Errors in Catalina.out

[Jan Post]

Can anybody tell me what might cause these underlying errors in catalina.out?

Aug 29, 2011 7:02:35 PM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences checkLockFile0ErrorCode
WARNING: Could not lock User prefs. Unix error code 5.
Aug 29, 2011 7:02:35 PM java.util.prefs.FileSystemPreferences syncWorld
WARNING: Couldn't flush user prefs: java.util.prefs.BackingStoreException: Couldn't get file lock.

They seem to appear every 5 minutes!

[Jan Post · Accepted solution]

This occurs in our test environment. We're implementing 4.4, and will see what hapopens after that.

[Radu Dumitriu]

A simple look in errno.h

#define EIO 5 /* I/O error */

This means that you have a problem on the disk / file system. fsck first

[Sorin Sbarnea (Citrix)]

Interesting, I do get Could not lock User prefs. Unix error code 2.

[Radu Dumitriu]

#define ENOENT 2 /* No such file or directory */

That's different.

Most probably the java process do not have privileges to update the system preferences. Not something of real concern. Check .java dir, and check if the current running user has the rights on it.

Source code is available here: http://javasourcecode.org/html/open-source/jdk/jdk-6u23/java/util/prefs/FileSystemPreferences.java.html

Edit: if you're running as root, check also /etc/.java (according to that source above)

[Sorin Sbarnea (Citrix)]

That's insane: there only one JVM running as root. And as you may assume there is a home for root, /root/ which is accesible. Also, there is enough free space on disk.