"InternalError: Metadata does not appear to be polymorphic" When Running jmap, jstack, or jinfo

Solution Unverified - Updated

Environment

  • Oracle JDK
    • 1.8
  • OpenJDK
    • 1.8
  • jinfo -sysprops
  • jmap
  • jstack -F -l

Issue

  • We see the following error:

      # /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0/bin/jmap -F -dump:format=b,file=dump.hprof 6503
  Attaching to process ID 6503, please wait...
  Debugger attached successfully.
  Server compiler detected.
  JVM version is 25.65-b01
  Dumping heap to java_pid6503_va1rprdljap7496.hprof ...
  Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
          at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
          ...
          at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
          at sun.tools.jmap.JMap.runTool(JMap.java:201)
          at sun.tools.jmap.JMap.main(JMap.java:130)
  Caused by: java.lang.InternalError: Metadata does not appear to be polymorphic
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.types.basic.BasicTypeDataBase.findDynamicTypeForAddress(BasicTypeDataBase.java:278)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.VirtualBaseConstructor.instantiateWrapperFor(VirtualBaseConstructor.java:102)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.oops.Metadata.instantiateWrapperFor(Metadata.java:68)
          ...
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.HeapDumper.main(HeapDumper.java:83)
          ... 6 more

  • Results in the following exception:

      java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to deduce type of thread from address 0x00007fac6c4f3000 (expected type JavaThread, CompilerThread, ServiceThread, JvmtiAgentThread, or SurrogateLockerThread)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.Threads.createJavaThreadWrapper(Threads.java:166)
          ...
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.StackTrace.run(StackTrace.java:45)
          ...
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.JStack.main(JStack.java:92)
          ...
          at sun.tools.jstack.JStack.main(JStack.java:106)
  Caused by: sun.jvm.hotspot.types.WrongTypeException: No suitable match for type of address 0x00007fac6c4f3000
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.InstanceConstructor.newWrongTypeException(InstanceConstructor.java:62)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.VirtualConstructor.instantiateWrapperFor(VirtualConstructor.java:80)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.Threads.createJavaThreadWrapper(Threads.java:162)
          ... 17 more
  Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
          at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
          ...
          at sun.tools.jstack.JStack.main(JStack.java:106)
  Caused by: java.lang.InternalError: Metadata does not appear to be polymorphic
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.types.basic.BasicTypeDataBase.findDynamicTypeForAddress(BasicTypeDataBase.java:278)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.runtime.VirtualBaseConstructor.instantiateWrapperFor(VirtualBaseConstructor.java:102)
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.oops.Metadata.instantiateWrapperFor(Metadata.java:68)
          ...
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.StackTrace.run(StackTrace.java:45)
          ...
          at sun.jvm.hotspot.tools.JStack.main(JStack.java:92)
          ... 6 more

Resolution

Java Diagnostics tool, jcmd, is the official and supported tool for debugging. See solution JCMD usage in OpenJDK for troubleshooting.

  1. Make sure that you are running jinfo, jmap or jstack as the user that started the java process.

  2. jmap -heap and jstack -F This content is not included.require debuginfo.

    Use debuginfo-install to Install the OpenJDK -debuginfo package and its dependencies:

     $ sudo debuginfo-install java-1.8.0-openjdk

    NOTE: Using yum to install the debuginfo package (e.g. yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-debuginfo) will not work, as it will not install the required dependencies.

  3. Try an alternative way to get a heap dump or thread dump on Linux or Microsoft Windows.

Root Cause

Requiring the debuginfo package be installed is only relevant for very old JDK versions:

This content is not included.jmap and jstack are not working with openjdk

In recent Red Hat builds of OpenJDK, we set _find_debuginfo_opts -g so the stripping routines preserve some minimal debuginfo that should be enough for jinfo/jmap/jstack to work.

Diagnostic Steps

  • Check that you used the correct process id and that it's owned by the same user as is running the command. You can check the processes owner as follows:
$ ps aux
  • Check if the java executable is stripped or not:
$ file /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.212.b04-0.el7_6.x86_64/jre/bin/java 
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.212.b04-0.el7_6.x86_64/jre/bin/java: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.32, BuildID[sha1]=df3fba6cc0f63b51a2270014a3994480680a8ca0, stripped

If it is stripped, the debuginfo package must be installed.

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