Java "Endorsed" Mechanism not working?

Question

Hello,
I came across a very strange issue earlier this week. I was getting a "NoSuchMethodError" from somewhere in my code. Googling the problem revealed that I was supposed to "endorse" some certain jar files (jaxb-api.jar and jaxws-api.jar). Here is where my problem started.
I added the following option to java when running my code (my jar file(s) ):
-Djava.endorsed.dirs="/path/endorsed"
(For the record: YES, the jar files are in that directory. I've tried all sorts of different configurations in terms of this endorsed dirs option, the classpath, and copying/moving files around. I have thus far been unable to get it to work.)
My code is run from C++ which looks at a conf file to see what options to pass java. This is a potential weakness (an extra "moving part"), but I'm pretty sure these options are concatenated correctly because when I put in the "-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=1044" option, it correctly suspends execution until I attach a debugger. Clearly this is a pretty lazy test, but like I said it's passing the option. Unless java is peculiar about the order of these commandline options, I don't see a problem here.
So, by this point I was pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. I am extremely averse to shoving these jars into the jre/lib/endorsed directory, but I finally tried that (I actually didn't think there was any difference, but it was a last-ditch effort). To my surprise, my code ran fine without the "NoSuchMethodError." So, for now we have this jar file in the "official" jre endorsed directory, but ideally I would be able to figure out this java.endorsed.dirs option so we didn't have to do that (it just seems so dirty - and global, which I especially don't like).
Getting the full java command is a little trick, but I can provide that if necessary. From what I can see in the code it's being constructed as:
java <JAVA_OPTIONS> -jar "<MY_JAR>" "<MY_MAIN_ARGS>"
where:
<JAVA_OPTIONS> comes from this conf file (which I was setting as '-Djava.endorsed.dirs="/path/endorsed" ')
<MY_JAR> is the full path to my "main" jar file which obviously references a bunch of other jars, including these jaxws-api and jaxb-api jars.
<MY_MAIN_ARGS> is the list of arguments passed into the main function which tells "<MY_JAR>" what to do.
P.S.> I also noticed that if I shove these files into the jre/lib/endorsed directory and I still specify the -Djava.endorsed.dirs option, it acts as though the files are not endorsed ("NoSuchMethodError"). As soon as I take the option out, it starts working (no error). I don't know if this is relevant information besides the fact that it seems the -Djava.endorsed.dirs option is actually being passed, even though it's not doing what I expect (as in, it's affecting the execution in some way so it must be making a difference in the call somehow).
So, what gives? Why does -Djava.endorsed.dirs not work?

Answer 1

Hi Gayatri,
There are a lot of reasons as to why the java stack could be down. Try bouncing the J2EE stack again. ( restart), and see if it works
All the best!
cheers,
Prashanth
P.S Please mark helpful answers