spring-core 3.2.9 + java 8

Question

We've upgraded our project using spring 3.2.9 to java 8. Once we start using java 8 features spring will no longer start (see stack trace below).

I tried to exclude old usages of asm and include the following dependencies:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.ow2.asm</groupId>
    <artifactId>asm</artifactId>
    <version>5.0.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.ow2.asm</groupId>
    <artifactId>asm-util</artifactId>
    <version>5.0.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.ow2.asm</groupId>
    <artifactId>asm-commons</artifactId>
    <version>5.0.3</version>
</dependency>

However it does not solve the problem. Does anybody have an idea how to solve this?

Unfortunately we cannot upgrade to spring 4 as we use some dependencies that would make this upgrade pretty time consuming.

Offending resource: class path resource [xxxx/context-test.xml]; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to read candidate component class: file [xxxxx.class]; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: INVOKESPECIAL/STATIC on interfaces require ASM 5
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.FailFastProblemReporter.error(FailFastProblemReporter.java:68)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ReaderContext.error(ReaderContext.java:85)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.parsing.ReaderContext.error(ReaderContext.java:76)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.importBeanDefinitionResource(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:256)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseDefaultElement(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:207)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:192)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.doRegisterBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:139)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:108)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:493)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:390)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:334)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:174)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:209)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:180)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:125)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:94)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:130)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.obtainFreshBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:537)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:451)
    at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContextInternal(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:64)
    at org.springframework.test.context.CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.loadContext(CacheAwareContextLoaderDelegate.java:91)
    ... 23 more
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Failed to read candidate component class: file [xxxxxxxxxxxxx.class]; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: INVOKESPECIAL/STATIC on interfaces require ASM 5
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.findCandidateComponents(ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.java:290)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner.doScan(ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner.java:242)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScanBeanDefinitionParser.parse(ComponentScanBeanDefinitionParser.java:84)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.NamespaceHandlerSupport.parse(NamespaceHandlerSupport.java:73)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1438)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.parseCustomElement(BeanDefinitionParserDelegate.java:1428)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.parseBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:195)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.doRegisterBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:139)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.registerBeanDefinitions(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:108)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.registerBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:493)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.doLoadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:390)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:334)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:174)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:209)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.importBeanDefinitionResource(DefaultBeanDefinitionDocumentReader.java:250)
    ... 43 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: INVOKESPECIAL/STATIC on interfaces require ASM 5
    at org.springframework.asm.MethodVisitor.visitMethodInsn(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.a(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.b(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.accept(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.accept(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReader.<init>(SimpleMetadataReader.java:64)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.java:80)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.CachingMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(CachingMetadataReaderFactory.java:102)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.findCandidateComponents(ClassPathScanningCandidateComponentProvider.java:266)
    ... 58 more

Answer 1

You need to upgrade to a Spring 4.x version.

Spring 3.2.x will only support Java 8 runtimes compiled against Java 7. You cannot use "static interfaces" as that is a Java 8 feature and will not compile against Java 7.

Here is a relevant snippet from some of the Spring 4 release notes, emphasis theirs:

Along with 4.0 M1, we’ve released Spring Framework 3.2.3, containing fixes for recently reported issues but also coming with OpenJDK 8 runtime support. Spring Framework 3.2.x will support deployment on JDK 8 runtimes for applications compiled against JDK 7 (with -target 1.7) or earlier.

And from their comments in the build.gradle file for spring-framework, they repackage CGLib as part of their release and embed ASM into the project.

// As of Spring 4.0.3, spring-core includes asm 5.0 and repackages cglib 3.1, inlining
// both into the spring-core jar. cglib 3.1 itself depends on asm 4+, and is therefore
// further transformed by the JarJar task to depend on org.springframework.asm; this
// avoids including two different copies of asm unnecessarily.

Here is another relevant section from the 4.0.3 release notes that shows how they embed some of these libraries and what is supported in Spring 4.0.3.

It's my pleasure to announce that Spring Framework 4.0.3 is available. This is the first release of the framework after Java 8's launch last week; it is built with OpenJDK 8 GA now and includes the latest ASM 5.0.1 (with bytecode support at the JDK 8 GA level as well, superseding the custom ASM 4.2 fork that we were previously using).