Why did Servlet.service() for servlet jsp throw this exception?

I get the following error, what could be the problem?

My context descriptor:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
   <servlet>
    <servlet-name>UploadServlet</servlet-name>
 开发者_如何转开发   <servlet-class>controller.UploadServlet</servlet-class>
  </servlet>
   <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>UploadServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/UploadServlet</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspInit(index_jsp.java:22)
    at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.init(HttpJspBase.java:52)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.getServlet(JspServletWrapper.java:159)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:329)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Feb 23, 2010 11:35:28 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspInit(index_jsp.java:22)
    at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.init(HttpJspBase.java:52)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.getServlet(JspServletWrapper.java:159)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:329)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:342)
    at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:267)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:849)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:454)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

It can be caused by a classpath contamination. Check that you /WEB-INF/lib doesn't contain something like jsp-api-*.jar.

If your project is Maven-based, remember to set scope to provided for such dependencies as servlet-api, jsp-api. Otherwise, these jars will be exported to WEB-INF/lib and hence contaminate with those in Tomcat server. That causes painful problems.

<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
  <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.5</version>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
  <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
  <version>2.1</version>
  <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

I had this error; it happened somewhat spontaneously, and the page would halt in the browser in the middle of an HTML tag (not a section of code). It was baffling!

Turns out, I let a variable go out of scope and the garbage collector swept it away and then I tried to use it. Thus the seemingly-random timing.

To give a more concrete example... Inside a method, I had something like:

Foo[] foos = new Foo[20];
// fill up the "foos" array...
return Arrays.asList(foos); // this returns type List<Foo>

Now in my JSP page, I called that method and used the List object returned by it. The List object is backed by that "foos" array; but, the array went out of scope when I returned from the method (since it is a local variable). So shortly after returning, the garbage collector swept away the "foos" array, and my access to the List caused a NullPointerException since its underlying array was now wiped away.

I actually wondered, as I wrote the above method, whether that would happen.

The even deeper underlying problem was premature optimization. I wanted a list, but I knew I would have exactly 20 elements, so I figured I'd try to be more efficient than new ArrayList<Foo>(20) which only sets an initial size of 20 but can possibly be less efficient than the method I used. So of course, to fix it, I just created my ArrayList, filled it up, and returned it. No more strange error.

The problem is in your JSP, most likely you are calling a method on an object that is null at runtime.

It is happening in the _jspInit() call, which is a little more unusual... the problem code is probably a method declaration like <%! %>

Update: I've only reproduced this by overriding the _jspInit() method. Is that what you're doing? If so, it's not recommended - that's why it starts with an _.

I tried my best to follow the answers given above. But I have below reason for the same.

Note: This is for maven+eclipse+tomcat deployment and issue faced especially with spring mvc.

1- If you are including servlet and jsp dependency please mark them provided in scope.

<dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

2. Possibly you might be including jstl as dependency. So, jsp-api.jar and servlet-api.jar will be included along. So, require to exclude the servlet-api and jsp-api being deployed as required lib in target or in "WEB-INF/lib" as given below.

   <dependency>
       <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</groupId>
       <artifactId>jstl-api</artifactId>
       <version>1.2</version>
       <exclusions>
           <exclusion>
               <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
               <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
           </exclusion>
           <exclusion>
               <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
               <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
           </exclusion>
       </exclusions>
   </dependency>