Attempting to run Tomcat 8.5.036 on z/OS with 64 bit IBM Java 8 causes a ClassFormatException in processAnnotationsFile during Startup. Steps to Reproduce: Start Tomcat Actual Results: Tomcat fails to start. STDERR shows the following error for multiple files: org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig processAnnotationsFile SEVERE: Unable to process file ./cai/esd/CCS14/6B/nsmem/browser/help/abrowser/idmsagent/element.class. for annotations org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassFormatException: It is not a Java .class file .at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.readID(ClassParser.java:202) .at org.apache.tomcat.util.bcel.classfile.ClassParser.parse(ClassParser.java:80) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsStream(ContextConfig.java:2042) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2025) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsFile(ContextConfig.java:2019) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotationsUrl(ContextConfig.java:1961) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.processAnnotations(ContextConfig.java:1912) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1157) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:779) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:306) .at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:95) .at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90) .at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5202) .at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:147) .at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:725) .at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:701) .at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:717) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1092) .at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDirectory.run(HostConfig.java:1834) .at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511) .at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:267) .at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1143) .at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:618) .at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:785) SYSOUT shows: JVMJZBL1023N Invoking org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main()... JVMJZBL1056I Arguments to main... JVMJZBL1057I start CEE5230S The signal SIGXCPU was received. Workaround: In context.xml, add the following line: <JarScanner scanClassPath="false"/> This seems to prevent the scanning for annotations files since not all of our .class files are Java .class files.
I don't think that Tomcat should be expected to handle the situation where there are .class files on the Java class path that are not Java classes.