Groovy 2.5.0 gives noclassdeffounderror for methodcalltransformation

Question

When I upgrade my project from Groovy 2.4.* to Groovy 2.5.0, it gives noclassdeffounderror for org/codehaus/groovy/ast/methodcalltransformation when compiling using Gradle.

It works fine in Groovy 2.4.

Posting the whole exception here:

org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':compileGroovy'.
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:100)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:70)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.OutputDirectoryCreatingTaskExecuter.execute(OutputDirectoryCreatingTaskExecuter.java:51)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.execute(SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.java:62)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskOutputCachingStateExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskOutputCachingStateExecuter.java:54)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:60)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:97)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.execute(CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.java:87)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskArtifactStateTaskExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskArtifactStateTaskExecuter.java:52)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:52)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:54)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.java:43)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.execute(CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.java:34)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter$EventFiringTaskWorker$1.run(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:248)
        at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:336)
        at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:328)
        at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:199)
        at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:110)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter$EventFiringTaskWorker.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:241)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter$EventFiringTaskWorker.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:230)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.processTask(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:123)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.access$200(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:79)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:104)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:98)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.java:626)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.executeWithTask(DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.java:581)
        at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.run(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:98)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ManagedExecutorImpl$1.run(ManagedExecutorImpl.java:46)
        at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ThreadFactoryImpl$ManagedThreadRunnable.run(ThreadFactoryImpl.java:55)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/codehaus/groovy/ast/MethodCallTransformation
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.compile.ApiGroovyCompiler$1.<init>(ApiGroovyCompiler.java:117)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.compile.ApiGroovyCompiler.execute(ApiGroovyCompiler.java:117)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.compile.ApiGroovyCompiler.execute(ApiGroovyCompiler.java:56)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.compile.daemon.AbstractDaemonCompiler$CompilerRunnable.run(AbstractDaemonCompiler.java:87)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.DefaultWorkerServer.execute(DefaultWorkerServer.java:36)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.WorkerDaemonServer.execute(WorkerDaemonServer.java:46)
        at org.gradle.workers.internal.WorkerDaemonServer.execute(WorkerDaemonServer.java:30)
        at org.gradle.process.internal.worker.request.WorkerAction.run(WorkerAction.java:100)
        at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:35)
        at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:24)
        at org.gradle.internal.remote.internal.hub.MessageHubBackedObjectConnection$DispatchWrapper.dispatch(MessageHubBackedObjectConnection.java:146)
        at org.gradle.internal.remote.internal.hub.MessageHubBackedObjectConnection$DispatchWrapper.dispatch(MessageHubBackedObjectConnection.java:128)
        at org.gradle.internal.remote.internal.hub.MessageHub$Handler.run(MessageHub.java:404)
        ... 3 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.codehaus.groovy.ast.MethodCallTransformation
        ... 16 more

Answer 1

if you also used Spring Boot, maybe the following workaround will help

Reference: spring-boot issue #13444: Allow usage of Groovy 2.5

I used Gradle 4.8 and Spring Boot 1.5.14, and got the same NoClassDefFoundError after upgraded Groovy from 2.4.15 to 2.5.0.

After I do what the issue suggests, it builds successfully and also runs well,

1. Add io.spring.dependency-management plugin to build.gradle

   (I use Spring Boot 1.5 myself, Spring Boot 2 should also work well)

   plugins {
       id 'org.springframework.boot' version '1.5.14.RELEASE'
       id 'io.spring.dependency-management' version '1.0.5.RELEASE'
   }
   

2. set groovy.version to 2.5.0

   ext['groovy.version'] = '2.5.0'
   

3. build and enjoy groovy 2.5! :)