Sonar failing with NullPointerException

Issue

We have observed recently that our builds do not publish to Sonar anymore. Following is the exception Jenkins throws:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.codehaus.mojo:sonar-maven-plugin:2.7.1:sonar (default-cli) on project myproject: null: MojoExecutionException: NullPointerException -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.codehaus.mojo:sonar-maven-plugin:2.7.1:sonar (default-cli) on project myproject: null
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:216)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:116)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:80)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder.build(SingleThreadedBuilder.java:51)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:128)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:307)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:193)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:106)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:862)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:286)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:197)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:289)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415)
at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException
at org.codehaus.mojo.sonar.bootstrap.ExceptionHandling.handle(ExceptionHandling.java:41)
at org.codehaus.mojo.sonar.bootstrap.RunnerBootstrapper.execute(RunnerBootstrapper.java:104)
at org.codehaus.mojo.sonar.SonarMojo.execute(SonarMojo.java:135)
at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:134)
at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:208)
... 20 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.ComparableVersion.parseVersion(ComparableVersion.java:358)
at org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.ComparableVersion.<init>(ComparableVersion.java:349)
at org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.DefaultArtifactVersion.parseVersion(DefaultArtifactVersion.java:112)
at org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.DefaultArtifactVersion.<init>(DefaultArtifactVersion.java:48)
at org.codehaus.mojo.sonar.bootstrap.RunnerBootstrapper.isVersionPriorTo5Dot2(RunnerBootstrapper.java:189)
at org.codehaus.mojo.sonar.bootstrap.RunnerBootstrapper.execute(RunnerBootstrapper.java:81)
... 23 more
...
Finished: FAILURE

Environment

CloudBees CI (CloudBees Core) on modern cloud platforms - Managed controller
CloudBees CI (CloudBees Core) on traditional platforms - Client controller
CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise - Managed controller
Jenkins LTS
Sonar

Resolution

The sonar-maven-plugin has a confirmed bug NullPointerException when checking server version.

This issue seems to be affecting the following versions at the moment:

2.7
2.7.1

The only solution at the moment is to force Jenkins to use version 2.6.

Force Jenkins to use the previous version of sonar-maven-plugin by entering 2.6 at

_Manage Jenkins_ Configure System Sonar (Advanced…) Version

of sonar-maven-plugin.

This article is part of our Knowledge Base and is provided for guidance-based purposes only. The solutions or workarounds described here are not officially supported by CloudBees and may not be applicable in all environments. Use at your own discretion, and test changes in a safe environment before applying them to production systems.