Why does maven install fail during javadoc generation?

Question

When running 'maven install', I get the following..

[INFO] [javadoc:javadoc {execution: default}] [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ERROR] BUILD ERROR [INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [INFO] An error has occurred in JavaDocs report generation:Exit code: 1 - java.lang.NullPointerException at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.PackageUseWriter.generatePackageUse(PackageUseWriter.java:180) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.PackageUseWriter.generatePackageList(PackageUseWriter.java:124) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.PackageUseWriter.generatePackageUse(PackageUseWriter.java:110) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.PackageUseWriter.generatePackageUseFile(PackageUseWriter.java:99) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.PackageUseWriter.generate(PackageUseWriter.java:78) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.ClassUseWriter.generate(ClassUseWriter.java:116) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.HtmlDoclet.generateOtherFiles(HtmlDoclet.java:92) at com.sun.tools.doclets.internal.toolkit.AbstractDoclet.startGeneration(AbstractDoclet.java:122) at com.sun.tools.doclets.internal.toolkit.AbstractDoclet.start(AbstractDoclet.java:64) at com.sun.tools.doclets.formats.html.HtmlDoclet.start(HtmlDoclet.java:42) at com.sun.tools.doclets.standard.Standard.start(Standard.java:23) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at com.sun.tools.javadoc.DocletInvoker.invoke(DocletInvoker.java:269) at com.sun.tools.javadoc.DocletInvoker.start(DocletInvoker.java:143) at com.sun.tools.javadoc.Start.parseAndExecute(Start.java:340) at com.sun.tools.javadoc.Start.begin(Start.java:128) at com.sun.tools.javadoc.Main.execute(Main.java:41) at com.sun.tools.javadoc.Main.main(Main.java:31)

Command line was: /home/fsl/jdk1.6.0_12/jre/../bin/javadoc @options @packages @argfile

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

There is an unfixed bug that seems to be your problem. From the bug description the known workarounds are either to drop the -use option or use JDK 1.4.2. You're using Java 6 so this may be the case.

The line the NullPointerException is occuring at is:

printHyperLink("", pkg.name(), Util.getPackageName(pkg), true);

So perhaps the problem is occurring because of a typo in your package.html file?