com.sun.tools.attach.AttachNotSupportedException: Unable to open socket file: target process not responding or HotSpot VM not loaded

Question

I get AttachNotSupportedException while running jmockit tests on linux (ubuntu 64bit). Java version is 1.7.0_51. This JDK is from Oracle. Tests are run using ant(that probably is not relevant)

See the stack trace.

[junit] 
[junit] java.lang.RuntimeException: com.sun.tools.attach.AttachNotSupportedException: Unable to open socket file: target process not responding or HotSpot VM not loaded
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.JDK6AgentLoader.getVirtualMachineImplementationFromEmbeddedOnes(JDK6AgentLoader.java:89)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.JDK6AgentLoader.loadAgent(JDK6AgentLoader.java:54)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.AgentInitialization.initializeAccordingToJDKVersion(AgentInitialization.java:21)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.Startup.initializeIfNeeded(Startup.java:136)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.Startup.initializeIfPossible(Startup.java:169)
[junit]     at junit.framework.TestResult.<clinit>(TestResult.java:15)
[junit]     at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.run(JUnitTestRunner.java:356)
[junit]     at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.launch(JUnitTestRunner.java:1165)
[junit]     at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.main(JUnitTestRunner.java:1016)
[junit] Caused by: com.sun.tools.attach.AttachNotSupportedException: Unable to open socket file: target process not responding or HotSpot VM not loaded
[junit]     at sun.tools.attach.LinuxVirtualMachine.<init>(LinuxVirtualMachine.java:106)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.JDK6AgentLoader.getVirtualMachineImplementationFromEmbeddedOnes(JDK6AgentLoader.java:79)
[junit]     ... 8 more
[junit] Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
[junit]     at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.run(JUnitTestRunner.java:356)
[junit]     at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.launch(JUnitTestRunner.java:1165)
[junit]     at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.main(JUnitTestRunner.java:1016)
[junit] Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: com.sun.tools.attach.AttachNotSupportedException: Unable to open socket file: target process not responding or HotSpot VM not loaded
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.JDK6AgentLoader.getVirtualMachineImplementationFromEmbeddedOnes(JDK6AgentLoader.java:89)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.JDK6AgentLoader.loadAgent(JDK6AgentLoader.java:54)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.AgentInitialization.initializeAccordingToJDKVersion(AgentInitialization.java:21)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.Startup.initializeIfNeeded(Startup.java:136)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.Startup.initializeIfPossible(Startup.java:169)
[junit]     at junit.framework.TestResult.<clinit>(TestResult.java:15)
[junit]     ... 3 more
[junit] Caused by: com.sun.tools.attach.AttachNotSupportedException: Unable to open socket file: target process not responding or HotSpot VM not loaded
[junit]     at sun.tools.attach.LinuxVirtualMachine.<init>(LinuxVirtualMachine.java:106)
[junit]     at mockit.internal.startup.JDK6AgentLoader.getVirtualMachineImplementationFromEmbeddedOnes(JDK6AgentLoader.java:79)
[junit]     ... 8 more
[junit] Running chs.caf.cap

It appears to be related to AttachNotSupportedException while running jMockit tests on IBM JRE. This however is on IBM jre.

Answer 1

My answer will be a little bit unrelated, but I had same issue while trying to dump threads using jcmd. I was getting same error message even though I was running jcmd under the root user.

You need to run jcmd <pid> Thread.print under the same user as java process has, otherwise your connections will be dropped. Java doesn't care if you are root or not.

So basically:

sudo -u <java_process_user> jcmd <pid> Thread.print

Answer 2

Work around for now.

Adding '-XX:+StartAttachListener' to jvm argument fixed the issue.

A similar issue is discussed here at https://code.google.com/p/jmockit/issues/detail?id=136 and http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/macosx-port-dev/2013-October/006098.html (which talks about a possible regression in jdk7 build)