Tomcat 7 "SEVERE: A child container failed during start"

Basically, I've written a springMVC application (with a relatively shotgun my way first-timer approach with regards to Spring). The project works fine on Tomcat 6. My Tomcat server doesn't start and throws the following exception:

Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: /usr/bin/jdk1.7.0_03/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/bin/jdk1.7.0_03/jre/lib/amd64:/usr/bin/jdk1.7.0_03/jre/../lib/amd64:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/../lib/amd64:/usr/java/packages/lib/amd64:/usr/lib64:/lib64:/lib:/usr/lib
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.j2ee.server:spring-security-integration' did not find a matching property.
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:Spring3Hibernate' did not find a matching property.
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:assessment' did not find a matching property.
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"]
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 654 ms
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:00 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.26
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:01 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring root WebApplicationContext
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader - Root WebApplicationContext: initialization started
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Refreshing Root WebApplicationContext: startup date [Sun Apr 29 15:41:01 BST 2012]; root of context hierarchy
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader - Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/root-context.xml]
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory - Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@3dd5df15: defining beans []; root of factory hierarchy
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader - Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 226 ms
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:01 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: Initializing Spring FrameworkServlet 'appServlet'
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - FrameworkServlet 'appServlet': initialization started
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Refreshing WebApplicationContext for namespace 'appServlet-servlet': startup date [Sun Apr 29 15:41:01 BST 2012]; parent: Root WebApplicationContext
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader - Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml]
INFO : org.springframework.context.annotation.ClassPathBeanDefinitionScanner - JSR-330 'javax.inject.Named' annotation found and supported for component scanning
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.AutowiredAnnotationBeanPostProcessor - JSR-330 'javax.inject.Inject' annotation found and supported for autowiring
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory - Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@cf10596: defining beans [org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping#0,org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerAdapter#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.MappedInterceptor#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.ExceptionHandlerExceptionResolver#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.ResponseStatusExceptionResolver#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.support.DefaultHandlerExceptionResolver#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.HttpRequestHandlerAdapter,org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter,org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping#0,org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver#0,dataSource,sessionFactory,homeController,userManagementController,userService,userDao,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalConfigurationAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalPersistenceAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ContentNegotiatingViewResolver#0,org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor$ImportAwareBeanPostProcessor#0]; parent: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@3dd5df15
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Mapped "{[/],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public java.lang.String org.assessme.com.controller.HomeController.home(java.util.Locale,org.springframework.ui.Model)
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Mapped "{[/userManagement/],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public java.lang.Object org.assessme.com.controller.UserManagementController.home(java.util.Locale,org.springframework.ui.Model)
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping - Mapped "{[/userManagement/getUser],methods=[GET],params=[],headers=[],consumes=[],produces=[],custom=[]}" onto public org.assessme.com.entity.User org.assessme.com.controller.UserManagementController.data(java.util.Locale,org.springframework.ui.Model)
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping - Mapped URL path [/resources/**] onto handler 'org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler#0'
INFO : org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet - FrameworkServlet 'appServlet': initialization completed in 1846 ms
Apr 29, 2012 3:41:03 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase startInternal
SEVERE: A child container failed during start
java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/Spring3Hibernate]]
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:252)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:111)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.startInternal(ContainerBase.java:1128)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.startInternal(StandardHost.java:782)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1566)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StartChild.call(ContainerBase.java:1556)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:334)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:166)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/Spring3Hibernate]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: Invalid byte tag in constant pool: 60
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.Constant.readConstant(Constant.java:131)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ConstantPool.<init>(ConstantPool.java:60)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readConstantPool(ClassParser.java:209)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2032)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsJar(ContextConfig.java:1923)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1891)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1877)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1270)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:855)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:345)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5161)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 7 more

I'm really not sure what this is referring to, I'm more than happy to show any code etc but I don't really know what it's referring to. Below is my pom.xml just in case that might be of relevance.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>org.assessme</groupId>
    <artifactId>com</artifactId>
    <name>assessme</name>
    <packaging>war</packaging>
    <version>1.0.0-BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <properties>
        <java-version>1.6</java-version>
        <org.springframework-version>3.1.0.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>
        <org.aspectj-version>1.6.9</org.aspectj-version>
        <org.slf4j-version>1.5.10</org.slf4j-version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <!-- Spring -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
            <exclusions>

                <!-- Exclude Commons Logging in favor of SLF4j -->
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- AspectJ -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>${org.aspectj-version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Logging -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j-version}</version>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
            <version>1.2.15</version>
            <exclusions>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
                    <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>javax.jms</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jms</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.sun.jdmk</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jmxtools</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>com.sun.jmx</groupId>
                    <artifactId>jmxri</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- @Inject -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Servlet -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Persistence -->

        <dependency>
            <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
            <version>1.4</version>
        </dependency>


        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>


        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.6-Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-annotations</artifactId>
            <version>3.5.6-Final</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javassist</groupId>
            <artifactId>javassist</artifactId>
            <version>3.11.0.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework-version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <version>5.1.18</version>
        </dependency>


        <!-- Jackson JSON Mapper -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
            <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
            <version>1.9.5</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- Test -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.7</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-eclipse-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.9</version>
                <configuration>
                    <additionalProjectnatures>
                        <projectnature>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springnature</projectnature>
                    </additionalProjectnatures>
                    <additionalBuildcommands>
                        <buildcommand>org.springframework.ide.eclipse.core.springbuilder</buildcommand>
                    </additionalBuildcommands>
                    <downloadSources>true</downloadSources>
                    <downloadJavadocs>true</downloadJavadocs>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.6</source>
                    <target>1.6</target>
                    <compilerArgument>-Xlint:all</compilerArgument>
                    <showWarnings>true</showWarnings>
                    <showDeprecation>true</showDeprecation>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
                <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.2.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <mainClass>org.test.int1.Main</mainClass>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

Does anyone have any ideas?


When a servlet 3.0 application starts the container has to scan all the classes for annotations (unless metadata-complete=true). Tomcat uses a fork (no additions, just unused code removed) of Apache Commons BCEL to do this scanning. The web app is failing to start because BCEL has come across something it doesn't understand.

If the applications runs fine on Tomcat 6, adding metadata-complete="true" in your web.xml or declaring your application as a 2.5 application in web.xml will stop the annotation scanning.

At the moment, this looks like a problem in the class being scanned. However, until we know which class is causing the problem and take a closer look we won't know. I'll need to modify Tomcat to log a more useful error message that names the class in question. You can follow progress on this point at: https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=53161


you can fix it with:

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
    <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
    <version>${servlet-api-version}</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

provided solves this problem


I recently moved to a new PC all my eclipse projects. I experienced this issue. What i did was:

  1. removed the project from tomcat
  2. clean tomcat
  3. run project in tomcat

If you are thinking that previously it was running properly and now on it started showing the particular issue. Then it is just a hit and trial method to solve. so to get better solution you could follow below steps

  1. remove your existing tomcat, if possible
  2. remove your project and add your project with a new build
  3. add your tomcat server
  4. clean the project and refresh the project
  5. go for running or debug mode