Problem: jav.lang.NullPointerException

[Charles7]

Minimserver 2.2, update 245, on Windows 10 PC
Went to do a Rescan, got jav.lang.NullPointerException
Restarted Windows; no change
Task Manager shows Java Platform SE running
Downloaded the .exe and reinstalled
What next?

[Charles7]

More specific, I can Restart minimserver and sometimes it shows the green icon
but when I Rescan (either at tray icon or minimserver webpage), the error occurs and icon goes red

[Charles7]

Here is the crash log when this problem first happened.

[Charles7]

More: I have had two PC folders in the contentDir all along, adding and deleting files to them
Now when I remove one of them from contentDir, Minimserver works
but when I put this folder back, the problem comes back
however, I see no problem with this folder or the files in it
there is no problem with the other folder

[Charles7]

I found a weird workaround:
I made a copy of the problem folder and gave it the same Windows sharing property
Removed the original folder from the content.Dir list and put in the copy
For now, things work normally
But I hope someone can diagnose the problem from the crash log I posted above

[simoncn]

Is the contentDir folder that caused the NullPointerException a Windows symbolic link or does it contain any Windows symbolic links to directories or files?

What is the Windows sharing property that you used for the problem folder?

Were any error messages written to the MinimServer log just before the NullPointerException happened?

[Charles7]

(12-02-2024 11:15)simoncn Wrote:  Is the contentDir folder that caused the NullPointerException a Windows symbolic link or does it contain any Windows symbolic links to directories or files?

It is an actual folder. It contains actual .flac, .mp3, .wav, and .m3u8 files.

Quote:What is the Windows sharing property that you used for the problem folder?

Full permissions to all users. Do you mean something more by "Windows sharing property"?

Quote:Were any error messages written to the MinimServer log just before the NullPointerException happened?

Sorry, that file seems to have gone away when I reinstalled Minimserver 2.2. Maybe the crash log above will help?

[simoncn]

This NullPointerException is caused by a bug in some code in MinimServer that runs only when the MinimServer logging level is set to Trace.

For normal use of MinimServer, you should not run with Trace logging enabled as this can cause unexpected problems. Trace logging is intended to be used only in a situation where some other problem has occurred and diagnostic information has been requested via the forum to identify the cause of the problem. For normal use of MinimServer, the logging level should be set to Info or Verbose.

I haven't been able to identify what combination of circumstances has caused the buggy tracing code to be run. The bug in the tracing code will be fixed in the next MinimServer update.

Thanks for letting me know about this problem.

[Charles7]

... and thank you for the diagnosis, the workaround, and your candor with users.

A couple of days after first reporting the problem, and after I had made a copy of the folder that was giving the problem, I put the original folder back in .contentDir to see what happens. This time there was no problem! I presume the intermittent behavior confirms your partial diagnosis.

So I have now opened the Minimserver tray icon, selected Show Log from the right-click menu, and set the Logging Level dropdown menu to Info. And confirmed the setting on the Minimserver control page in the browser at Properties | System | .logLevel = info