Java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Illegal name:

Question

I'm looking for some validation on this problem I'm experiencing with 1.4.2_05. I believe that java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass() was cleaned up in this release to no longer accept class definitions that use the '/' as the separator character. Rather you actually have to follow the API specification and use the '.' character (go figure).
Using any JDK release before 1.4.2_04, I can use the slash character. I know that this particular usage is somewhat wrong, what I can't figure out is why there is no indication in the 1.4.2_05 release notes that this has changed. Does anyone actually know if this is something that was silently fixed in 1.4.2_05?
The exception I'm seeing:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Illegal name: weblogic/db/oci/OciColumn
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:538)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:123)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:251)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:55)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:194)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:187)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:289)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:274)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:235)
at weblogic.db.oci.OciConnection.native_initialize(Native Method)
at weblogic.db.oci.OciConnection.initialize(OciConnection.java:435)
at weblogic.db.oci.OciConnection.<init>(OciConnection.java:140)
at weblogic.jdbc.oci.Connection.<init>(Connection.java:268)
at weblogic.jdbc.oci.Driver.allocateConnection(Driver.java:44)
at weblogic.jdbc.oci.Driver.connect(Driver.java:101)
<rest of stack omitted>
There are some reported bugs on this topic too...4817264 (which is marked as dupe of 4471675, but I can't see that bug for some reason).
thanks!

Answer 1

It appears that you're correct. I ran into this too, and with your additional
insight, I dug into java.lang.ClassLoader and decompiled (with jad) the
class from 1.4.2_03 and 1.4.2_05.
defineClass has this bit of code in it:
        try
            if(!checkName(s, false))
                throw new NoClassDefFoundError("Illegal name: " + s);
            class1 = defineClass0(s, abyte0, i, j, protectiondomain);
        }The call (and definition) of checkName is in the 1.4.2_05 release, but not
in 1.4.2_03. checkName disallows slash characters:
    private boolean checkName(String s, boolean flag)
        if(s == null || s.length() == 0)
            return true;
        if(s.indexOf('/') != -1)
            return false;
        return flag || s.charAt(0) != '[';
    }tim