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

For quick solution, I have removed the servlet-api.jar manually from the lib and than build the application and it works.Though, ideally as suggested by Kumetix, one should needs to scrutinize till the dependency which causing it to load in classpath.

Answer 2

gradle solution.

I had a similar problem in my lib jar which for some reason brought with it an old version of javax.servlet.ServletContext which was later loaded by my spring-boot module instead of its own supplied class, by that causing a NoSuchMethodError

I fixed it by editing the build.gradle of my lib module :

configurations {
    provided.all*.exclude group: 'javax.servlet'
}

Answer 3

I had this problem when trying to start my spring boot server during tests (using gradle + spock). I traced the problem to the wiremock library.

This fixed it:

testCompile('com.github.tomakehurst:wiremock:1.58') {
    exclude module: 'servlet-api' // this exclude fixed it
}

---

FYI

gradle dependencies

shows (abridged):

\--- com.github.tomakehurst:wiremock:1.58
     +--- org.mortbay.jetty:jetty:6.1.26
          +--- org.mortbay.jetty:jetty-util:6.1.26
          \--- org.mortbay.jetty:servlet-api:2.5-20081211

The ancient (2008) org.mortbay.jetty:servlet-api jar contains a version of ServletContext that is incompatible with version 1.3.2 of spring boot (worked OK at least up to 1.2.6).