SLF4J NoSuchMethodError on LocationAwareLogger

Question

This is a question that has been asked before, but unfortunately no solution seems to work for me. I am facing this exception (with abridged stack trace):

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.slf4j.spi.LocationAwareLogger.log(Lorg/slf4j/Marker;Ljava/lang/String;ILjava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/Object;Ljava/lang/Throwable;)V
    at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLocationAwareLog.debug(SLF4JLocationAwareLog.java:133)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.tsccm.ThreadSafeClientConnManager$1.getConnection(ThreadSafeClientConnManager.java:221)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultRequestDirector.execute(DefaultRequestDirector.java:401)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.AbstractHttpClient.execute(AbstractHttpClient.java:820)

This happens when compiling using a command line Maven and also when deploying to Tomcat. It works fine inside IntelliJ IDEA.

Usually I would expect this to be caused by multiple versions of the SLF4J library being in use. But the Maven dependency tree shows all slf4j libraries in a single version:

..$ mvn dependency:tree | grep slf4j
[INFO] +- org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:jar:1.6.4:compile
[INFO] |  \- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:jar:1.6.4:compile
[INFO] +- org.slf4j:slf4j-api:jar:1.6.4:compile
[INFO] +- org.slf4j:jcl-over-slf4j:jar:1.6.4:compile
[INFO] +- org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:jar:1.6.4:compile

I even ensured that there is no other JAR in ~/.m2/repository

There are no references to commons-logging libraries either (I excluded them all as confirmed by the dependency tree.

How can I resolve this issue? I'm running out of ideas.

EDIT: as requested here the full dependencies, first the parent POM:

<dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
            <version>${org.hibernate.validator.version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <!-- Exclude SLF4j to avoid version conflicts (we have 1.6.2, this drags in 1.6.1) -->
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                    <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
            <artifactId>hibernate-validator-annotation-processor</artifactId>
            <version>${org.hibernate.validator.version}</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
            <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.0.GA</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
            <exclusions>
                <!-- Exclude Commons Logging in favor of SLF4j -->
                <exclusion>
                    <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                    <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
                </exclusion>
            </exclusions>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-security-taglibs</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>junit</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
            <version>4.8.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>${org.slf4j.backend}</artifactId>
            <version>${org.slf4j.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
            <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.4</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
            <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
            <version>4.1.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
            <artifactId>joda-time</artifactId>
            <version>2.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
            <artifactId>joda-time-jsptags</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.5</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>postgresql</groupId>
            <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
            <version>9.0-801.jdbc4</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
            <version>3.0.1</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

And then the module that fails:

<dependencies>
    // client specific dependencies skipped //

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
        <artifactId>guava</artifactId>
        <version>10.0.1</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Spring -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
        <exclusions>
            <!-- Exclude Commons Logging in favor of SLF4j -->
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
                <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
        <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
        <scope>compile</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-security-taglibs</artifactId>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>cglib</groupId>
        <artifactId>cglib</artifactId>
        <version>2.2.2</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Logging -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>net.sf.opencsv</groupId>
        <artifactId>opencsv</artifactId>
        <version>2.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
        <version>${org.slf4j.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
        <version>${org.slf4j.version}</version>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>${org.slf4j.backend}</artifactId>
        <version>${org.slf4j.version}</version>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>log4j</groupId>
        <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.16</version>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Joda Time -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
        <artifactId>joda-time</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>joda-time</groupId>
        <artifactId>joda-time-jsptags</artifactId>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>

    <!-- Servlet -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.visualization</groupId>
        <artifactId>visualization-datasource</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.2</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.mybatis</groupId>
        <artifactId>mybatis-spring</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId>
        <version>1.4</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId>
        <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId>
        <version>1.9.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
        <version>2.1</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
        <version>1.2.2</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
        <version>3.7</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
        <version>3.7</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
        <artifactId>poi-ooxml-schemas</artifactId>
        <version>3.7</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>postgresql</groupId>
        <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
        <scope>runtime</scope>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <scope>test</scope>
        <groupId>junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

These are the properties set on the parent:

<properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <org.hibernate.validator.version>4.2.0.Final</org.hibernate.validator.version>
    <org.slf4j.backend>slf4j-simple</org.slf4j.backend>
    <org.slf4j.version>1.6.4</org.slf4j.version>
    <org.springframework.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</org.springframework.version>
</properties>

Given my recent experiments it doesn't seem to be an issue relating to the project files, though. I tried to 'hg bisect' the problem, but going back weeks I could not find a version that works. Some of these are running in production systems, so it is not likely to be a code change that causes this problem.

Answer 1

The javadocs for NoSuchMethodError say,

Normally, this error is caught by the compiler; this error can only occur at run time if the definition of a class has incompatibly changed.

So this is probably being caused by incompatible versions of slf4j being loaded. Rather than looking at your classpath and guessing where classes are loaded, find where your class is loaded as described here.

Print out where org.slf4j.spi.LocationAwareLogger, org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLocationAwareLog and org.slf4j.Marker are being loaded from.

Answer 2

I had the same error message, but the solution was different for me. I had to remove to following dependency from the maven pom:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
  <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
  <version>1.6.1</version>
</dependency>

After that the error vanishes and everything worked for me.

Answer 3

One Solution.

Verify on eclipse directory: configuration\org.eclipse.equinox.simpleconfigurator\bundles.info

slf4j no more one

Answer 4

do

mvn clean dependency:tree -DskipTests;

remove all the dependencies of "org.slf4j" except one (highest one") as

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.6</version>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>slf4j-jdk14</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
                <artifactId>jcl-over-slf4j</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>