Upgrade to 5.4.7.3 - lucee.runtime.tag.Admin.doGetSpoolerTasks NPE

hacking
1

Hi,
Trying to upgrade to 5.4.7.3 from 5.4.3.16. On one Linux Tomcat9 server with a relatively fresh install, it works. On another with an installation that has probably been upgraded a few times in the past, I’m getting issues.

Specifically, in the Lucee admin, the overview page and the tasks page both throw an exception.

"ERROR","ajp-nio-127.0.0.1-8009-exec-8","04/10/2025","16:01:52","","java.lang.NullPointerException;lucee.runtime.exp.NativeException
: java.lang.NullPointerException
        at lucee.runtime.tag.Admin.doGetSpoolerTasks(Admin.java:3971)
        at lucee.runtime.tag.Admin._doStartTag(Admin.java:664)
        at lucee.runtime.tag.Admin.doStartTag(Admin.java:364)
        at services_tasks_cfm414$cf.call(/admin/services.tasks.cfm:131)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:1057)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:949)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl.doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:930)
        at web_cfm$cf.call(/admin/web.cfm:570)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:1057)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:949)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl.doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:930)
        at server_cfm$cf.call(/admin/server.cfm:2)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:1057)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._doInclude(PageContextImpl.java:949)
        at lucee.runtime.listener.ModernAppListener._onRequest(ModernAppListener.java:219)
        at lucee.runtime.listener.ModernAppListener.onRequest(ModernAppListener.java:107)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl.execute(PageContextImpl.java:2494)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl._execute(PageContextImpl.java:2479)
        at lucee.runtime.PageContextImpl.executeCFML(PageContextImpl.java:2450)
        at lucee.runtime.engine.Request.exe(Request.java:45)
        at lucee.runtime.engine.CFMLEngineImpl._service(CFMLEngineImpl.java:1215)
        at lucee.runtime.engine.CFMLEngineImpl.serviceCFML(CFMLEngineImpl.java:1161)
        at lucee.loader.engine.CFMLEngineWrapper.serviceCFML(CFMLEngineWrapper.java:97)
        at lucee.loader.servlet.CFMLServlet.service(CFMLServlet.java:51)
        at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:733)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:227)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:162)
        at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:53)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:189)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:162)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:202)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:97)
        at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:542)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:143)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:92)
        at org.apache.catalina.valves.AbstractAccessLogValve.invoke(AbstractAccessLogValve.java:687)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:78)
        at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:354)
        at org.apache.coyote.ajp.AjpProcessor.service(AjpProcessor.java:433)
        at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:65)
        at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:888)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1684)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
        at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
        at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:829)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
        ... 47 more

I suspect I could fix this with a fresh install, but I’d rather find the cause.

There are many diffs under WEB-INF between the servers.
Both still have WEB-INF/lib/lucee-5.4.3.16.jar

Any ideas of where to focus? Thanks!

2

Lucee is open source, have a look at the line in stacktrace for clues?

as the spooler dir is \lucee\tomcat\lucee-server\context\remote-client, looks like something is going wrong there, maybe just delete it?

alas stacktraces on these older versions of java aren’t as informative as modern java versions

3

Thanks for replying. I’ve followed the code as far as I can. The reason for asking here is just in case someone says “ah! i had that too and this is the fix…”

The remote-client directory is empty and has appriopriate permissions.

Unless anyone else has any advice, we’ll try a fresh install.