Global scope overrides lexical scope for classes (Clojure assumes no classes in default package / Clojure cannot handle

Question

The most visible symptom of this bug is having a class named 'w' (default package) in your classpath (such classes are produced by Java obfuscation tools such as yFiles) and then attempting to load Clojure's core class. For example:

java -cp hotspotapi.jar:clojure-1.4.0-slim.jar clojure.main

(where hotspotapi.jar is a stereotypical example of an obfuscated JAR) results in:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError

at clojure.main.<clinit>(main.java:20)

Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchFieldException: close, compiling:(clojure/core.clj:6139)

at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6462)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6223)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$BodyExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:5618)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$TryExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:2178)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6455)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6223)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$BodyExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:5618)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$LetExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:5919)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6455)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6443)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6443)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6223)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$BodyExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:5618)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$FnMethod.parse(Compiler.java:5054)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$FnExpr.parse(Compiler.java:3674)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6453)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6443)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.access$100(Compiler.java:37)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$DefExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:518)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6455)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6262)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:6223)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.eval(Compiler.java:6515)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.load(Compiler.java:6952)
at clojure.lang.RT.loadResourceScript(RT.java:359)
at clojure.lang.RT.loadResourceScript(RT.java:350)
at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:429)
at clojure.lang.RT.load(RT.java:400)
at clojure.lang.RT.doInit(RT.java:436)
at clojure.lang.RT.<clinit>(RT.java:318)
... 1 more

Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchFieldException: close

at java.lang.Class.getField(Class.java:1537)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$StaticFieldExpr.<init>(Compiler.java:1180)
at clojure.lang.Compiler$HostExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:923)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:6455)
... 37 more

Could not find the main class: clojure.main. Program will exit.

To understand what is going on, consider this simple test:

import java.io.StringReader;

import clojure.lang.Compiler;
import clojure.lang.RT;

public class Test {

public static void main(String(link: ) args) {
    RT.var("clojure.core", "require");
    String s = "(let (link: mumble (new java.io.StringReader \"\")) (. mumble close))";
    Compiler.load(new StringReader(s));
}

}

It should be clear that 'mumble' in the dot operator is referencing the locally defined mumble. However, if we define a class named 'mumble' in the default package, Clojure picks that one up instead.

To forestall any objections: yes, we know that placing classes in the default package is extremely poor form. Point of the matter is, the Java ecosystem is extremely diverse and there are a lot of JARs people may not have control over. While one might argue, "Don't put classes in the default namespace", point of the matter is, Clojure is wrong here, and these situations arise in practice, through no fault of the implementer.

Answer 1

Comment made by: ezyang

Here is a workaround patch which makes this error less likely to occur.

Answer 2

Comment made by: jafingerhut

Edward, it is Rich Hickey's policy only to consider for inclusion in Clojure patches written by people who have signed a Contributor Agreement: http://clojure.org/contributing

Were you interested in becoming a contributor?

Answer 3

Comment made by: ezyang

Sure, although the patch attached is emphatically not the one you want to actually applying, since it only band-aids the problem.

Answer 4

Comment made by: jafingerhut

I am not sure, but this ticket may be related to CLJ-1171. At least, there the issue was a global name not being shadowed by a local name bound with let. That seems similar to this issue.

Answer 5

Reference: https://clojure.atlassian.net/browse/CLJ-1016 (reported by ezyang)