NoSuchMethodError For SLF4J

Question

I'm trying to build an application in Spring using sfl4j and log4j. I read and done all the instructions about removing the commons-logging from the spring-context. However I keep on getting the same error:

SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListenerjava.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.slf4j.spi.LocationAwareLogger.log(Lorg/slf4j/Marker;Ljava/lang/String;ILjava/lang/String;Ljava/lang/Throwable;)V
    at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLocationAwareLog.info(SLF4JLocationAwareLog.java:159)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:273)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:111)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4791)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5285)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:657)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:536)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.check(HostConfig.java:1462)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:301)
    at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:819)
    at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:792)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.check(ManagerServlet.java:1445)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.deploy(ManagerServlet.java:860)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.doGet(ManagerServlet.java:357)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:621)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:393)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:108)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:581)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:936)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

Here's my pom.xml:

`

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>            
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>           
        <exclusions>
             <exclusion>
                <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
             </exclusion>
         </exclusions>
    </dependency>                        
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>taglibs</groupId>
        <artifactId>standard</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
        <version>6.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
        <version>4.2.2.Final</version>
    </dependency>             
    <dependency>
        <groupId>net.sf.jasperreports</groupId>
        <artifactId>jasperreports</artifactId>
        <version>5.1.0</version>
        <exclusions>
         <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
        <artifactId>tiles-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.velocity</groupId>
        <artifactId>velocity</artifactId>
        <version>1.7</version>
    </dependency>                        
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-tx</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
        <version>5.0.1.Final</version>
    </dependency> 
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context-support</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>         
    <dependency>
        <groupId>junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
        <version>4.11</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.mockito</groupId>
        <artifactId>mockito-all</artifactId>
        <version>1.9.5</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-orm</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>paypal.payflow</groupId>
      <artifactId>payflow-sdk</artifactId>
      <version>4.31</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
      <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
      <version>${slf4jVersion}</version>                   
    </dependency>      
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4jVersion}</version>            
    </dependency>                                              
</dependencies>`

Can someone please help? I've spent days trying to figure this out.

Answer 1

@Solubris, you gave me the right pointers. It didn't initially work, as per my reply to your post, because I didn't delete any related old jars of slf4j.version still in the lib folder. So when I deleted all those duplicated libraries, the web application deploys just fine.

For any one encountering the same issue, please follow Solubris solution and then... make sure to check your lib folder and delete any slf4j related jars having older versions. I hope this can save someone countless hours of wondering and turning to madness!

Answer 2

The best way to resolve problem is to include source files for your log4j libraries and research invocation chaining.

• Be sure log4j and jcl-over-slf4j successfully deployed on the Tomcat.
• Use grepcode for log4j-api and jcl-over-lsf4j to analyze problem root and resolve version compatibility.
• Be sure you have no conflicts in your classpath. Use next snippet to be sure you loaded classes from libraries jars:

example:

    Class klass = String.class;
    URL location = klass.getResource('/'+klass.getName().replace('.', '/')+".class");

will print this type of the string:

    jar:file:/Users/taky/.gradle/caches/artifacts-14/filestore/com.google.inject/guice/3.0/jar/9d84f15fe35e2c716a02979fb62f50a29f38aefa/guice-3.0.jar!/com/google/inject/internal/InjectorImpl.class

Answer 3

You are missing the dependency for the slf4j api:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>

This defines the api (interfaces) for slf4j and the other dependencies implement the api.

I recommend using logback as the implementation: http://logback.qos.ch/reasonsToSwitch.html

Here is the complete config to use slf4j with logback:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j-over-slf4j</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>jul-to-slf4j</artifactId>
        <version>${slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
        <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.6</version>
    </dependency>

Finally, you need to add this to your logback.xml to have jul directed through slf4j:

<!-- support for jul through logback: http://logback.qos.ch/manual/configuration.html#LevelChangePropagator -->
<contextListener class="ch.qos.logback.classic.jul.LevelChangePropagator"/>

Answer 4

I found in /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/lib/ex the following files slf4j-api-1.5.6.jar
slf4j-log4j12-1.5.6.jar

So, I remove these in favor of those installed by maven in the repository (.../.m2/repository) thus the problem was solved.