EOFException: Exception loading sessions from persistent storage

[Nina Anderson]

Hey guys,

I'm getting the following error and I don't know what is causing it. I had a perfectly working web application. After making javascript code changes, I restarted the server and started getting this error:

Apr 27, 2008 7:57:19 PM org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager start
SEVERE: Exception loading sessions from persistent storage
java.io.EOFException
at java.io.ObjectInputStream$PeekInputStream.readFully(ObjectInputStream.java:2279)
at java.io.ObjectInputStream$BlockDataInputStream.readShort(ObjectInputStream.java:2748)
at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readStreamHeader(ObjectInputStream.java:780)
at java.io.ObjectInputStream.<init>(ObjectInputStream.java:280)
at org.apache.catalina.util.CustomObjectInputStream.<init>(CustomObjectInputStream.java:58)
at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.doLoad(StandardManager.java:362)
at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.load(StandardManager.java:321)
at org.apache.catalina.session.StandardManager.start(StandardManager.java:637)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.setManager(ContainerBase.java:438)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4258)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:525)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:825)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWARs(HostConfig.java:714)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:490)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1138)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:311)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:719)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:566)
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 org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)

[Stevi Deter]

Nina,

You should be able to delete ${catalina.home}/work/Catalina/localhost/appName/SESSION.ser where appName is your application (or just delete the whole work directory).

This should enable you to restart.

[Nina Anderson]

Stevi...ur the beST!!! I deleted the directory and it works now!!!

[Justin Rundle]

This solution does work but for a better understanding for myself why does this fix the issue and what causes this issue?

[Tim Holloway]

Justin Rundle wrote:This solution does work but for a better understanding for myself why does this fix the issue and what causes this issue?

Apparently some of the saved session files were damaged somehow, possibly tomcat crached while writing them, possibly hardware problems. Since session files are not critical resources, the best solution was just to get rid of them.

Note that when I say "not critical resources", I mean that if you delete them while Tomcat isn't running, the user session will have been terminated when Tomcat restarts, so the user will effectively have been logged off and lost work in progress. They're DEFINITELY critical while Tomcat is running!

[Justin Rundle]

Thanks for the reply.

[Jackson Tan]

Tim Holloway wrote:

Justin Rundle wrote:This solution does work but for a better understanding for myself why does this fix the issue and what causes this issue?

Apparently some of the saved session files were damaged somehow, possibly tomcat crached while writing them, possibly hardware problems. Since session files are not critical resources, the best solution was just to get rid of them.

Note that when I say "not critical resources", I mean that if you delete them while Tomcat isn't running, the user session will have been terminated when Tomcat restarts, so the user will effectively have been logged off and lost work in progress. They're DEFINITELY critical while Tomcat is running!

May I know any other cause of a corruption of saved session files? Can it be caused by the application code? please site some example for better understanding. Thanks