Spring's LoadTimeWeaver Agent not starting up

Question

I'm attempting to implement Load time weaving using Spring and AspectJ. To the best of my knowledge I have everything configured properly but I keep getting the error when I try to run my integration tests:

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.context.weaving.AspectJWeavingEnabler#0': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'loadTimeWeaver': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: ClassLoader [sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader] does NOT provide an 'addTransformer(ClassFileTransformer)' method. Specify a custom LoadTimeWeaver or start your Java virtual machine with Spring's agent: -javaagent:org.springframework.instrument.jar
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:527)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:288)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1079)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:643)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:407)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:139)
    at org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.<init>(ClassPathXmlApplicationContext.java:83)
    at com.boku.risk.service.perisistence.PersistenceTestBase.setupBase(PersistenceTestBase.java:23)
    at com.boku.risk.service.dao.CountryLimitDaoTest.setup(CountryLimitDaoTest.java:33)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:44)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:15)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:41)
    at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:27)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:76)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:50)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:193)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:52)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:191)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:42)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:184)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:236)
    at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:157)
    at com.intellij.junit4.JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit4IdeaTestRunner.java:71)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.prepareStreamsAndStart(JUnitStarter.java:199)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:120)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'loadTimeWeaver': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: ClassLoader [sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader] does NOT provide an 'addTransformer(ClassFileTransformer)' method. Specify a custom LoadTimeWeaver or start your Java virtual machine with Spring's agent: -javaagent:org.springframework.instrument.jar
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:527)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:456)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:291)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:222)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:288)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
    at org.springframework.context.weaving.LoadTimeWeaverAwareProcessor.postProcessBeforeInitialization(LoadTimeWeaverAwareProcessor.java:95)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsBeforeInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:394)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1413)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519)
    ... 37 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: ClassLoader [sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader] does NOT provide an 'addTransformer(ClassFileTransformer)' method. Specify a custom LoadTimeWeaver or start your Java virtual machine with Spring's agent: -javaagent:org.springframework.instrument.jar
    at org.springframework.context.weaving.DefaultContextLoadTimeWeaver.setBeanClassLoader(DefaultContextLoadTimeWeaver.java:83)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeAwareMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1436)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1408)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:519)
    ... 46 more

My application context contains:

<context:load-time-weaver/>

And my pom contains:

<dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId>
            <version>${org.springframework.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-agent</artifactId>
            <version>2.5.6</version>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.aspectj</groupId>
            <artifactId>aspectjrt</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.10</version>
        </dependency>
    ...
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <forkMode>always</forkMode>
                    <argLine>
                        -javaagent:${settings.localRepository}/org/springframework/spring-agent/2.5.6/spring-agent-2.5.6.jar
                    </argLine>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

It appears as if it can't figure out to load the spring-agent but I can't seem to figure out the reason for this. Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

Try declaring an InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver bean instead of explicitly using -javaagent:/path/to/org.springframework.instrument-{version}.jar. As per the documentation

To use it, you must start the virtual machine with the Spring agent, by supplying the following JVM options:

-javaagent:/path/to/org.springframework.instrument-{version}.jar

Note that this requires modification of the VM launch script which may prevent you from using this in application server environments (depending on your operation policies). Additionally, the JDK agent will instrument the entire VM which can prove expensive.

I am hoping doing the way below - here explained - would be better I guess.

@Bean
public InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver loadTimeWeaver()  throws Throwable {
InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver loadTimeWeaver = new InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver();
return loadTimeWeaver;
}

The same can be done in xml configuration.

Found a new library that just solves to dynamically setup spring InstrumentationLoadTimeWeaver to enable support for aspects without having to start the JVM with an explicit java agent

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>de.invesdwin</groupId>
        <artifactId>invesdwin-instrument</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.9</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>invesdwin</id>
        <url>https://invesdwin.de/artifactory/invesdwin-oss-remote</url>
        <releases>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </releases>
    </repository>
</repositories>

Spring boot config

@SpringBootApplication
/** 
 * Make @Configurable work via @EnableLoadTimeWeaving.
 * If it does not work, alternatively you can try: 
 * @ImportResource(locations = "classpath:/META-INF/ctx.spring.weaving.xml") 
 */
@EnableLoadTimeWeaving
public class MySpringBootApplication {
    public static void main(final String[] args) {
        DynamicInstrumentationLoader.waitForInitialized(); //dynamically attach java agent to jvm if not already present
        DynamicInstrumentationLoader.initLoadTimeWeavingContext(); //weave all classes before they are loaded as beans
        SpringApplication.run(MySpringBootApplication.class, args); //start application, load some classes
    }
}