"JAX-RS Resource Initialization Issue in TomEE-8.0.13 with CXF 3.4.10 -NullPointer in TomeeJaxRsService"

Question

I'm experiencing an issue with JAX-RS resource initialization in a specific application on TomEE 8.0.13 using CXF 3.4.10. Out of 400 deployed applications, only one consistently throws a NullPointerException related to JAX-RS services when trying to create the HTTP listener. Interestingly, this issue resolves after a server restart, but I’d like to identify the root cause and fix it permanently.

Error Details:

Here’s the stack trace I get on deployment:

2024-09-06 20:06:40.038|ERROR|a-utility-10|                         |               ObserverManager:417|error invoking org.apache.tomee.webservices.TomeeJaxRsService@1d77746b
java.lang.NullPointerException: null
    at java.util.TreeMap.rotateLeft(TreeMap.java:2224) ~[?:1.8.0_311]
    at java.util.TreeMap.fixAfterInsertion(TreeMap.java:2291) ~[?:1.8.0_311]
    at java.util.TreeMap.put(TreeMap.java:582) ~[?:1.8.0_311]
    at org.apache.tomee.webservices.TomcatRsRegistry.createRsHttpListener(TomcatRsRegistry.java:141) ~[tomee-jaxrs-8.0.13.jar:8.0.13]
    at org.apache.openejb.server.rest.RESTService.deployApplication(RESTService.java:543) ~[openejb-rest-8.0.13.jar:8.0.13]
    ...
The key error seems to occur at:

at org.apache.tomee.webservices.TomcatRsRegistry.createRsHttpListener(TomcatRsRegistry.java:141)

** Setup:**

TomEE 8.0.13 tomee-jaxrs-8.0.13.jar CXF 3.4.10 (manually upgraded from 3.4.8) OpenEJB 8.0.13 Note: The tomee-jaxrs-8.0.13 JAR is dependent on CXF 3.4.8 by default

What I’ve Tried: Upgrading CXF to 3.4.10: Since the other applications are working fine, I suspect that this particular application's classloading or JAX-RS resource discovery may be conflicting with TomEE's bundled JAX-RS implementation.

JAR Conflicts: I checked for classloading conflicts, and while CXF 3.4.10 and TomEE JAX-RS 8.0.13 seem to coexist, I suspect that upgrading TomEE JAX-RS to 8.0.15 might help, but I haven’t tested that yet.

Debug Logging: I enabled debug logs for CXF, JAX-RS, and OpenEJB, but I haven't found any obvious signs of misconfiguration beyond this error.

What I Need Help With:

Classloading Conflicts: How can I definitively check for classloading issues between TomEE JAX-RS, CXF, and OpenEJB? Are there known issues with upgrading CXF to 3.4.10 on TomEE 8.0.13? Application-Specific Threading: Could this be caused by an application-specific issue related to how resources or threads are being initialized for this app, given that the issue resolves after a server restart?

Compatibility: ****Should I upgrade tomee-jaxrs to 8.0.15 (or a higher version) to resolve this, and would that be compatible with CXF 3.4.10? Any guidance on how to fix this issue or better isolate the problem would be greatly appreciated!