Mollusca Code

It seems like the latest Java update from Apple breaks the JDBC4 version of the postgresql database driver.

I currently have two Grails apps doing similar things. One (by accident or luck, your call) uses postgresql-604.jdbc3 as it’s database driver. The other one uses a different driver, namely postgres-604-jdbc4.

Today I updated my installed Java on the Mac using software update.

Suddenly one of the Grails apps was broken.

.... tries to work out what has gone wrong

I got a ClassNotFound Exception while loading the driver. So I tried to figure out where the two apps differ. It turns out that the only relevant difference between the two apps (database-driver-wise) is that one uses jdbc3 and the other jdbc4.

I’m not blaming anyone, but I suspect the update broke it.

So if anyone faces the same problem while running a Grails app, there you go: Replace jdbc4 with jdbc3!

And now part of the stacktrace for googleability:

Starting integration tests ...
Cannot load JDBC driver class 'org.postgresql.Driver'
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.postgresql.Driver
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:316)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:280)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.support.GrailsRootLoader.loadClass(GrailsRootLoader.java:45)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:374)
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:164)

Addendum

And yes, I’m aware of the fact that the JVM on OSX is 1.5. But previously it used to work, so I figured this might still be of some use to some people. Maybe JDBC4 was a bad idea all along the way, however.