Maven can't compile using rt.jar

Question

My project uses sun.security.tools.keytool to generate certificate under JDK 1.8 and this package can be found in rt.jar. According to Introduction to the Dependency Mechanism, System Dependencies, I can add rt.jar as a dependency to my project:

<dependency>
  <groupId>sun.jdk</groupId>
  <artifactId>rt.jar</artifactId>
  <version>1.8</version>
  <scope>system</scope>
  <systemPath>${java.home}/lib/rt.jar</systemPath>
</dependency>

I'm pretty sure Maven found this jar file. However when I import sun.security.tools.keytool.Main, it still generates an error. Moreover, the most strange thing is if I copy rt.jar into someplace and fill its path in pom.xml, it works! As soon as I switch back to use the original rt.jar, it fails!

Can anyone tell me how could this happen?

`rt.jar` contains the runtime classes - so it shouldn't be required to include this jar as an explicit dependency at all... — fateddy, Jul 11 '15 at 05:17
I know... But heritrix (web crawler) uses this. So this problem prevents me from compiling heritrix... — old_bear, Jul 11 '15 at 05:29
Can you supply a link to the Maven wiki page you are referring to. — Gerold Broser, Jul 11 '15 at 08:38
[maven system dependencies](http://maven.apache.org/guides/introduction/introduction-to-dependency-mechanism.html#System_Dependencies) — old_bear, Jul 14 '15 at 09:28

Gerold Broser · Answer 1 · 2019-12-15T17:50:06.217

26

I created a Maven project and added the <dependency> of your question to its POM.

First I got:

[ERROR] COMPILATION ERROR : 
[INFO] -------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] .../SO-31353565/src/main/java/igb/so/SO31353565.java:[6,34]
    package sun.security.tools.keytool does not exist
[ERROR] .../SO-31353565/src/main/java/igb/so/SO31353565.java:[12,50]
    cannot find symbol
  symbol:   variable Main
  location: class igb.so.SO31353565

Then, according to Cannot find symbol (CertAndKeyGen) with JDK8, I added:

<build>
  <pluginManagement>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <fork>true</fork>
          <compilerArgument>-XDignore.symbol.file</compilerArgument>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </pluginManagement>
</build>

to the POM and the compilation succeeded.

edited Dec 15 '19 at 17:50

answered Jul 17 '15 at 01:38

Gerold Broser

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2

How to specify same in gradle? Any idea? – sakura Feb 08 '16 at 09:15
1

Hat off you man, you saved me i was looking for this since 5 hours thanks :) – KhAn SaAb Aug 29 '18 at 13:39
I'm trying to build Openfire using Intellij IDEA. I have latest Java SDK 1.8 installed on my Win 10 machine. Got the same error on import sun.security.x509.GeneralNameInterface;. There are multiple pom.xml files, one global for a project folder, one in xmppserver subfolder. I tried to add the settings you described - it didn't fix error. – vkelman Feb 07 '19 at 16:56
@vkelman Due to the multiple POMs: Did you try `mvn help:effective-pom` on the project in question to see whether the setting is really applied to it. – Gerold Broser Feb 07 '19 at 17:28
1

Thanks ;) Exact solution. – pujan kc Jul 29 '21 at 19:13

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 02 '17 at 18:33

2

If you are using Gradle instead of Maven you can add this to your build:

compileJava {
    options.fork = true
    options.forkOptions.executable = 'javac'
    options.compilerArgs << "-XDignore.symbol.file"
}

It worked for me! ;)

edited Jul 02 '17 at 18:33

Gerold Broser

14,080
5
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answered Aug 01 '16 at 21:42

Leo Ribeiro

228
1
16

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 03 '19 at 14:54

0

I solved it like this:

Add to JAVA_HOME/lib/rt.jar
Go to Eclipse Menu Windows -> Windows -> Preferences -> Java -> Installed JREs
Select jdk version. In me case jdk-11.0.4
Select Add External JARs.. and add JAVA_HOME/lib/rt.jar

answered Aug 03 '19 at 14:54

Wilmer Acosta

1

1. With powerful build tools available nowadays copying dependencies around manually isn't state of the art. 2. Isn't it enough to refer to `.../jdk/jre/lib/rt.jar` in Eclipse? – Gerold Broser Nov 13 '20 at 17:02

Maven can't compile using rt.jar

3 Answers3

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