mvc-logger</artifactId>
    <version>0.2</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

Answer 2

I was using Gradle and what worked for me:

configurations {
    all*.exclude group: '', module: 'servlet-api'
}

It trimmed dependency tree in desired way.

Answer 3

For anyone else who couldn't solve it by excluding servlet-api , here is an alternative:

It turns out Spring Boot defaults to Tomcat 8. If you're running a different version of Tomcat and would like to fix this error, just add your tomcat version to the pom properties:

<properties>
    <tomcat.version>7.0.63</tomcat.version>
</properties> 

Answer 4

If you want to find out where the class is being loaded from, try

java -verbose:class -jar foo.jar | grep javax.servlet.ServletContext

where foo.jar is the fat JAR produced by Gradle or Maven. For example, the ServletContext class could be getting read from an older servlet-api JAR in a JDK extensions directory instead of your Maven or Gradle dependencies.

The output of the command looks something like this...

$ java -verbose:class -jar build/libs/foo-0.2.3.jar | grep javax.servlet.ServletContext
[Loaded javax.servlet.ServletContext from jar:file:.../build/libs/foo-0.2.3.jar!/lib/javax.servlet-api-3.1.0.jar!/]
[Loaded javax.servlet.ServletContextListener from jar:file:.../build/libs/foo-0.2.3.jar!/lib/javax.servlet-api-3.1.0.jar!/]
[Loaded javax.servlet.ServletContextAttributeListener from jar:file:.../build/libs/foo-0.2.3.jar!/lib/javax.servlet-api-3.1.0.jar!/]

Answer 5

I was running with Hadoop 2.7.2 using Spring-boot, the following Hadoop dependencies uses javax.servlet which prevented the embedded tomcat version to start. Below exclusions in my POM fixed the issue.

                                    <dependency>
                                    <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>hadoop-hdfs</artifactId>
                                    <version>2.7.2</version>
                                    <exclusions>
                                        <exclusion>
                                            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
                                            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
                                        </exclusion>
                                    </exclusions>
                                </dependency>
                                <dependency>
                                    <groupId>org.springframework.data</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>spring-data-hadoop-boot</artifactId>
                                    <version>2.3.0.RELEASE-hadoop26</version>
                                    <exclusions>
                                        <exclusion>
                                            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
                                            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
                                        </exclusion>
                                    </exclusions>
                                </dependency>

                                <dependency>
                                    <groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>hadoop-common</artifactId>
                                    <version>2.7.2</version>
                                    <exclusions>
                                        <exclusion>
                                            <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
                                            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                                        </exclusion>
                                        <exclusion>
                                            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
                                            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
                                        </exclusion>
                                    </exclusions>
                                </dependency>

Answer 6

I couldn't track down the problematic reference except for knowing it is somehow getting into my class-path so here is my 2 cents for lazy developers using eclipse:

Scroll down the list of maven dependencies under your project tree (usually under Java Resources -> Libraries -> Maven Dependencies), track the problematic added jar you wish to exclude from your packaged JAR, right click on it -> select Maven -> Exclude Maven Artifact ! Voila - automatically an exclusion will be added to your pom right under the dependency that refers it.

Mine BTW was jcifs...

        <dependency>
        <groupId>org.codelibs</groupId>
        <artifactId>jcifs</artifactId>
        <version>1.3.18.2</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
                <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>

Good luck!