Cyclic dependency only when running java -jar, not with spring-boot:run

Question

I've been developing a spring-boot application inside Intellij IDEA for a while. It's now complete and I'm about to send it of to other users.

I build it with mvn clean install and try to start the built -jar file with java -jar target/my-app.jar.

To my surprise it fails with an exception (hard to read but at least chopped up into several lines)

Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt:
org.springframework.beans.factory.UnsatisfiedDependencyException:
Error creating bean with name 'userController':
Unsatisfied dependency expressed through field 'userClient';
nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException:
Error creating bean with name '***.client.userclient.UserClient':
FactoryBean threw exception on object creation;
nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.UnsatisfiedDependencyException:
Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.WebMvcAutoConfiguration$EnableWebMvcConfiguration':
Unsatisfied dependency expressed through method 'setConfigurers' parameter 0;
nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.UnsatisfiedDependencyException:
Error creating bean with name 'webMvcConfig':
Unsatisfied dependency expressed through field 'authenticationInterceptor';
nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.UnsatisfiedDependencyException:
Error creating bean with name 'authenticationInterceptor':
Unsatisfied dependency expressed through field 'authenticationClient';
nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException:
Error creating bean with name '***.client.authenticationclient.AuthenticationClient':
FactoryBean threw exception on object creation;
nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCurrentlyInCreationException:
Error creating bean with name 'mvcResourceUrlProvider':
Requested bean is currently in creation: Is there an unresolvable circular reference?

I also get some ascii art over the dependencies

***************************
APPLICATION FAILED TO START
***************************

Description:

The dependencies of some of the beans in the application context form a cycle:

|  userController (field ****.client.userclient.UserClient ****.controller.user.UserController.userClient)
↑     ↓
|  ****.client.userclient.UserClient
↑     ↓
|  org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.WebMvcAutoConfiguration$EnableWebMvcConfiguration
↑     ↓
|  webMvcConfig (field ****.AuthenticationInterceptor ****.WebMvcConfig.authenticationInterceptor)
↑     ↓
|  authenticationInterceptor (field ****.client.authenticationclient.AuthenticationClient ****.AuthenticationInterceptor.authenticationClient)
↑     ↓
|  ****.client.authenticationclient.AuthenticationClient
↑     ↓
|  mvcResourceUrlProvider
└─────┘

So I try to run it with mvn spring-boot:run and it works!

I was under the impression that running with java -jar and mvn spring-boot:run would be the same. What am I missing?

I guess I could fix the cyclic dependencies but what bothers me now is why these two runners differ.

Thanks.

Answer 1

It's a problem in spring, see
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/6045
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/issues/18879

Temporary crutch solution
set in application.properties or different way this:
spring.main.lazy-initialization=true