Concern about Java 7u40 timeline

[Sam Reid]

I installed the Java 7 update 40 build 35 for OS X, and confirmed that 
my test case and full applications launch properly under that version.  
Thanks everyone who helped solve this problem and backport it to the 
update 40 build!  Please keep me in the loop about the timeline for the 
general availability of update 40 so that my team can decide how best to 
proceed.

Thanks again!
Sam Reid
PhET Interactive Simulations
University of Colorado Boulder

On 8/4/2013 4:29 PM, Sam Reid wrote:
> Here is a test case to demonstrate the problem.  I am not 100% sure
> whether it is the same as JDK-8017174, but here are the steps to
> reproduce the problem and the resulting exception:
>
> 1. Write and save TestMain.java (source below), which essentially just
> calls "Logger.getAnonymousLogger();"
> 2. Write and save test-logger.jnlp (source below), changing the path in
> codebase="file:///????? to match your machine path
>
> javac TestMain.java
> jar -cf myfile.jar *.class
> javaws test-logger.jnlp
>
> On my OSX 10.8.4 machine running 1.7.0_25 (build 15), this produces:
> Application Error: Unable to launch the application
> java.lang.NullPointerException
>       at java.util.logging.Logger.doSetParent(Logger.java:1593)
>       at java.util.logging.Logger.getAnonymousLogger(Logger.java:534)
>       at java.util.logging.Logger.getAnonymousLogger(Logger.java:495)
>       at TestMain.main(TestMain.java:6)
> (full trace below)
>
> There is an odd issue about the problem that I would like to describe
> here.  I can easily reproduce this problem on Mac OSX 10.8.4.  Last week
> I was also able to reproduce the problem on Windows 8 (also running Java
> 1.7.0_25), but that OS became corrupted and had to be reinstalled.
> After reinstalling Windows 8 and Java version 1.7.0_25 on that machine,
> it no longer has the same exception.  I am not sure what caused it to
> fail before and work now--I did not record the "build number" on the
> prior Windows failures, but now I am using build 1.7.0_25-b17 and cannot
> produce the problem on Windows.  So this problem may be specific to OSX
> and to specific builds (or other unknown configuration) for Windows.
>
> After writing this up, I wasn't sure whether it was the same as
> JDK-8017174 or any of the duplicate bug reports, but perhaps they all
> have the same root cause.  I have not yet tested the java7u40
> development builds on my OSX machine.  Looking forward to hearing from you!
>
> Best Regards,
> Sam Reid
> PhET Interactive Simulations
> University of Colorado Boulder
>
> ##########################
> #  TestMain.java
> ############
>
> import java.util.logging.Logger;
>
> public class TestMain {
>       public static void main(String[] args) {
>           System.out.println("Running test for logger exception");
>           Logger logger = Logger.getAnonymousLogger();
>           System.out.println("logger = " + logger);
>       }
> }
>
> ##########################
> #  test-logger.jnlp
> ############
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
>
> <jnlp spec="1.0+" codebase="file:///?????" href="test-logger.jnlp">
>
>       <information>
>
>           <title>Test Logger Problem</title>
>
>           <vendor>University of Colorado Boulder</vendor>
>
>           <description>Test for logger problem</description>
>
>       </information>
>
>       <resources>
>
>           <jar href="myfile.jar"/>
>
>       </resources>
>       <application-desc main-class="TestMain">
>       </application-desc>
>
> </jnlp>
>
> ##################
> # Full stack trace
> ##########
> java.lang.NullPointerException
>       at java.util.logging.Logger.doSetParent(Logger.java:1593)
>       at java.util.logging.Logger.getAnonymousLogger(Logger.java:534)
>       at java.util.logging.Logger.getAnonymousLogger(Logger.java:495)
>       at TestMain.main(TestMain.java:6)
>       at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
>       at
> sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
>       at
> sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
>       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
>       at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
>       at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.executeMainClass(Unknown Source)
>       at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.doLaunchApp(Unknown Source)
>       at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Unknown Source)
>       at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)
>
> On 8/2/2013 4:40 PM, Alan Bateman wrote:
>> On 02/08/2013 10:09, Sam Reid wrote:
>>> One more thing, JDK-8017174 is still not listed in the j7u40 features
>>> & changes [2] even for build 35 so I am still a bit confused about that.
>> Can you send a test case to demonstrate the NPE that you are seeing in
>> logging? (to help understand if this is the same issue or something else).
>>
>> -Alan.