Getting started with JBoss4.0 - Ant Build Error

[anupjani]

Hi.
I was following this tutorial to try Duke's Bank Application on JBoss4.
After downloading & unzipping j2ee-1_4-doc-tutorial_7.zip I copied examples folder into ${jboss.home}/server/myconfig. Then changed build.properties to set jboss.home path as "C:\JBoss4".
And ran following ANT command: C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\bank>ant -f build.xml compile.

The build fails with

java.lang.NullPointerException

showing a window popup dialog saying

---------------------------
16 bit MS-DOS Subsystem
---------------------------
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntvdm.exe
Error while setting up environment for the application. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.
---------------------------
Close Ignore
---------------------------

Even after clicking on Ignore the build fails.

I ensured there is no problem in build.properties. I ran each command (i.e. variable setting) one by one on command prompt & it came out all fine.

I have never faced this error before.
Please help.

Anup Jani

[peterj]

Please post the full stack trace you get from the ant build. Also, you should add the -v option to the ant command line to get more information about the problem.

I am not sure about the cause of the error dialog. It looks like a 16-bit app is being run at some point, but the 16-bit virtual device manager (ntvdm.exe) is having problems running (could be a faulty XP install).

[anupjani]

Thanks Peter.
My XP was installed without any error.
Following verbose as asked.

C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\bank>ant -f build.xml -v
Ant version 1.4 compiled on September 3 2001
Buildfile: build.xml
Detected Java version: 1.4 in: C:\JDK5\jre
Detected OS: Windows XP
parsing buildfile C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\bank\build.xml with URI = f
ile:C:/JBoss4/server/myconfig/examples/bank/build.xml
Project base dir set to: C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\bank
[property] Loading C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\common\build.properties
[property] Loading C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\bank\build.properties
resolving systemId: file:C:/JBoss4/server/myconfig/examples/bank/../common/targe
ts.xml
[property] Loading Environment env.

BUILD FAILED

C:\JBoss4\server\myconfig\examples\bank\build.xml:145: java.lang.NullPointerExce
ption
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.parse(ProjectHelper.java:135)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.configureProject(ProjectHelper.jav
a:85)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:439)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.start(Main.java:153)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.main(Main.java:176)
--- Nested Exception ---
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Property.loadEnvironment(Property.java:
253)
at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Property.execute(Property.java:183)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper$TaskHandler.finished(ProjectHelper
.java:489)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper$AbstractHandler.endElement(Project
Helper.java:204)
at org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLReaderAdapter.endElement(XMLReaderAdapter.java
:355)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.maybeElement(Parser2.java:1523)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.content(Parser2.java:1766)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.externalParsedEntity(Parser2.java:2
753)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.expandEntityInContent(Parser2.java:
2487)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.maybeReferenceInContent(Parser2.jav
a:2364)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.content(Parser2.java:1820)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.maybeElement(Parser2.java:1494)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.parseInternal(Parser2.java:500)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.Parser2.parse(Parser2.java:305)
at org.apache.crimson.parser.XMLReaderImpl.parse(XMLReaderImpl.java:433)

at org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLReaderAdapter.parse(XMLReaderAdapter.java:225)

at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(SAXParser.java:344)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.parse(ProjectHelper.java:117)
at org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper.configureProject(ProjectHelper.jav
a:85)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:439)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.start(Main.java:153)
at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.main(Main.java:176)

Total time: 1 second

Kindly help.
Anup Jani

[peterj]

Looks like Ant is having problems with your environment variables. From the command prompt where you are running ant, run:

set

and post the results.

[anupjani]

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Anup>set
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
ANT_HOME=c:\Ant1.4
APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\Anup\Application Data
classpath=.;c:\jdk5\lib;C:\Ant1.4\lib
CLIENTNAME=Console
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=ARPITA-PC
ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Documents and Settings\Anup
JAVA_HOME=C:\JDK5
JBOSS_HOME=C:\JBoss4
LOGONSERVER=\\ARPITA-PC
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=2
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\ID
M Computer Solutions\UltraEdit-32;c:\jdk5\bin;C:\Ant1.4\bin
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=x86
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=0f0d
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
SESSIONNAME=Console
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS
TEMP=C:\DOCUME~1\Anup\LOCALS~1\Temp
TMP=C:\DOCUME~1\Anup\LOCALS~1\Temp
USERDOMAIN=ARPITA-PC
USERNAME=Anup
USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\Anup
windir=C:\WINDOWS

[peterj]

I do not see anything odd in your environment variables. I looked at the source code for Property, where the NPE happened. I am afraid that the only way to resolve this is to modify both the Property and Execute classes in Ant to see what the problem is. The only other thing I can think of is to try a newer version of Ant.

[peterj]

One more alternative - dig through the build.xml looking at what is uses the env property for and just provide those values as properties. Hopefully it only assigned env values to other properties and does not use env values directly.