"javax.servlet.ServletException: non-HTTP request or response" in JBoss

Question

My jboss is throwing undescriptive error while trying to run my application (spring mvc). It deploys ok, and this exception doesn't tell me anything useful so I don't really know what to do. I can't debug , can't do anything really :

    13:00:01,262 INFO  [ServerImpl] JBoss (Microcontainer) [5.1.0.GA (build: SVNTag=JBoss_5_1_0_GA date=200905221053)] Started in 2m:13s:790ms

**Started successfully**

While running the application from the browser this happens :

13:00:09,456 ERROR [[appServlet]] Servlet.service() for servlet appServlet threw exception
javax.servlet.ServletException: non-HTTP request or response
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:818)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.filters.ReplyHeaderFilter.doFilter(ReplyHeaderFilter.java:96)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:235)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityAssociationValve.invoke(SecurityAssociationValve.java:190)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.JaccContextValve.invoke(JaccContextValve.java:92)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.process(SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.java:126)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.invoke(SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.java:70)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.service.jca.CachedConnectionValve.invoke(CachedConnectionValve.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:330)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:829)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:598)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:447)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

Answer 1

This gets thrown in HttpServlet.service(ServletRequest, ServletResponse) when the parameters can't be cast to HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse respectively.

That means one of two things:

• the parameters are of the wrong type (unlikely) or
• some filter is using the wrong copy of those types, loaded with a wrong classloader (for example if you deliver your own copy of servlet-api-x.x.jar with your webapp).

Answer 2

Try removing servlet-api jar from your WAR file.

Answer 3

If you are using Maven, you can just set the scope of the servlet-api to provided.