Maven: Fatal error compiling: invalid target release: 1.8

Question

We just upgraded the project from jdk 1.6 to jdk 1.8. While building the project in my machine, i'm getting following error.

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin:3.3:compile (default-compile) on project exception: Fatal error compiling: invalid target release: 1.8 -> [Help 1]

Here is the maven compiler plugin which is been used

 <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>3.3</version>
    <configuration>
        <source>1.8</source>
        <target>1.8</target>
        </configuration>
  </plugin>

I looked at the many post and most of them were related with not having the correct version configured for java_home. I verified all of these aspects and couldn't find any of them alarming.

Java version -

 qadeersmsiphone:main pdubey$ java -version
 java version "1.8.0_51"
 Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_51-b16)
 Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.51-b03, mixed mode)

Maven Version -

qadeersmsiphone:main pdubey$ mvn -version
Apache Maven 3.1.1 (0728685237757ffbf44136acec0402957f723d9a; 2013-09-17 08:22:22-0700)
Maven home: /usr/share/maven
Java version: 1.8.0_51, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.8.5", arch: "x86_64", family: "mac"

and I checked that while building the project maven uses jdk 1.8

qadeersmsiphone:main pdubey$ mvn install -debug
Apache Maven 3.1.1 (0728685237757ffbf44136acec0402957f723d9a; 2013-09-17 08:22:22-0700)
Maven home: /usr/share/maven
Java version: 1.8.0_51, vendor: Oracle Corporation
Java home: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "mac os x", version: "10.8.5", arch: "x86_64", family: "mac"
[INFO] Error stacktraces are turned on.
[DEBUG] Reading global settings from /usr/share/maven/conf/settings.xml
[DEBUG] Reading user settings from /Users/pdubey/.m2/settings.xml
[DEBUG] Using local repository at /Users/pdubey/.m2/repository
[DEBUG] Using manager EnhancedLocalRepositoryManager with priority 10.0 for  /Users/pdubey/.m2/repository
[INFO] Scanning for projects...

UPDATE: I could get it working by removing the maven-compiler-plugin in pom file (Ideally, i don't want to do this). And i also observed that even if i remove this plugin, maven by default downloads the 3.3 version of compiler plugin in my local repo. I'm not sure what's wrong in this plugin although source and target appears to be correct.

Solution 1

Check the java and Javac version - My Java version was 1.8.0_51

$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_51"

But javac version was pointing to old jdk 1.7.0_67

$ javac -version
javac 1.7.0_67

There are couple of thing which we should try -

1. Ensure that symbolic link is pointing to correct jdk. If not, remove existing link and create new one for your jdk

   cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/
   rm CurrentJDK
   ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<jdk version>.jdk/Contents/ CurrentJDK
   

2. In /Library/Java/Extension, i had a tools.jar. I believe, this was from old jdk.

   cd /Library/Java/Extensions
   -rw-r--r--  1 root  admin  15286304 Jan 14  2015 tools.jar
   

   Remove this

   sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/Extensions
   

point 2 did the trick for me :)

Solution 2

Sometimes this problem is related to a JAVA_HOME used by maven.

• In my particular case I tried to start an install target and had an exact the subj message.
• Then I just tried an mvn -version command and I realized that it uses jdk7
• Then I run in a console set JAVA_HOME=C:\Java\jdk8 (my jdk path, so your own could be different)
• Then typed mvn clean install test and it worked just fine at last

Good luck!

Solution 3

Same issue here, but I was using run configurations inside Eclipse when maven kept throwing this error. Fixed by setting the right JDK version here:

Comments

[circuitry]

Thank you, finally! Point 2 solved this for me as well.

[papanito]

That was it for me mvn used another version. If you are using powershell run this: $env:JAVA_HOME="C:\java\jdk8