RuntimeError: Unable to start JVM because of Deprecated: convertStrings - python-3.x

Question

I run an automated python job on an EMR cluster that updates Amazon Athena Tables.
It was running well until few days ago (on python 2.7 and 3.7). Here is the script:
from pyathenajdbc import connect
import yaml
config = yaml.load(open('athena-config.yaml', 'r'))
statements = config['statements']
staging_dir = config['staging_dir']
conn = connect(s3_staging_dir=staging_dir, region_name='eu-west-1')
try:
with conn.cursor() as cursor:
for statement in statements:
cursor.execute(statement)
finally:
conn.close()
The athena-config.yaml has a staging directory and few Athena Statements.
Here is the Error:
You are using pip version 9.0.3, however version 19.1.1 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.
Unrecognized option: -server
create_tables.py:5: YAMLLoadWarning: calling yaml.load() without Loader=... is deprecated, as the default Loader is unsafe. Please read https://msg.pyyaml.org/load for full details.
config = yaml.load(open('athena-config.yaml', 'r'))
/mnt/conda/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jpype/_core.py:210: UserWarning:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deprecated: convertStrings was not specified when starting the JVM. The default
behavior in JPype will be False starting in JPype 0.8. The recommended setting
for new code is convertStrings=False. The legacy value of True was assumed for
this session. If you are a user of an application that reported this warning,
please file a ticket with the developer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
""")
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "create_tables.py", line 10, in <module>
region_name='eu-west-1')
File "/mnt/conda/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyathenajdbc/__init__.py", line 69, in connect
driver_path, log4j_conf, **kwargs)
File "/mnt/conda/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyathenajdbc/connection.py", line 68, in __init__
self._start_jvm(jvm_path, jvm_options, driver_path, log4j_conf)
File "/mnt/conda/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyathenajdbc/util.py", line 25, in _wrapper
return wrapped(*args, **kwargs)
File "/mnt/conda/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pyathenajdbc/connection.py", line 97, in _start_jvm
jpype.startJVM(jvm_path, *args)
File "/mnt/conda/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jpype/_core.py", line 219, in startJVM
_jpype.startup(jvmpath, tuple(args), ignoreUnrecognized, convertStrings)
RuntimeError: Unable to start JVM
at loadJVM(native/common/jp_env.cpp:169)
at loadJVM(native/common/jp_env.cpp:179)
at startup(native/python/pyjp_module.cpp:159)
As far as I understand the issue in convertStrings being deprecated. Can anyone help me resolve that? I cannot understand why this """) comes before the traceback, and what changed in past days to break the code. Thanks!

Answer 1

Got the same issue today. Try to downgrade JPype1 to 0.6.3. JPype1 released 0.7.0 today, which is not compatible with old interfaces.

Answer 2

The issue appears to be that the package is calling the JVM with an unrecognized argument -server. The previous version was ignoring those sort of errors allowing things to proceed. To get the same behavior with 0.7.0, the flag ignoreUnrecognized would need to be set to True. Likely this needs to be send to pyathenajdbc to correct the defect which placed the bogus argument into the startJVM in the first place.
Looking at the source the -server is hardcoded into the module.
if not jpype.isJVMStarted():
_logger.debug('JVM path: %s', jvm_path)
args = [
'-server',
'-Djava.class.path={0}'.format(driver_path),
'-Dlog4j.configuration=file:{0}'.format(log4j_conf)
]
if jvm_options:
args.extend(jvm_options)
_logger.debug('JVM args: %s', args)
jpype.startJVM(jvm_path, *args)
cls.class_loader = jpype.java.lang.Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader()
It is assuming a particular JVM which accepts -server as an argument.