Javax.annotation.processing.Processor not recognized

Question

Hi,
I'm currently experimenting with the javax.annotation.processing API. Thus I created a simple Annotation and a related simple processor.
Another sample program uses the annotation. When compiling this program everything works fine as long as I specify the processor class
on the command line. But when I try to simply use a javax.annotation.processing.Processor file, the compiler doesn't seem to find the processor.
What am I doing wrong?
Here come the details:
I use Java6 and the sun java compiler javac.
The annotation and processor class are packed into a JAR file together with the javax...Processor file. The JAR looks like this:
     hello/HelloProcessor.class
     hello/annotations/Hello.class
     META-INF/services/javax.annotation.processing.Processor
     META-INF/MANIFEST.MF     The javax.annotation.processing.Processor file is UTF-8 encoded and contains a single line:
     hello.HelloProcessorwithout the leading spaces.
My processor looks like this:
     @SupportedAnnotationTypes (value = {"hello.annotations.Hello"})
     public class HelloProcessor extends AbstractProcessor {
         private int mCounter = 0;
         /* (non-Javadoc)
          * @see javax.annotation.processing.AbstractProcessor#process(java.util.Set, javax.annotation.processing.RoundEnvironment)
         @Override
         public boolean process(Set<? extends TypeElement> aAnnotations, RoundEnvironment aRoundEnv) {
          Messager vMessager = processingEnv.getMessager();
          vMessager.printMessage(Kind.NOTE, "Runde " + ++mCounter);
          vMessager.printMessage(Kind.NOTE, "Hello World!");
          return false;
     }The following call works...
     javac -processor hello.HelloProcessor -d bin -sourcepath src -cp lib/helloap.jar src/hello/examples/SimpleClass.javaand leads to the following output:
     warning: No SupportedSourceVersion annotation found on hello.HelloProcessor, returning RELEASE_6.
     Note: Runde 1
     Note: Hello World!
     Note: Runde 2
     Note: Hello World!          And this call does not seem to work:
     javac -d bin -sourcepath src -cp lib/helloap.jar src/hello/examples/SimpleClass.javaas it does not produce any output.
And when I try to configure the processor in eclipse, the processor simply is not found, when I define the helloap.jar on the factory path.
I'd be happy about every hint.
Greetings
yawah

Answer 1

It sounds like your META-INF/services information is bad.
Outside of javac, I suggest trying to find your processor from its jar file using java.util.ServiceLoader.
I'd also try making sure your META-INF/services file ends with a newline character rather than just ends.