Causes of getting a java.lang.VerifyError

Question

I'm investigating the following java.lang.VerifyError

java.lang.VerifyError: (class: be/post/ehr/wfm/application/serviceorganization/report/DisplayReportServlet, method: getMonthData signature: (IILjava/util/Collection;Ljava/util/Collection;Ljava/util/HashMap;Ljava/util/Collection;Ljava/util/Locale;Lorg/apache/struts/util/MessageRe˜̴Mt̴MÚw€mçw€mp:”MŒŒ
                at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
                at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2357)
                at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2671)

It occurs when the jboss server in which the servlet is deployed is started. It is compiled with jdk-1.5.0_11 and I tried to recompile it with jdk-1.5.0_15 without succes. That is the compilation runs fine but when deployed, the java.lang.VerifyError occurs.

When I changed the method name and got the following error:

java.lang.VerifyError: (class: be/post/ehr/wfm/application/serviceorganization/report/DisplayReportServlet, method: getMD signature: (IILjava/util/Collection;Lj    ava/util/Collection;Ljava/util/HashMap;Ljava/util/Collection;Ljava/util/Locale;Lorg/apache/struts/util/MessageResources ØÅN|ØÅNÚw€mçw€mX#ÖM|XÔM
            at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
            at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2357
            at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2671)
            at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:321)
            at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:303)

You can see that more of the method signature is shown.

The actual method signature is

  private PgasePdfTable getMonthData(int month, int year, Collection dayTypes,
                          Collection calendarDays,
                          HashMap bcSpecialDays,
                          Collection activityPeriods,
                          Locale locale, MessageResources resources) throws   Exception {

I already tried looking at it with javap and that gives the method signature as it should be.

When my other colleagues check out the code, compile it and deploy it, they have the same problem. When the build server picks up the code and deploys it on development or testing environments (HPUX), the same error occurs. Also an automated testing machine running Ubuntu shows the same error during server startup.

The rest of the application runs okay, only that one servlet is out of order. Any ideas where to look would be helpful.

Answer 1

One thing you might try is using -Xverify:all which will verify bytecode on load and sometimes gives helpful error messages if the bytecode is invalid.

Answer 2

VerifyError means that the class file contains bytecode that is syntactically correct but violates some semantic restriction e.g. a jump target that crosses method boundaries.

Basically, a VerifyError can only occur when there is a compiler bug, or when the class file gets corrupted in some other way (e.g. through faulty RAM or a failing HD).

Try compiling with a different JDK version and on a different machine.

Answer 3

Check for multiple versions of the same jar file on your classpath.

For example, I had opennlp-tools-1.3.0.jar and opennlp-tools-1.5.3.jar on my classpath and got this error. The solution was to delete opennlp-tools-1.3.0.jar.

Answer 4

I fixed this error on Android by making the project I was importing a library, as described here http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/projects-eclipse.html#SettingUpLibraryProject

Previously, I was just referencing the project (not making it a library) and I was getting this strange VerifyError.

Hope it helps someone.

Answer 5

Well in my case, my project A had a dependency on another, say X(A was using some of the classes defined in X). So when I added X as a reference project in the build path of A , I got this error. However when I removed X as the referenced project and included X's jar as one of the libraries, the problem was solved.