Jonathan Lalou's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘IntelliJ IDEA’

It is not unusual for developers to observe a mildly perplexing phenomenon: a Spring Boot application appears to start faster when executed from the command line using java -jar myapp.jar than when launched directly from IntelliJ IDEA. At first glance, this seems counterintuitive. One might reasonably assume that a so-called “uber-jar” (or fat jar), which packages the application alongside all of its dependencies into a single archive, would incur additional overhead during startup—perhaps due to decompression or archive handling.

In practice, the opposite frequently occurs. The explanation lies not in archive extraction, but in classpath topology, runtime instrumentation, and subtle differences in JVM execution environments. Understanding these mechanisms requires a closer look at how Spring Boot launches applications and how the JVM behaves under different conditions.

The Uber-Jar Is Not Fully Extracted

The most common misconception is that running a Spring Boot fat jar involves unzipping the entire archive before the application can start. This assumption is incorrect.

When executing:

java -jar myapp.jar

Spring Boot delegates startup to its own launcher, typically org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher. This launcher does not extract the archive to disk. Instead, it constructs a specialized classloader capable of resolving nested JAR entries directly from within the archive. Classes and resources are loaded lazily, as they are requested by the JVM. The archive is treated as a structured container rather than a compressed bundle that must be fully expanded.

There is, therefore, no significant “unzipping” phase that would systematically slow down execution. If anything, this consolidated packaging can reduce certain filesystem costs.

Classpath Topology and Filesystem Overhead

The most consequential difference between IDE execution and packaged execution is the structure of the classpath.

When running from IntelliJ IDEA, the classpath typically consists of compiled classes located in target/classes (or build/classes) alongside a large number of individual dependency JARs resolved from the local Maven or Gradle cache. It is not uncommon for a moderately sized Spring Boot application to reference several hundred classpath entries.

Each class resolution performed by the JVM may involve filesystem lookups across these numerous locations. On systems where filesystem metadata operations are relatively expensive—such as Windows environments with active antivirus scanning or network-mounted drives—this fragmented classpath structure can introduce measurable overhead during class loading and Spring’s extensive classpath scanning.

By contrast, a fat jar consolidates application classes and dependencies into a single archive. While internally structured, it presents a smaller number of filesystem entry points to the operating system. The reduction in directory traversal and metadata resolution can, in certain environments, lead to faster class discovery and resource loading.

What appears to be additional packaging complexity may in fact simplify the underlying I/O behavior.

The Impact of Debug Agents and IDE Instrumentation

Another frequently overlooked factor is the presence of debugging agents. When an application is launched from IntelliJ IDEA, even in “Run” mode, the JVM is often started with the Java Debug Wire Protocol (JDWP) agent enabled. This typically appears as a -agentlib:jdwp=... argument in the JVM configuration.

The presence of a debug agent subtly alters JVM behavior. The runtime must preserve additional metadata to support breakpoints and step execution. Certain optimizations may be slightly constrained, and class loading can involve additional bookkeeping. While the performance penalty is not dramatic, it is sufficient to influence startup time in non-trivial applications.

When executing java -jar from the command line, the JVM is usually started without any debugging agent attached. The runtime environment is therefore leaner and more representative of production conditions. The absence of instrumentation alone can account for a noticeable reduction in startup duration.

Spring Boot DevTools and Restart Classloaders

A particularly common source of discrepancy is the presence of spring-boot-devtools on the IDE classpath. DevTools is designed to improve developer productivity by enabling automatic restarts and class reloading. To achieve this, it creates a layered classloader arrangement that separates application classes from dependencies and monitors the filesystem for changes.

This restart mechanism introduces additional classloader complexity and file-watching infrastructure. While extremely useful during development, it is not free from a performance standpoint. If DevTools is present when running inside IntelliJ but excluded from the packaged artifact, then the two execution modes are not equivalent. The IDE run effectively includes additional runtime behavior that the fat jar does not.

In many cases, this single difference explains several seconds of startup variance.

JVM Ergonomics and Configuration Differences

Subtle variations in JVM configuration can also contribute to timing differences. IntelliJ may inject specific JVM options, alter heap sizing defaults, or enable particular runtime flags. The command-line invocation, unless explicitly configured, may rely on different ergonomics chosen by the JVM.

Heap size, garbage collector selection, tiered compilation thresholds, and class verification settings can all influence startup time. Spring Boot applications, which perform extensive reflection, annotation processing, and condition evaluation during initialization, are particularly sensitive to classloading and JIT behavior.

Ensuring that both execution paths use identical JVM arguments is essential for a scientifically valid comparison.

Filesystem Caching Effects

Operating system caching further complicates informal measurements. If the application is launched once from the IDE and then immediately launched again using java -jar, the second execution benefits from warmed filesystem caches. JAR contents and metadata may already reside in memory, reducing disk access latency.

Without controlling for caching effects—either by rebooting, clearing caches, or running multiple iterations and averaging results—observed differences may reflect environmental artifacts rather than structural advantages.

Spring Boot Startup Characteristics

It is important to remember that Spring Boot startup is classpath-intensive. The framework performs component scanning, auto-configuration condition evaluation, metadata resolution from META-INF resources, and reflection-based inspection of annotations.

These processes are highly sensitive to classloader behavior and I/O patterns. A consolidated archive can, under certain conditions, reduce the cumulative cost of classpath traversal.

From a systems perspective, fewer filesystem roots and more predictable access patterns can outweigh the negligible overhead of archive handling.

Conclusion: Leaner Runtime, Faster Startup

The faster startup of a Spring Boot application via java -jar is neither anomalous nor paradoxical. It typically reflects a cleaner runtime environment: fewer agents, no development tooling, simplified classpath topology, and production-oriented JVM ergonomics.

The fat jar is not slower because it is not being fully decompressed. On the contrary, its consolidated structure can streamline class loading. Meanwhile, the IDE environment often introduces layers of instrumentation and classloader indirection designed for developer convenience rather than performance parity.

For accurate benchmarking, one must eliminate debugging agents, disable DevTools, align JVM arguments, and control for filesystem caching. Only then can meaningful conclusions be drawn.

In short, the difference is not about packaging overhead. It is about execution context. And in many cases, the command-line invocation more closely resembles the optimized conditions under which the application is intended to run in production.

Presented by Marit van Dijk (JetBrains)

IntelliJ IDEA is renowned for being a powerful and intelligent Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed to help developers stay in the flow and maximize their productivity. With its rich set of features, including a smart editor, powerful refactorings, seamless navigation, and integrated tools for various technologies, IntelliJ IDEA aims to provide a comprehensive development experience without the need to leave the IDE. Marit van Dijk from JetBrains showcases how to leverage these capabilities to become a happier and more productive developer.

Marit’s talk delves into the myriad of features that contribute to developer productivity in IntelliJ IDEA. She highlights how the IDE supports various workflows and provides tools for everything from writing and reading code to debugging, testing, and working with databases and version control systems.

Staying in the Flow with a Smart IDE

Maintaining focus and staying in the “flow state” is crucial for developer productivity. Frequent context switching, interruptions, and wrestling with inefficient tools can easily break this flow. Marit van Dijk emphasizes that IntelliJ IDEA is designed to minimize these distractions and help developers stay focused on writing code.

She showcases the IDE’s intelligent code editor, which provides smart code completion, code analysis, and quick fixes. Features like intention actions and context-aware suggestions help developers write code more efficiently and accurately, reducing the need to manually search for syntax or API usage.

Powerful Refactorings and Navigation

Refactoring code is an essential part of maintaining code quality and improving the design of an application. IntelliJ IDEA offers a wide range of powerful automated refactorings that can significantly speed up this process and reduce the risk of introducing errors. Marit demonstrates some of the most useful refactorings, such as renaming variables or methods, extracting methods or interfaces, and changing method signatures.

Seamless navigation within a codebase is also critical for understanding existing code and quickly jumping between different parts of the project. Marit highlights IntelliJ IDEA’s navigation features, such as jumping to declarations or usages, navigating through recent files and locations, and searching for symbols or files by name. These features allow developers to explore their codebase efficiently and find the information they need quickly.

Integrated Tools for a Comprehensive Workflow

Modern software development involves working with a variety of tools and technologies beyond just the code editor. IntelliJ IDEA integrates with a wide range of popular tools, providing a unified experience within the IDE. Marit van Dijk showcases how IntelliJ IDEA seamlessly integrates with:

• Build Tools: Maven and Gradle for managing project dependencies and building applications.
• Version Control Systems: Git and others for managing code changes and collaborating with team members.
• Databases: Tools for connecting to databases, Browse schemas, writing and executing queries, and managing data.
• Test Tools: Integration with testing frameworks like JUnit and TestNG for writing, running, and debugging tests.
• Debugging: A powerful debugger for stepping through code, inspecting variables, and diagnosing issues.

By providing these integrated tools, IntelliJ IDEA allows developers to perform most of their tasks without leaving the IDE, minimizing context switching and improving productivity.

AI-Powered Assistance

In addition to its traditional features, IntelliJ IDEA is also incorporating AI-powered assistance to further enhance developer productivity. Marit touches upon features like the AI Assistant, which can provide code suggestions, generate documentation, and even explain complex code snippets.

She might also mention tools sounding like “Juny”, a coding agent that can perform more complex coding tasks, such as generating boilerplate code or creating prototypes. These AI-powered features aim to automate repetitive tasks and provide developers with intelligent assistance throughout their workflow.

Conclusion: A Happier and More Productive Developer

Marit van Dijk concludes by reinforcing the message that leveraging the features of IntelliJ IDEA can make developers happier and more productive. By providing a smart editor, powerful refactorings, seamless navigation, integrated tools, and AI-powered assistance, the IDE helps developers stay in the flow, write better code, and focus on delivering value.

The talk encourages developers to explore the full potential of IntelliJ IDEA and customize it to fit their specific workflows. By making the most of the IDE’s capabilities, developers can significantly improve their efficiency and enjoy a more productive and fulfilling coding experience.

Hashtags: #DevoxxFR2025 #IntelliJIDEA #IDE #DeveloperProductivity #Java #Coding #Refactoring #Debugging #AI #JetBrains #MaritvanDijk

JetBrains, le studio russe éditeur de notre IDE préféré IntelliJ IDEA, était présent en force cette année à Devoxx. Outre un stand où il était possible de discuter avec deux développeurs de l’IDE, JetBrains a animé deux conférences.

A vrai dire, j’étais un peu réticent à l’idée d’assister à la conférence de Hadi Hariri (@hhariri, blog): une conférence au titre similaire l’année dernière m’avait laissé sur ma faim, m’apprenant peu de chose. Le compère de Hadi m’a convaincu de faire l’effort. Eh bien je n’ai pas été déçu.

Hadi a présenté plusieurs dizaines de tips et raccourcis clavier. En voici quelques uns que j’ai appris durant la conférence:

• tout le monde connait le classique Ctrl–N ouvrant une classe. L’astuce consiste, avec Ctrl–N (et de manière similaire avec Ctrl–Shift–N) à rajouter “:<numéro de ligne>” en suffixe à la classe à ouvrir : celle-ci s’ouvrira au numéro de ligne indiqué, par exemple: Ctrl–N > CHM:12 ouvrira ConcurrentHashMap en ligne 12.
• Désactiver la navigation bar (View > Navigation Bar). Cela permet, via un Ctrl-Home, d’afficher à tout instant la barre de navigation en restant dans la fenêtre d’édition.
• Ctrl-Shift-E permet de restreindre l’application de Ctrl-E aux fichier récemment édités.
• Ctrl-Shift-F7 permet, dans le cas général, de mettre en surbrillance les occurrences d’un champ, d’une variable ou d’une méthode. En appliquant Ctrl-Shift-F7 sur un return ou un throw, respectivement tous les points de sortie de la méthode ou de levée d’exception seront surlignés.
• Shift-F4 permet d’externaliser une fenêtre, c’est-à-dire de la rendre flottante et indépendante du reste de l’IDE
• Symétriquement à Ctrl-W qui étend la sélection, Ctrl-Shift-W la réduit
• Ctrl-Alt-Shift-J passe l’éditeur en mode multi-caret: ce mode permet d’effectuer des opérations sur plusieurs lignes en même temps, mais pas forcément sur la même colonne. Le mode colonne (Alt-Shift-Insert) apparait ainsi comme une application restreinte du mode multi-caret.
• Dans un fichier HTML, en tapant par exemple table>tr>td, IDEA complétera le code en <table><tr><td></td></tr></table> (toutefois il semblerait que cette fonctionnalité soit liée au plugin Zen-coding).
• Shift, Shift: c’est le “raccourci ultime” vers la recherche sur tout ce qui existe dans IDEA

En conclusion, IntelliJ IDEA confirme son statut de Rolls des outils de développement Java, dont la maitrise complète s’acquière par des années de pratique et d’exploration.

J’ai eu la chance d’assister a la derniere journee de DevoxxFR a Paris, le vendredi 29/03/2013, pour le compte de mon employeur StepInfo, sponsor de l’evenement. Voici quelques impressions en vrac

General

• C’est bien organise, il y a du monde, et excepte au moment du depart au niveau des vestiaires, il n’y a pas eu de gros souci de logistique.
• Les entreprises sponsors ont joue le jeu 😉
• Que ce soit au niveau des stands ou des conferences, la domination des Mac est ecrasante! Google a reussi a mettre en valeur ses ChromeBooks, mais j’ai vu peu de Windows et encore moins de Linux.
• J’ai pu assister a 4 conferences, toutes interessantes, mais d’un niveau heterogene, je reviens dessus plus en detail ci-dessous.

IDE Java : astuces de productivité pour le quotidien

La conference est animee par Xavier Hanin (@xavierhanin). Il y presente les trois IDE phares du monde Java: NetBeans, Eclipse et IntelliJ IDEA.

Maitrisant plutot bien IDEA, je n’ai pas appris de choses fondamentales sur mon IDE, si ce n’est le raccourci Ctrl+Shift+A pour afficher les intentions. J’ai connu NetBeans a ses debuts (Forte puis Sun ONE), mais j’en ai totalement perdu la maitrise depuis des annees. Quant a Eclipse, il m’arrive de le lancer quelques fois par an pour des problematiques clients specifiques, mais je suis contraint d’avoir recours a la souris en quasi-permanence ; sous IDEA c’est tres rare.

Un “sondage” assez grossier des personnes dans la salle a donne des resultats interessants: ~15% des developpeurs presents utilisent NetBeans, ~25% IDEA et ~90/95% Eclipse.

Quick Start avec le Cloud Google

La conference est animee par Didier Girard de SFEIR et Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine de Google France. Les principaux outils de Google pour le cloud sont presentes, en prenant pour hypothese de creer une startup: une solution “a l’ancienne”, avec serveurs d’applications, gestion materielle etc. est avancee, avant de ceder la place a une solution entierement sur le cloud de Google.

En un mot: c’est tres convaincant.
Je regrette que le sujet n’ait pas ete elargi vers des solutions cloud alternatives, comme celle d’Amazon.

• Didier Girard:
• Sur twitter: @DidierGirard
• Sur Google+: +Didier
• Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine:
• Blog: http://alexismp.wordpress.com/
• Twitter: @alexismp
• Google+: +Alexis

The Spring Update: Looking at Spring 3.1, 3.2, and 4.0

La presentation est menee par Josh Long de SpringSource. On se rend compte tres rapidement que ne serait-ce que pour la qualite du show, nous les Francais (voire les Latins) nous sommes largement en dessous de la qualite des Anglo-Saxons.

Josh enonce ses concepts, donne des exemples, met l’eau a la bouche. Au bout de 50′ de conference, je n’ai plus qu’une envie: retourner coder avec les dernieres versions de Spring!

Parmi toutes les nouveautes, j’en retiens deux:

• l’AnnotationConfigApplicationContext, qui m’evitera de taper d’ecrire un bloc comme:[xml]    <context:component-scan annotation-config="true" base-package="lalou.jonathan.beans"/>[/xml]
• l’integration future des websockets d’HTML5 pour obeir a la norme JEE7 d’ici la fin de l’annee.

Ce dernier point m’interesse particulierement, en raison d’un projet sur lequel je travaille actuellement, et dont nombre de problemes seraient resolus par les websockets de JEE7. Theoriquement, et potentiellement, d’ici la fin de l’annee 2013, nous pourrions integrer une brique “Spring JEE7” avec websocket au sein d’un WebSphere 8 (donc non JEE7-compliant), au lieu d’etre dependant dans la prochaine release du serveur d’applications d’IBM.

Josh:

• sur twitter: @starbuxman
• sur son blog: http://joshlong.com/
• Google+: +Josh

Entre HPC et big data: un case study sur la simulation du risque de contrepartie

C’est la conference dont j’ai vu le moins le rapport avec Devoxx, mais ayant passe 7 ans dans la finance de marche j’y ai trouve mon interet. En passant, j’y ai vu le seul PC sous Windows de toutes les conferences :-D.

Le theme de cette conference est: comment deporter une partie du calcul intensif de Monte-Carlo du CPU vers les GPU? Ces derniers ont une taille et une structure de memoire radicalement differente de celles des CPU (CPU+RAM pour etre plus precis). Les GPU permettent d’effectuer des masses de calcul en un temps bien plus faible (jusqu’a 99% de gain) qu’en architecture classique, moyennant une reecriture du code C en un autre langage adapte, par exemple OpenCL.

Les deux speakers, de Murex, sont Adrien Tay Pamart (visiblement pas tres a l’aise en mode geek) et Jonathan Lellouche pour la partie technique.

Durant les questions, l’existence de ponts Java vers OpenCL, comme JavaCL est evoquee. Il est dommage de ne pas avoir plus de temps pour creuser ce theme.

5 ans et 500 releases en 50 minutes !

La presentation est dirigee par Freddy Mallet  et Olivier Gaudin de Sonar.

La demonstration est rudement bien faite. Les dirigeant de SonarSource retracent, dans un ordre plus ou moins chronologique, les problemes, ou les impediments a-t-on envie de dire, rencontres en 5 ans sur Sonar.
Quelques themes forts: le context switching est une plaie, on ne gere pas une entreprise commerciale avec des clients comme un simple projet open source, etc.

• Freddy:
• Sur twitter: @FreddyMallet
• Olivier:
• Sur twitter: @gaudol

En guise de conclusion

Devoxx a repondu aux attentes que j’avais en y entrant:

• une journee de formation intensive et motivante
• revoir des “anciennes tetes”
• echanger des cartes de visite

Qu’il me soit donc permis ici de remercier StepInfo pour m’avoir permis d’acceder a cette journee, ainsi que les organisateurs de Devoxx pour le travail qu’il ont accompli.

Vivement DevoxxFR 2014!

Case

The project on which I work is built on Eclipse and Ant. I am trying to migrate it to Maven 3.0. I thought to do this within IntelliJ IDEA.
Once the pom.xml was created, I wanted to revert to a configuration based on Eclipse’s .classpath file.
Then IntelliJ IDEA crashes. On starting up again, I get the following error

[java]Cannot load module file ‘jonathanModule’ Unsupported classpath format eclipse[/java]

Quick Fix

For a reason I ignore, Eclipse integration plugin was disabled. To restore Eclipse compatibility, simply do enable Eclipse integration in the plugin preference menu of IntelliJ IDEA.

Two days ago, I twitted this:

Windows I hate you “PANIC: Could not open AVD config file”

Indeed, I tried to run an AVD (Android Virtual Device) from IntelliJ IDEA, in order to test my Android application. So far, I always ran AVD from KUbuntu, but a specific need I had to run on Windows Seven. The emulator could not start, because it was searching the actual AVD img file in the default folder, eg C:\Documents and Settings\<yourLogin>\.android\avd on Windows XP. Unfortunately, the folder could not be retrieved (a story of French special characters, such as ‘é’, ‘è’, ‘ç’, etc.).
Therefore, the question is: on Windows, how to change AVD default location?

I tried many more or less tricky solutions, but the simplest is the following:

• close IDEA and AVD Manager
• create an environment variable ANDROID_SDK_HOME (keys Windows + Pause), pointing to your target folder, eg: D:\workarea\honeycomb-sdk
• create a .android subfolder, eg: D:\workarea\honeycomb-sdk\.android
  • if Windows does not allow you to create a folder of which name starts with a dot, then create it through Cygwin’s mkdir.
• startup IDEA

DTDs are useful when your XML editor take them in account: detecting errors, suggestions, complete statements… For instance, I save much time with IntelliJ IDEA automatic completion ; unlike, Eclipse amazingly does not implement this feature.

Here is a list of some widely used DTDs:

Tangosol and Log4J DTDs are included within their distribution JARs: you have to extract them or to give their path to IntelliJ IDEA.

Case

After my Java project upgrade from “Tiger” to “Mustang”, I tried to launch a “make module” within IntelliJ IDEA. I got this message

[java]javac: source release 1.6 requires target release 1.6[/java]

Fix

In IntelliJ IDEA, go to:
File > Settings > Compiler > Java Compiler > remove > Additional command line parameters > remove the parameter -target 1.5

Case

The administrators tried to install ActivIdentity on my desktop. Then I rebooted my computer and launched IntelliJ IDEA 8.1.4 as usual.
IDEA froze. I tried to launch former versions (8.0, 7.5.4), with the same result. Then I launched the idea.bat (available in the same folder as the idea.exe), setting echo on, to have a little more logs.

Stacktrace

[java]Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Expecting an absolute path of the library: \Program Files\ActivIdentity\SecureLogin\sljava.dll[/java]

Complete stacktrace

[java]C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 8.1.4\bin>"C:\win32app\Java\jdk1.6.0_01\jre\bin\java.exe" "
-Xms256m" "-Xmx1024m" "-XX:MaxPermSize=140m" "-Xbootclasspath/p:../lib/boot.jar " "-ea" -Xbootclassp
ath/a:../lib/boot.jar -cp "..\lib\bootstrap.jar;..\lib\util.jar;..\lib\jdom.jar;..\lib\log4j.jar;.
.\lib\extensions.jar;..\lib\trove4j.jar;C:\win32app\Java\jdk1.6.0_01\lib\tools.jar" com.intellij.ide
a.Main
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
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.intellij.ide.plugins.PluginManager$2.run(PluginManager.java:126)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Expecting an absolute path of the library: \Program Files
\ActivIdentity\SecureLogin\sljava.dll
at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:767)
at java.lang.System.load(System.java:1005)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.SSOLoginScriptRunner.(SSOLoginScriptRunner.java:905
)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.ConsoleLogger.(Logger.java:54)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.Logger.(Logger.java:73)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.awt_swing.JavaSSOHook.(JavaSSOHook.java:32)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:
39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorIm
pl.java:27)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:355)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
at java.awt.Toolkit.loadAssistiveTechnologies(Toolkit.java:773)
at java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(Toolkit.java:861)
at java.awt.Window.getToolkit(Window.java:1127)
at java.awt.Window.init(Window.java:369)
at java.awt.Window.(Window.java:407)
at java.awt.Frame.(Frame.java:402)
at java.awt.Frame.(Frame.java:367)
at javax.swing.SwingUtilities$SharedOwnerFrame.(SwingUtilities.java:1731)
at javax.swing.SwingUtilities.getSharedOwnerFrame(SwingUtilities.java:1808)
at javax.swing.JOptionPane.getRootFrame(JOptionPane.java:1673)
at com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.b(MainImpl.java:8)
at com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.a(MainImpl.java:79)
at com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.start(MainImpl.java:73)
… 6 more
ERROR: Error while accessing com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.start with arguments: []
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
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.intellij.ide.plugins.PluginManager$2.run(PluginManager.java:126)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Expecting an absolute path of the library: \Program Files
\ActivIdentity\SecureLogin\sljava.dll
at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:767)
at java.lang.System.load(System.java:1005)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.SSOLoginScriptRunner.(SSOLoginScriptRunner.java:905
)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.ConsoleLogger.(Logger.java:54)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.Logger.(Logger.java:73)
at com.actividentity.sso.javasso.awt_swing.JavaSSOHook.(JavaSSOHook.java:32)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:
39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorIm
pl.java:27)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:355)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
at java.awt.Toolkit.loadAssistiveTechnologies(Toolkit.java:773)
at java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit(Toolkit.java:861)
at java.awt.Window.getToolkit(Window.java:1127)
at java.awt.Window.init(Window.java:369)
at java.awt.Window.(Window.java:407)
at java.awt.Frame.(Frame.java:402)
at java.awt.Frame.(Frame.java:367)
at javax.swing.SwingUtilities$SharedOwnerFrame.(SwingUtilities.java:1731)
at javax.swing.SwingUtilities.getSharedOwnerFrame(SwingUtilities.java:1808)
at javax.swing.JOptionPane.getRootFrame(JOptionPane.java:1673)
at com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.b(MainImpl.java:8)
at com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.a(MainImpl.java:79)
at com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.start(MainImpl.java:73)
… 6 more
ERROR: Error while accessing com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.start with arguments: []
java.lang.AssertionError: Error while accessing com.intellij.idea.MainImpl.start with arguments: []
at com.intellij.openapi.diagnostic.DefaultLogger.error(DefaultLogger.java:49)
at com.intellij.openapi.diagnostic.Logger.error(Logger.java:56)
at com.intellij.ide.plugins.PluginManager$2.run(PluginManager.java:130)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)[/java]

Explanation and Fix

I ran other Java applications, such as Eclipse and Mule ESB. The result was the same.

When you look at the stacktrace, you can see that sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0 calls com.actividentity.sso.javasso.awt_swing.JavaSSOHook. This makes me think ActivIdentity intercepts Java calls, even of very low level, and checks them before executing them. I don’t know if compiled code of JRE’s jars is modified, or if some methods are inserted through a mechanism similar to AOP. Anyway, the fact is that ActivIdentity is always called, even though I doubt a lot that original HotSpot was designed to do so…

I tried to uninstall ActivIdentity, this had no effect. I looked in Windows regedit but I found nothing. I tried also to check the value of java.library.path which, for Windows, points to Windows’PATH environment variable.

Therefore, the only solution I found to fix the issue was to changed the JAVA_HOME parameter (more accurately: the parameter IDEA_JDK) from one JDK to another, in my case: from 1.6.0_01 to 1.6.0_18)

Case

IntelliJ IDEA 7.x, version control with Subversion.
When I try to update the project, I get the following error:

Error:svn: unknown host myHost svn: OPTIONS request failed on /myProject/trunk/

On another hand, I can update the project thanks to TortoiseSVN. Then, I conclude the server exists and allows updates.

Fix

Firstly I thought of an issue of proxy, hence check your settings if you face the problem. Else:

• Shutdown IDEA
• Delete ~/.IntelliJIdea70/system/caches
• Restart IDEA