groovysh crashes under Java 1.7.0_75 (Windows XP) - groovy

Question

Using the latest version of Groovy (as of this writing), 2.4.0, and Windows XP (sp3), I have encountered a familiar but perplexing error:
C:\>groovysh
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
at org.codehaus.groovy.tools.GroovyStarter.rootLoader(GroovyStarter.java
:106)
at org.codehaus.groovy.tools.GroovyStarter.main(GroovyStarter.java:128)
Caused by: groovy.lang.MissingPropertyException: No such property: leftPadding f
or class: org.codehaus.groovy.tools.shell.util.HelpFormatter
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.unwrap(ScriptByteco
deAdapter.java:51)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.setGroovyObjectProp
erty(ScriptBytecodeAdapter.java:532)
at org.codehaus.groovy.tools.shell.util.HelpFormatter.<init>(HelpFormatt
er.groovy:39)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstruct
orAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingC
onstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedConstructor.invoke(CachedConstru
ctor.java:77)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.ConstructorSite$ConstructorSiteN
oUnwrapNoCoerce.callConstructor(ConstructorSite.java:102)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallConstru
ctor(CallSiteArray.java:57)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callConstructor
(AbstractCallSite.java:230)
at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callConstructor
(AbstractCallSite.java:234)
at org.codehaus.groovy.tools.shell.Main.main(Main.groovy:68)
... 6 more
I experienced no difficulty using Groovy 2.3.9 so I was wondering if anyone had a constructive suggestion.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Your Error occurs in the HelpFormatter class. The sources can be found via google, i.e. here:
https://github.com/groovy/groovy-core/blob/master/subprojects/groovy-groovysh/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/groovy/tools/shell/util/HelpFormatter.groovy
As you can see, class HelpFormatter extends org.apache.commons.cli.HelpFormatter
And expects the superclass to have a field leftPadding, but does not find one.
This could be the case if you have a different version of apache commons-cli.jar on your CLASSPATH when running groovysh.
Since I cannot reproduce your problem, this is the most likely cause I can see.
Run
echo %CLASSPATH
in Windows to see the CLASSPATh (I think).