Question

I’m having trouble calling the Microsoft Cabinet Maker utility (makecab) from a batch script on a Windows Server 2003 server. The batch script is being run by Hudson (continuous integration service) installed as a windows service on the machine.

The hudson.exe (64-bit) process spawns a java.exe (32-bit) process, which spawns a cmd.exe (32-bit) process, which spawns a makecab.exe (32-bit) process. Makecab then produces an error:

D:\Hudson\jobs\Testing\workspace>C:\WINDOWS\system32\makecab.exe /F "D:\Build\2.3.278.40859.cab.df" 
Microsoft (R) Cabinet Maker - Version 5.2.3790.0
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved..

Parsing directives
Parsing directives (D:\Build\2.3.278.40859.cab.df: 1 lines)

D:\Build\2.3.278.40859.cab.df(12): ERROR: 

However if I open a remote desktop connection to the server and open a command prompt window and run makecab it works perfectly. But I’ve noticed that running cmd.exe from Start > Run spawns a 64-bit process, which then runs a 64-bit makecab process.

Can anyone explain why the 32-bit makecab might be throwing an error? The executable exists in both C:\WINDOWS\system32 and C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64.

Is there any way, from within the 32-bit cmd.exe batch script that java.exe spawns and runs, to run the 64-bit version of makecab.exe (other than copying the physical executable from C:\WINDOWS\system32 to C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64)?

Thanks

Answer 1

This one is fairly obvious to me now. Hudson is configured to run the 32-bit version of Java, in hudson.xml:

<executable>C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\java</executable>

The 32-bit Java executable is spawning a 32-bit cmd.exe.

All I need to do is use the 64-bit version of Java (available here: https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_Developer-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewFilteredProducts-SingleVariationTypeFilter) and point to it in hudson.xml.

Only problem is it looks like the Hudson Active Directory plugin doesn’t work with 64-bit Java..

24-Aug-2010 19:39:52 hudson.WebAppMain$2 run
SEVERE: Failed to initialize Hudson
org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.ReactorException: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'activeDirectory': Instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Could not instantiate bean class [hudson.plugins.active_directory.ActiveDirectoryUnixAuthenticationProvider]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor.execute(Reactor.java:246)
    at hudson.model.Hudson.executeReactor(Hudson.java:689)
    at hudson.model.Hudson.<init>(Hudson.java:606)
    at hudson.model.Hudson.<init>(Hudson.java:546)
    at hudson.WebAppMain$2.run(WebAppMain.java:222)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'activeDirectory': Instantiation of bean failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Could not instantiate bean class [hudson.plugins.active_directory.ActiveDirectoryUnixAuthenticationProvider]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:231)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.autowireConstructor(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:957)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:869)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:514)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory$1.run(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:485)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:455)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:251)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:169)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:248)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:170)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:413)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:735)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:369)
    at hudson.util.spring.DefaultRuntimeSpringConfiguration.getApplicationContext(DefaultRuntimeSpringConfiguration.java:94)
    at hudson.util.spring.BeanBuilder.createApplicationContext(BeanBuilder.java:388)
    at hudson.plugins.active_directory.ActiveDirectorySecurityRealm.createSecurityComponents(ActiveDirectorySecurityRealm.java:62)
    at hudson.security.SecurityRealm.getSecurityComponents(SecurityRealm.java:359)
    at hudson.security.HudsonFilter.reset(HudsonFilter.java:134)
    at hudson.model.Hudson.setSecurityRealm(Hudson.java:1767)
    at hudson.model.Hudson$13.run(Hudson.java:2165)
    at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.TaskGraphBuilder$TaskImpl.run(TaskGraphBuilder.java:146)
    at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor.runTask(Reactor.java:259)
    at hudson.model.Hudson$3.runTask(Hudson.java:671)
    at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor$2.run(Reactor.java:187)
    at org.jvnet.hudson.reactor.Reactor$Node.run(Reactor.java:94)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Could not instantiate bean class [hudson.plugins.active_directory.ActiveDirectoryUnixAuthenticationProvider]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:98)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:87)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:225)
    ... 28 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at hudson.plugins.active_directory.ActiveDirectoryUnixAuthenticationProvider.<init>(ActiveDirectoryUnixAuthenticationProvider.java:52)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:83)
    ... 30 more