IT13265: NULLPOINTEREXCEPTION THROWN WITHIN MQ CLASSES FOR JAVA/JMS WHEN TRACE IS ENABLED WITHOUT WRITE ACCESS TO FILESYSTEM

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• A attempt is made to start a v8.0 MQ Managed File Transfer agent
  while using the "-trace" option.
  The command fails, the agent is not started and an FDC is
  produced showing that a java.lang.NullPointerException has been
  thrown with the following stack trace:
    java.lang.NullPointerException
  at java.util.logging.FileHandler.<init>
  at
  com.ibm.msg.client.commonservices.j2se.trace.DefaultTracer$4.run
  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged
  at
  com.ibm.msg.client.commonservices.j2se.trace.DefaultTracer.initi
  alize
  at com.ibm.msg.client.commonservices.trace.Trace.setOn
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.impl.WMQTraceHandler.publish
  at java.util.logging.Logger.log
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.impl.EventLogImpl.log
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.impl.EventLogImpl.internalInfo
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.EventLog.info
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.impl.RASImpl.recordLevelChange
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.impl.RASImpl.internalSetLevel
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.ras.RAS.setLevel
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.api.AbstractCommand.setRasLevel
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.api.StartAgent.main
  at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0
  at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke
  at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke
  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.agent.bootstrap.impl.BootstrapMain.run
  at com.ibm.wmqfte.agent.bootstrap.impl.BootstrapMain.main
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  USERS AFFECTED:
  Users of IBM MQ classes for Java/JMS, and IBM MQ Managed File
  Transfer who are running with trace enabled but do not have
  permission to write to the trace output location on the
  filesystem.
  
  
  Platforms affected:
  MultiPlatform
  
  ****************************************************************
  PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
  When starting a program which uses the MQ Classes for Java or MQ
  Classes for JMS,  a:
  
    java.lang.NullPointerException
  
    is thrown from the java.util.logging.FileHandler constructor
  when the following conditions are met :-
  
  	1. The program is run with trace enabled
  	
  	2. The program does not have a specific trace file location
  specified, so the default is used
  	
  	3. The program is run in a directory to which it does not
  have write access
  	
  While the problem was first noted when using the IBM MQ Managed
  File Transfer, it is specific to the IBM MQ classes for
  Java/JMS, which are in turn used by the IBM MQ Managed File
  Transfer product.
  
  
  When trace is enabled, trace initialisation checks are made to
  ensure that the trace file can be created, which set a String to
  the path name of the file if the file could be created, and to
  null if it could not.
  
  If the String is non-null, it can be passed to the FileHandler
  constructor successfully.  If it was null, when passed to the
  FileHandler constructor, the java.lang.NullPointerException was
  thrown, with the following stack:
  
  java.lang.NullPointerException
  at java.util.logging.FileHandler.<init>(FileHandler.java:366)
  at
  com.ibm.msg.client.commonservices.j2se.trace.DefaultTracer$4.run
  (DefaultTracer.java:782)
  at
  java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.jav
  a:396)
  at
  com.ibm.msg.client.commonservices.j2se.trace.DefaultTracer.initi
  alize(DefaultTracer.java:766)
  at
  com.ibm.msg.client.commonservices.trace.Trace.setOn(Trace.java:5
  90)
  

Problem conclusion

• A null test has been reinstated, such that if the program does
  not have access to write the trace file, all the trace output is
  instead written to the process' standard error stream, avoiding
  the java.lang.NullPointerException.
  
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  The fix is targeted for delivery in the following PTFs:
  
  Version    Maintenance Level
  v8.0       8.0.0.5
  
  The latest available maintenance can be obtained from
  'WebSphere MQ Recommended Fixes'
  http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=171&uid=swg27006037
  
  If the maintenance level is not yet available information on
  its planned availability can be found in 'WebSphere MQ
  Planned Maintenance Release Dates'
  http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=171&uid=swg27006309
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  WMQ BASE MULTIP

• Fixed component ID

  5724H7251

Applicable component levels

• R800 PSY

     UP