Java – Could not serialize object cause of HibernateProxy

gsonhibernatejakarta-eejavajax-rs

I am getting the following error response from the server.

HTTP Status 500 –

type Exception report

message

descriptionThe server encountered an internal error () that prevented
it from fulfilling this request.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException:
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Attempted to serialize
java.lang.Class: org.hibernate.proxy.HibernateProxy. Forgot to
register a type adapter?

root cause

java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Attempted to serialize
java.lang.Class: org.hibernate.proxy.HibernateProxy. Forgot to
register a type adapter?

From Java debugger:

org.hibernate.proxy.pojo.javassist.JavassistLazyInitializer@7632012e

I am using Gson to convert my Java objects to JSON. Below I have pasted some of my code.

This is my resource:

@Stateless
@LocalBean
@Path("/autos")
@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
public class AutoResource {

    @EJB
    private CarAssembler warehouse;
    @Context
    private UriInfo uriInfo;

    @GET
    public Response allAutos() {
        // Building a context, lots of code...
        // Creating a Gson instance and configures it...

        final Auto auto = warehouse.list(context);
        final String autoJson = gson.toJson(auto);

        return Response.ok(autoJson).build();
    }
}

The CarAssembler is just an service which invokes a repository. I have not pasted the code of the service here.

Repository:

@Override
public Question findById(final int id, final FetchType fetchType) {

    final Auto question = getEntityManager().find(Auto.class, id);

    if (fetchType == FetchType.LAZY) {
        return auto;
    }

    Hibernate.initialize(auto.getManufacturer());
    Hibernate.initialize(auto.getAssemblyHouse());

    return auto;
}

As you see, I provide both lazy and eager loading of objects. I use Hibernate.initialize to eager fetch JPA associations. However, the question is how I can fix the proxy error I am getting. Why come there is only AssemblyHouse that is still attached to JavaAssist, while Manufacturer is not (I have seen the type in Java Debugger). How do I know when to unproxy objects? Should I unproxy all associations this auto may have? And in which layer of my code? Does it affect the performance of my application when I unproxy? Are there other solutions? I see from the error message that I can make a type adapter. Yes, I could but then I have to do that for all domain objects to be sure that conversion is done correctly. Maybe other objects in my domain starts failing when I try to convert it into JSON representation too, but I don't know when or why. Is it just luck that the other objects are fine?

This is the way I am unproxing objects, but I have not implemented it yet, because I don't know if this is good or bad, and in what layer to do this, and when I should do it. Should I unproxy objects all the time?

public class HibernateUtilities {

    public static <T> T unproxy(T proxy) {
        if (proxy == null) {
            return null;
        }

        if (proxy instanceof HibernateProxy) {
            Hibernate.initialize(proxy);

            HibernateProxy hibernateProxy = (HibernateProxy) proxy;
            T unproxiedObject = (T) hibernateProxy.getHibernateLazyInitializer().getImplementation();

            return unproxiedObject;
        }

        return proxy;
    }
}

Stacktrace as requested:

[#|2012-11-22T17:17:13.285+0100|WARNING|glassfish3.1.2|javax.enterprise.system.container.web.com.sun.enterprise.web|_ThreadID=71;_ThreadName=Thread-8;|StandardWrapperValve[javax.ws.rs.core.Application]:
PWC1406: Servlet.service() for servlet javax.ws.rs.core.Application
threw exception java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Attempted to
serialize java.lang.Class: org.hibernate.proxy.HibernateProxy. Forgot
to register a type adapter?
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapters$1.write(TypeAdapters.java:64)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapters$1.write(TypeAdapters.java:61)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.write(TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.java:68)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ArrayTypeAdapter.write(ArrayTypeAdapter.java:93)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.write(TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.java:68)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$1.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:89)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$Adapter.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:195)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.write(TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.java:68)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$1.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:89)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$Adapter.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:195)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.write(TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.java:68)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$1.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:89)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$Adapter.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:195)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.write(TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.java:68)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.CollectionTypeAdapterFactory$Adapter.write(CollectionTypeAdapterFactory.java:96)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.CollectionTypeAdapterFactory$Adapter.write(CollectionTypeAdapterFactory.java:60)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.write(TypeAdapterRuntimeTypeWrapper.java:68)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$1.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:89)
    at com.google.gson.internal.bind.ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory$Adapter.write(ReflectiveTypeAdapterFactory.java:195)
    at com.google.gson.Gson.toJson(Gson.java:586)
    at com.google.gson.Gson.toJson(Gson.java:565)
    at com.google.gson.Gson.toJson(Gson.java:520)
    at com.myapp.AutoResource.produceAuto(AutoResource.java:48)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at org.glassfish.ejb.security.application.EJBSecurityManager.runMethod(EJBSecurityManager.java:1052)
    at org.glassfish.ejb.security.application.EJBSecurityManager.invoke(EJBSecurityManager.java:1124)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.BaseContainer.invokeBeanMethod(BaseContainer.java:5388)
    at com.sun.ejb.EjbInvocation.invokeBeanMethod(EjbInvocation.java:619)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.interceptors.AroundInvokeChainImpl.invokeNext(InterceptorManager.java:800)
    at com.sun.ejb.EjbInvocation.proceed(EjbInvocation.java:571)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.interceptors.SystemInterceptorProxy.doAround(SystemInterceptorProxy.java:162)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.interceptors.SystemInterceptorProxy.aroundInvoke(SystemInterceptorProxy.java:144)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.interceptors.AroundInvokeInterceptor.intercept(InterceptorManager.java:861)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.interceptors.AroundInvokeChainImpl.invokeNext(InterceptorManager.java:800)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.interceptors.InterceptorManager.intercept(InterceptorManager.java:370)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.BaseContainer.__intercept(BaseContainer.java:5360)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.BaseContainer.intercept(BaseContainer.java:5348)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.EJBLocalObjectInvocationHandler.invoke(EJBLocalObjectInvocationHandler.java:214)
    at com.sun.ejb.containers.EJBLocalObjectInvocationHandlerDelegate.invoke(EJBLocalObjectInvocationHandlerDelegate.java:89)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601)
    at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.JavaMethodInvokerFactory$1.invoke(JavaMethodInvokerFactory.java:60)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.model.method.dispatch.AbstractResourceMethodDispatchProvider$ResponseOutInvoker._dispatch(AbstractResourceMethodDispatchProvider.java:205)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.model.method.dispatch.ResourceJavaMethodDispatcher.dispatch(ResourceJavaMethodDispatcher.java:75)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.HttpMethodRule.accept(HttpMethodRule.java:288)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.ResourceClassRule.accept(ResourceClassRule.java:108)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.RightHandPathRule.accept(RightHandPathRule.java:147)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.uri.rules.RootResourceClassesRule.accept(RootResourceClassesRule.java:84)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl._handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1469)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl._handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1400)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1349)
    at com.sun.jersey.server.impl.application.WebApplicationImpl.handleRequest(WebApplicationImpl.java:1339)
    at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.WebComponent.service(WebComponent.java:416)
    at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:537)
    at com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer.service(ServletContainer.java:708)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:770)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.service(StandardWrapper.java:1550)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:281)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.__invoke(StandardContextValve.java:175)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:655)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:595)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.__invoke(StandardHostValve.java:161)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.doService(CoyoteAdapter.java:331)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:231)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper$AdapterCallable.call(ContainerMapper.java:317)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper.service(ContainerMapper.java:195)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.invokeAdapter(ProcessorTask.java:860)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.doProcess(ProcessorTask.java:757)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.process(ProcessorTask.java:1056)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.DefaultProtocolFilter.execute(DefaultProtocolFilter.java:229)
    at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.executeProtocolFilter(DefaultProtocolChain.java:137)
    at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:104)
    at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:90)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.HttpProtocolChain.execute(HttpProtocolChain.java:79)
    at com.sun.grizzly.ProtocolChainContextTask.doCall(ProtocolChainContextTask.java:54)
    at com.sun.grizzly.SelectionKeyContextTask.call(SelectionKeyContextTask.java:59)
    at com.sun.grizzly.ContextTask.run(ContextTask.java:71)
    at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.doWork(AbstractThreadPool.java:532)
    at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.run(AbstractThreadPool.java:513)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722) |#]

Best Answer

You can do without manually unproxying everything by using a custom TypeAdapter. Something along these lines:

/**
 * This TypeAdapter unproxies Hibernate proxied objects, and serializes them
 * through the registered (or default) TypeAdapter of the base class.
 */
public class HibernateProxyTypeAdapter extends TypeAdapter<HibernateProxy> {

    public static final TypeAdapterFactory FACTORY = new TypeAdapterFactory() {
        @Override
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        public <T> TypeAdapter<T> create(Gson gson, TypeToken<T> type) {
            return (HibernateProxy.class.isAssignableFrom(type.getRawType()) ? (TypeAdapter<T>) new HibernateProxyTypeAdapter(gson) : null);
        }
    };
    private final Gson context;

    private HibernateProxyTypeAdapter(Gson context) {
        this.context = context;
    }

    @Override
    public HibernateProxy read(JsonReader in) throws IOException {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not supported");
    }

    @SuppressWarnings({"rawtypes", "unchecked"})
    @Override
    public void write(JsonWriter out, HibernateProxy value) throws IOException {
        if (value == null) {
            out.nullValue();
            return;
        }
        // Retrieve the original (not proxy) class
        Class<?> baseType = Hibernate.getClass(value);
        // Get the TypeAdapter of the original class, to delegate the serialization
        TypeAdapter delegate = context.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(baseType));
        // Get a filled instance of the original class
        Object unproxiedValue = ((HibernateProxy) value).getHibernateLazyInitializer()
                .getImplementation();
        // Serialize the value
        delegate.write(out, unproxiedValue);
    }
}

To use it you must first register it:

GsonBuilder b = new GsonBuilder();
...
b.registerTypeAdapterFactory(HibernateProxyTypeAdapter.FACTORY);
...
Gson gson = b.create();

Notice that this will recursively initialize every proxy you have in the object hierarchy; since however you have to serialize the whole data, you should have done that anyway.

How does this work?

GSON contains a number of TypeAdapterFactory implementations, for various types (primitive types, common types like String or Date, lists, arrays...). Each factory is asked if it is able to serialize a certain Java type (the parameter to create is a TypeToken instead of a Class in order to capture possible information about generic types, which Class does not have). If the factory is able to serialize/deserialize a type, it responds with a TypeAdapter instance; otherwise it responds with null.

HibernateProxyTypeAdapter.FACTORY verifies whether type implements HibernateProxy; in that case, it returns an instance of HibernateProxyTypeAdapter for serialization. The write method is called when an actual object has to be serialized; the adapter extracts the original type of the underlying object, and asks GSON for the standard TypeAdapter for the original type, which generally is a ReflectiveTypeAdapter.

Then it retrieves an instance of the original class, instead of directly using the proxy. This is necessary because ReflectiveTypeAdapter accesses directly to fields, instead of using getters; accessing to the fields of a proxied object does not work, and is a classical Hibernate pitfall.

As a possible performance improvement, the delegate TypeAdapter should be acquired in the create method. I found out that calling getSuperclass() on the proxy Class appears to yield the original base class. The code can then become:

public static final TypeAdapterFactory FACTORY = new TypeAdapterFactory() {
    @Override
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public <T> TypeAdapter<T> create(Gson gson, TypeToken<T> type) {
        return (HibernateProxy.class.isAssignableFrom(type.getRawType())
                ? (TypeAdapter<T>) new HibernateProxyTypeAdapter((TypeAdapter)gson.getAdapter(TypeToken.get(type.getRawType().getSuperclass()))) 
     : null);
    }
};
private final TypeAdapter<Object> delegate;

private HibernateProxyTypeAdapter(TypeAdapter<Object> delegate) {
    this.delegate = delegate;
}

@SuppressWarnings({"rawtypes", "unchecked"})
@Override
public void write(JsonWriter out, HibernateProxy value) throws IOException {
    if (value == null) {
        out.nullValue();
        return;
    }
    delegate.write(out, ((HibernateProxy) value).getHibernateLazyInitializer()
            .getImplementation());
}

The `java <class-name>` command syntax

First of all, you need to understand the correct way to launch a program using the java (or javaw) command.

The normal syntax¹ is this:

    java [ <options> ] <class-name> [<arg> ...]

where <option> is a command line option (starting with a "-" character), <class-name> is a fully qualified Java class name, and <arg> is an arbitrary command line argument that gets passed to your application.

^{1 - There are some other syntaxes which are described near the end of this answer.}

The fully qualified name (FQN) for the class is conventionally written as you would in Java source code; e.g.

    packagename.packagename2.packagename3.ClassName

However some versions of the java command allow you to use slashes instead of periods; e.g.

    packagename/packagename2/packagename3/ClassName

which (confusingly) looks like a file pathname, but isn't one. Note that the term fully qualified name is standard Java terminology ... not something I just made up to confuse you :-)

Here is an example of what a java command should look like:

    java -Xmx100m com.acme.example.ListUsers fred joe bert

The above is going to cause the java command to do the following:

Search for the compiled version of the com.acme.example.ListUsers class.
Load the class.
Check that the class has a main method with signature, return type and modifiers given by public static void main(String[]). (Note, the method argument's name is NOT part of the signature.)
Call that method passing it the command line arguments ("fred", "joe", "bert") as a String[].

Reasons why Java cannot find the class

When you get the message "Could not find or load main class ...", that means that the first step has failed. The java command was not able to find the class. And indeed, the "..." in the message will be the fully qualified class name that java is looking for.

So why might it be unable to find the class?

Reason #1 - you made a mistake with the classname argument

The first likely cause is that you may have provided the wrong class name. (Or ... the right class name, but in the wrong form.) Considering the example above, here are a variety of wrong ways to specify the class name:

Example #1 - a simple class name:
```
java ListUser
```
When the class is declared in a package such as com.acme.example, then you must use the full classname including the package name in the java command; e.g.
```
java com.acme.example.ListUser
```
Example #2 - a filename or pathname rather than a class name:
```
java ListUser.class
java com/acme/example/ListUser.class
```
Example #3 - a class name with the casing incorrect:
```
java com.acme.example.listuser
```
Example #4 - a typo
```
java com.acme.example.mistuser
```
Example #5 - a source filename (except for Java 11 or later; see below)
```
java ListUser.java
```
Example #6 - you forgot the class name entirely
```
java lots of arguments
```

Reason #2 - the application's classpath is incorrectly specified

The second likely cause is that the class name is correct, but that the java command cannot find the class. To understand this, you need to understand the concept of the "classpath". This is explained well by the Oracle documentation:

So ... if you have specified the class name correctly, the next thing to check is that you have specified the classpath correctly:

Read the three documents linked above. (Yes ... READ them! It is important that a Java programmer understands at least the basics of how the Java classpath mechanisms works.)
Look at command line and / or the CLASSPATH environment variable that is in effect when you run the java command. Check that the directory names and JAR file names are correct.
If there are relative pathnames in the classpath, check that they resolve correctly ... from the current directory that is in effect when you run the java command.
Check that the class (mentioned in the error message) can be located on the effective classpath.
Note that the classpath syntax is different for Windows versus Linux and Mac OS. (The classpath separator is ; on Windows and : on the others. If you use the wrong separator for your platform, you won't get an explicit error message. Instead, you will get a nonexistent file or directory on the path that will be silently ignored.)

Reason #2a - the wrong directory is on the classpath

When you put a directory on the classpath, it notionally corresponds to the root of the qualified name space. Classes are located in the directory structure beneath that root, by mapping the fully qualified name to a pathname. So for example, if "/usr/local/acme/classes" is on the class path, then when the JVM looks for a class called com.acme.example.Foon, it will look for a ".class" file with this pathname:

  /usr/local/acme/classes/com/acme/example/Foon.class

If you had put "/usr/local/acme/classes/com/acme/example" on the classpath, then the JVM wouldn't be able to find the class.

Reason #2b - the subdirectory path doesn't match the FQN

If your classes FQN is com.acme.example.Foon, then the JVM is going to look for "Foon.class" in the directory "com/acme/example":

If your directory structure doesn't match the package naming as per the pattern above, the JVM won't find your class.
If you attempt rename a class by moving it, that will fail as well ... but the exception stacktrace will be different. It is liable to say something like this:
```
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: <path> (wrong name: <name>)
```
because the FQN in the class file doesn't match what the class loader is expecting to find.

To give a concrete example, supposing that:

you want to run com.acme.example.Foon class,
the full file path is /usr/local/acme/classes/com/acme/example/Foon.class,
your current working directory is /usr/local/acme/classes/com/acme/example/,

then:

# wrong, FQN is needed
java Foon

# wrong, there is no `com/acme/example` folder in the current working directory
java com.acme.example.Foon

# wrong, similar to above
java -classpath . com.acme.example.Foon

# fine; relative classpath set
java -classpath ../../.. com.acme.example.Foon

# fine; absolute classpath set
java -classpath /usr/local/acme/classes com.acme.example.Foon

Notes:

The -classpath option can be shortened to -cp in most Java releases. Check the respective manual entries for java, javac and so on.
Think carefully when choosing between absolute and relative pathnames in classpaths. Remember that a relative pathname may "break" if the current directory changes.

Reason #2c - dependencies missing from the classpath

The classpath needs to include all of the other (non-system) classes that your application depends on. (The system classes are located automatically, and you rarely need to concern yourself with this.) For the main class to load correctly, the JVM needs to find:

the class itself.
all classes and interfaces in the superclass hierarchy (e.g. see Java class is present in classpath but startup fails with Error: Could not find or load main class)
all classes and interfaces that are referred to by means of variable or variable declarations, or method call or field access expressions.

(Note: the JLS and JVM specifications allow some scope for a JVM to load classes "lazily", and this can affect when a classloader exception is thrown.)

Reason #3 - the class has been declared in the wrong package

It occasionally happens that someone puts a source code file into the the wrong folder in their source code tree, or they leave out the package declaration. If you do this in an IDE, the IDE's compiler will tell you about this immediately. Similarly if you use a decent Java build tool, the tool will run javac in a way that will detect the problem. However, if you build your Java code by hand, you can do it in such a way that the compiler doesn't notice the problem, and the resulting ".class" file is not in the place that you expect it to be.

Still can't find the problem?

There lots of things to check, and it is easy to miss something. Try adding the -Xdiag option to the java command line (as the first thing after java). It will output various things about class loading, and this may offer you clues as to what the real problem is.

Also, consider possible problems caused by copying and pasting invisible or non-ASCII characters from websites, documents and so on. And consider "homoglyphs", where two letters or symbols look the same ... but aren't.

Finally, you can apparently run into this problem if you try to launch from a JAR file with incorrect signatures in (META-INF/*.SF) or if there is a syntax error in the MANIFEST.MF file (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/67145190/139985).

Alternative syntaxes for `java`

There are three alternative syntaxes for the launching Java programs using the java command.

The syntax used for launching an "executable" JAR file is as follows:
```
java [ <options> ] -jar <jar-file-name> [<arg> ...]
```
e.g.
```
java -Xmx100m -jar /usr/local/acme-example/listuser.jar fred
```
The name of the entry-point class (i.e. com.acme.example.ListUser) and the classpath are specified in the MANIFEST of the JAR file.
The syntax for launching an application from a module (Java 9 and later) is as follows:
```
java [ <options> ] --module <module>[/<mainclass>] [<arg> ...]
```
The name of the entrypoint class is either defined by the <module> itself, or is given by the optional <mainclass>.
From Java 11 onwards, you can use the java command to compile and run a single source code file using the following syntax:
```
java [ <options> ] <sourcefile> [<arg> ...]
```
where <sourcefile> is (typically) a file with the suffix ".java".

For more details, please refer to the official documentation for the java command for the Java release that you are using.

IDEs

A typical Java IDE has support for running Java applications in the IDE JVM itself or in a child JVM. These are generally immune from this particular exception, because the IDE uses its own mechanisms to construct the runtime classpath, identify the main class and create the java command line.

However it is still possible for this exception to occur, if you do things behind the back of the IDE. For example, if you have previously set up an Application Launcher for your Java app in Eclipse, and you then moved the JAR file containing the "main" class to a different place in the file system without telling Eclipse, Eclipse would unwittingly launch the JVM with an incorrect classpath.

In short, if you get this problem in an IDE, check for things like stale IDE state, broken project references or broken launcher configurations.

It is also possible for an IDE to simply get confused. IDE's are hugely complicated pieces of software comprising many interacting parts. Many of these parts adopt various caching strategies in order to make the IDE as a whole responsive. These can sometimes go wrong, and one possible symptom is problems when launching applications. If you suspect this could be happening, it is worth trying other things like restarting your IDE, rebuilding the project and so on.

Other References

From the Oracle Java Tutorials - Common Problems (and Their Solutions)

Best Answer

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Java – What does “Could not find or load main class” mean

The java <class-name> command syntax