[CLJ-1157] Classes generated by gen-class aren't loadable from remote codebase for mis-implementation of static-initializer

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:19:05 -0500

When a client program uses a remote service which uses RMI, and the service returns a object which created with gen-class with clojure as the return value, the return value is not loadable at client side.

At client side, a following exeption will be thrown.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.hasStaticInitializer(Native Method)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.computeDefaultSUID(ObjectStreamClass.java:1723)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.access$100(ObjectStreamClass.java:69)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass$1.run(ObjectStreamClass.java:247)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass$1.run(ObjectStreamClass.java:245)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.getSerialVersionUID(ObjectStreamClass.java:244)
        at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.initNonProxy(ObjectStreamClass.java:600)
        at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readNonProxyDesc(ObjectInputStream.java:1601)
        at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readClassDesc(ObjectInputStream.java:1514)
        at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1750)
        at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1347)
        at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(ObjectInputStream.java:369)
        at sun.rmi.server.UnicastRef.unmarshalValue(UnicastRef.java:324)
        at sun.rmi.server.UnicastRef.invoke(UnicastRef.java:173)
        at java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.invokeRemoteMethod(RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.java:194)
        at java.rmi.server.RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.invoke(RemoteObjectInvocationHandler.java:148)
        at $Proxy0.getResult(Unknown Source)
        at client.SampleClient$_main.doInvoke(SampleClient.clj:12)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:397)
        at clojure.lang.AFn.applyToHelper(AFn.java:159)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.applyTo(RestFn.java:132)
        at client.SampleClient.main(Unknown Source)
 Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: Could not locate remoteserver/SampleInterfaceImpl__init.class or remoteserver/SampleInterfaceImpl.clj on classpath: 
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:434)
        at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:402)
        at clojure.core$load$fn__5039.invoke(core.clj:5520)
        at clojure.core$load.doInvoke(core.clj:5519)
        at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:408)
        at clojure.lang.Var.invoke(Var.java:415)
        at remoteserver.SampleInterfaceImpl.<clinit>(Unknown Source)
        ... 23 more

HOW TO REPRODUCT THIS ISSUE

If you want to see this issue at your computer, clone my example project from my github.

git clone git://github.com/tyano/clojure_genclass_fix.git

and build them (You must have installed Leiningen 2):

cd clojure_genclass_fix
sh build.sh

start rmiregistry:

rmiregistry &

start remoteserver:

cd remoteserver
sh start.sh

You will see a message "Server ready. " or "Server ready. (rebind)".

At last, start client program:

cd ../client
sh start.sh

Without my patch, you will see a same Exception described above. But with clojure with my patch, you will see a right response message: "response = this is sample."

THE REASON

The reason of this problem is in bytecodes generated by gen-class. A gen-classed class (in this case, SampleInterfaceImpl.class) uses a static-initializer for loading SampleInterfaceImpl__init.class (which load other classes which implements functions in the class). The static-initializer is like bellow: (the following code is decompiled with JD - http://java.decompiler.free.fr/?q=jdgui )

static
  {
    RT.var("clojure.core", "load").invoke("/remoteserver/SampleInterfaceImpl");
  }

Very simple code. it seems non-problematic. But RT.load changes the classloader for loading __init.class in the processing! RT.load in default uses a context-classloader for loading classes. But all classes depending on a gen-classed class must be loaded a same classloader with a main gen-classed class. In this case, RT.load must use a remote URLClassLoader which load a main class.

So, gen-class must be create bytecodes that is same with the following java code.

static
  {
    Var.pushThreadBindings(RT.map(new Object[] { Compiler.LOADER, SampleInterfaceImpl.class.getClassLoader() }));
    try {
        RT.var("clojure.core", "load").invoke("/remoteserver/SampleInterfaceImpl");
    }
    finally 
    {
        Var.popThreadBindings();
    }
  }

With this code, RT.load will uses a same classloader which load SampleInterfaceImpl.class.
My patch for gen-class will create bytecodes equal to the above example.

You can use an attached patch '20130204_fix_classloader.diff', or pull 'fix_classloader' branch from my github repositry ( git@github.com:tyano/clojure.git ).

Clojure JIRA

[CLJ-1157] Classes generated by gen-class aren't loadable from remote codebase for mis-implementation of static-initializer

HOW TO REPRODUCT THIS ISSUE

THE REASON