org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Premature end of file for *VALID* XML

I am getting very strange "Premature end of file." exception for last few days on one of our servers. The same configuration XML works fine on another server. We are using Tomcat 5.0.28 on both these servers. This code has been working for ages (7+ years), only after recent server crash, we faced this problem on one of the servers. There is no change in XML as well as Java parsing code. :(

The only difference I can see is in Java versions -

Problem Server java version "1.6.0_16" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_16-b01) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.2-b01, mixed mode)

Working Server java version "1.6.0_07" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_07-b06) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 10.0-b23, mixed mode)

Here is the Java code that has been working for several years -

private void readSource(final InputSource in ) {
    try {
        DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
        Document doc = db.parse(in);
        Element elt = doc.getDocumentElement();

        this.readElement( elt );
    } catch ( Exception ex ) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
        throw new ConfigurationException( "Unable to parse configuration information", ex );
    }
}

And here is the exception.

[Fatal Error] :-1:-1: Premature end of file.
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Premature end of file.
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.parse(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(Unknown Source)
        at com.circus.core.Configuration.readSource(Configuration.java:706)

I have already tried validating XML and found no errors there. Any idea where else can I look for possible problem?

Any pointers would be highly appreciated!

TIA, - Manish

It is a problem with Java InputStream. When the stream is read once the file offset position counter is moved to the end of file. On the subsequent read by using the same stream you'll get this error. So you have to close and reopen the stream again or call inputStream.reset() to reset the offset counter to its initial position.

This is resolved. The problem was elsewhere. Another code in cron job was truncating XML to 0 length file. I have taken care of that.

This exception only happens if you are parsing an empty String/empty byte array.

below is a snippet on how to reproduce it:

String xml = ""; // <-- deliberately an empty string.
ByteArrayInputStream xmlStream = new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream(xml.getBytes());
Unmarshaller u = JAXBContext.newInstance(...)
u.setSchema(...);
u.unmarshal( xmlStream ); // <-- here it will fail

Please make sure that you are not consuming your inputstream anywhere before parsing. Sample code is following: the respose below is httpresponse(i.e. response) and main content is contain inside StringEntity (i.e. getEntity())in form of inputStream(i.e. getContent()).

InputStream rescontent = response.getEntity().getContent();
tsResponse=(TsResponse) transformer.convertFromXMLToObject(rescontent );

If input stream is not closed properly then this exception may happen. make sure : If inputstream used is not used "Before" in some way then where you are intended to read. i.e if read 2nd time from same input stream in single operation then 2nd call will get this exception. Also make sure to close input stream in finally block or something like that.