Spring Boot - Static resources from war file are not loading

Question

I built a war file from a Spring Boot project (v1.5.3) using gradle and I was able to run it using 'java -jar my.war'. When I access the application, static assets are failing with the following exception in the log:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: Jar URL cannot be resolved to absolute file path because it does not reside in the file system: war:file:/BUILD_DIR/build/libs/my.war*/assets/images/homepage-img1.jpg

If I break open the war (unzip) and then run it using 'java -classpath WEB-INF/lib/*:WEB-INF/classes:. com.pkg.Application', everything is fine.

I would like to know if I packaged my war wrong or running it in a wrong way. I appreciate any help. Thank you!

Stacktrace:

at org.springframework.util.ResourceUtils.getFile(ResourceUtils.java:215)
at org.springframework.core.io.AbstractFileResolvingResource.getFileForLastModifiedCheck(AbstractFileResolvingResource.java:67)
at org.springframework.core.io.AbstractResource.lastModified(AbstractResource.java:153)
at org.springframework.core.io.AbstractFileResolvingResource.lastModified(AbstractFileResolvingResource.java:169)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.ResourceHttpRequestHandler.handleRequest(ResourceHttpRequestHandler.java:345)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.HttpRequestHandlerAdapter.handle(HttpRequestHandlerAdapter.java:51)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:963)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:897)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:970)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:861)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:635)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:846)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:742)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:231)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.springframework.boot.web.filter.ApplicationContextHeaderFilter.doFilterInternal(ApplicationContextHeaderFilter.java:55)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.springframework.boot.actuate.trace.WebRequestTraceFilter.doFilterInternal(WebRequestTraceFilter.java:110)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:316)
at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.FilterSecurityInterceptor.invoke(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:126)
at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.FilterSecurityInterceptor.doFilter(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:90)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.access.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:114)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.session.SessionManagementFilter.doFilter(SessionManagementFilter.java:122)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AnonymousAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(AnonymousAuthenticationFilter.java:111)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.servletapi.SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter.java:168)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.savedrequest.RequestCacheAwareFilter.doFilter(RequestCacheAwareFilter.java:48)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.doFilter(AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.java:205)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.logout.LogoutFilter.doFilter(LogoutFilter.java:120)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.header.HeaderWriterFilter.doFilterInternal(HeaderWriterFilter.java:64)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.context.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.java:91)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.context.request.async.WebAsyncManagerIntegrationFilter.doFilterInternal(WebAsyncManagerIntegrationFilter.java:53)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:330)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilterInternal(FilterChainProxy.java:213)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:176)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:346)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:262)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:197)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.springframework.boot.actuate.autoconfigure.MetricsFilter.doFilterInternal(MetricsFilter.java:106)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:166)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:198)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:96)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:478)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:140)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:80)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:87)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:342)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:799)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:66)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:861)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1455)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Answer 1

I finally tracked it down to the following issue:

https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-boot/issues/8986

"spring-core" package "org.springframework.util.ResourceUtils" was modified in 4.3.8 which introduced an issue for Spring Boot 1.5.3.RELEASE version. I downgraded my Spring Boot to 1.5.2.RELEASE and Spring dependencies to 4.3.7.RELEASE and everything works great.

Thanks!