OrientDB 3.2.46 serialization error on Java 17: Error on serialization of Serializable

[OndraZizka]

Summary

OrientDB 3.2.46 fails with a serialization error when running on Java 17, preventing applications from using the embedded database.

Environment

• OrientDB Version: 3.2.46 (latest as of Dec 2024)
• Java Version: OpenJDK 17 (temurin-17.0.17)
• Operating System: Linux (Ubuntu/Debian-based)
• Application: JBake 2.7.0-SNAPSHOT static site generator
• Build Tools: Gradle 9.2.1 and Maven 3.9.9

Error Message

ERROR org.jbake.util.Logging - An unexpected error occurred: 
Error during record serialization: Error on serialization of Serializable 
DB name="cache" DB name="cache"

Expected Behavior

OrientDB should work with Java 17 as stated in the OrientDB documentation which claims support for Java 11-21.

Actual Behavior

When JBake attempts to use OrientDB for its content storage cache, the database fails during record serialization, causing all operations to fail.

Steps to Reproduce

Minimal Reproduction Case

1. Clone JBake repository:

   git clone https://github.com/jbake-org/jbake.git
   cd jbake

2. Ensure Java 17 is active:

   java -version
   # Should show version 17

3. Build JBake:

   ./gradlew :jbake-dist:installDist

4. Initialize and bake a test project:

   cd /tmp
   mkdir test-project && cd test-project
   /path/to/jbake/jbake-dist/build/install/jbake/bin/jbake -i
   /path/to/jbake/jbake-dist/build/install/jbake/bin/jbake -b

5. Observe the error - The bake command fails with the serialization error shown above.

Alternative: Run JBake Smoke Tests

# With Gradle
./gradlew :jbake-dist:smokeTest

# With Maven
mvn test -pl jbake-dist

Both will fail with 6/6 tests showing the serialization error.

JVM Arguments Attempted

The following --add-opens arguments were added but did NOT fix the issue:

--add-opens java.base/java.lang=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens java.base/java.lang.reflect=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens java.base/java.io=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens java.base/java.util=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens java.base/java.util.concurrent=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens java.base/sun.nio.ch=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED

These arguments are necessary for module access in Java 17 but do not resolve the serialization bug.

Workaround

Downgrading to Java 11 makes the issue disappear completely. All tests pass and the application works perfectly with Java 11.

# Using SDKMAN example
sdk use java 11.0.x-tem
./gradlew :jbake-dist:smokeTest
# All tests pass ✅

Related Information

OrientDB Usage in JBake

JBake uses OrientDB as an embedded in-memory database for its ContentStore class:

class ContentStore(val cacheDir: File, val documentsTypesNames: Collection<String>) {
    private val db: ODatabaseDocument
    private val orient: OrientDB
    
    init {
        orient = OrientDB("memory:$databaseName", OrientDBConfig.defaultConfig())
        // ... initialization code
    }
}

Full Error Context

21:52:25.855 INFO  org.jbake.app.Crawler - NEW:     /tmp/jbake-website-test/project/content/community/index.adoc
21:52:25.929 INFO  org.jbake.parser.AsciidoctorEngine - Initializing Asciidoctor engine...
21:52:31.129 INFO  org.jbake.parser.AsciidoctorEngine - Asciidoctor engine initialized.
21:52:31.677 INFO  c.o.orient.core.db.OrientDBEmbedded - - shutdown storage: cache ...
21:52:31.692 ERROR org.jbake.util.Logging - An unexpected error occurred: 
    Error during record serialization: Error on serialization of Serializable 
    DB name="cache" DB name="cache"

Impact

This bug prevents JBake (and likely other OrientDB-dependent applications) from running on Java 17, which is a Long-Term Support (LTS) release. As Java 11 support ends, this becomes a critical blocker for applications that need to upgrade.

Questions

1. Is there a known fix for this serialization issue in Java 17?
2. Is OrientDB 4.x compatible with Java 17?
3. Are there any configuration changes that would make 3.2.46 work with Java 17?
4. Should the documentation be updated to clarify Java version compatibility?

Additional Context

• Issue appeared after JBake upgraded from Java 11 to Java 17
• OrientDB 3.2.46 is the latest version in the 3.2.x series
• Similar serialization issues have been reported in OrientDb serialization error on data read #9943
• This issue affects both Gradle and Maven builds identically

Requested Action

• Confirm whether OrientDB 3.2.x is expected to work with Java 17
• Provide a fix or workaround if available
• If not fixable in 3.2.x, provide guidance on migrating to a Java 17-compatible version
• Update documentation to clearly state Java version compatibility

Thank you for your attention to this issue!

[tglman]

Hi,

Thank you I will check this and let you know.

[tglman]

Hi,

I cloned the base repo, but that it still use OrientDB 3.1.x, so I switched to your branch: https://github.com/OndraZizka/jbake/tree/kotlin-upgraded and I run the install and build and this is the whole output of the build:

SLF4J(W): Class path contains multiple SLF4J providers.
SLF4J(W): Found provider [ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.LogbackServiceProvider@6ebc05a6]
SLF4J(W): Found provider [org.neo4j.server.logging.slf4j.SLF4JLogBridge@6e6c3152]
SLF4J(W): See https://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#multiple_bindings for an explanation.
SLF4J(I): Actual provider is of type [ch.qos.logback.classic.spi.LogbackServiceProvider@6ebc05a6]
JBake v5.0.0-rc1 (2025-12-03 13:04:17[GMT+01:00] 6e2b296#) [http://jbake.org]

13:03:51.197 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.GroovyMarkupTemplateEngine for extensions: [tpl]
13:03:51.322 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.PebbleTemplateEngine for extensions: [pebble, peb]
13:03:51.344 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.FreemarkerTemplateEngine for extensions: [ftl]
13:03:51.387 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.PugTemplateEngine for extensions: [pug]
13:03:51.419 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.GroovyTemplateEngine for extensions: [groovy, gsp, gxml]
13:03:51.420 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.ThymeleafTemplateEngine for extensions: [thyme, html]
13:03:51.573 INFO  org.jbake.template.TemplateEngines - Registering template engine: org.jbake.template.JadeTemplateEngine for extensions: [jade]
13:03:51.596 INFO  org.jbake.app.Oven - Baking has started at 1764767031595. Starting ContentStore...
13:03:51.707 INFO  o.j.template.ModelExtractorsRegistry - register new extractors for document type: masterindex
13:03:51.708 INFO  o.j.template.ModelExtractorsRegistry - register new extractors for document type: error404
13:03:51.708 INFO  o.j.template.ModelExtractorsRegistry - register new extractors for document type: tagsindex
13:03:51.708 INFO  o.j.template.ModelExtractorsRegistry - register new extractors for document type: sitemap
13:03:51.708 INFO  o.j.template.ModelExtractorsRegistry - register new extractors for document type: data
13:03:51.725 INFO  org.jbake.app.Crawler - NEW:     /home/tglman/projects/orientdb/user_tests/jbake_test/content/about.html
13:03:51.742 INFO  org.jbake.app.Crawler - NEW:     /home/tglman/projects/orientdb/user_tests/jbake_test/content/blog/2013/fifth-post.adoc
13:03:51.748 INFO  org.jbake.parser.AsciidoctorEngine - Initializing Asciidoctor engine...
13:03:53.452 INFO  org.jbake.parser.AsciidoctorEngine - Asciidoctor engine initialized.
13:03:53.566 ERROR Main.kt - JsonIOException: An unexpected error occurred: Failed making field 'java.nio.charset.Charset#name' accessible; either increase its visibility or write a custom TypeAdapter for its declaring type.
See https://github.com/google/gson/blob/main/Troubleshooting.md#reflection-inaccessible

I'm running on java:

openjdk version "17.0.17" 2025-10-21
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 17.0.17+10-Debian-1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.17+10-Debian-1, mixed mode, sharing)

maybe I need a bit more complex environment to reproduce the error ?

Bye

[tglman]

One additional information, OrientDB produce this error: Error during record serialization: Error on serialization of Serializable only in one specific case, that is when a property of an OrientDB document in not of one of the basic supported OrientDB types, and it try to serialize it as a "serializable" object, the OrientDB supported types are literal types + String + Set+List+Map + ODocument, it may be that a document is receiving one value that is not one of this, also I see that you are updating a lot of library, it may be also that now a library is using a collection type that is not supported by OrientDB.

If you find a way to increase the logging and getting the stacktrace I think will be quite easy to identify what type is getting sent to OrientDB and where.

[tglman]

for reference here an recent build: https://github.com/orientechnologies/orientdb/actions/runs/19927724679 that run test successfully up to jdk 21

[OndraZizka]

Thanks for looking into this. Hopefully I will have some time to investigate further during Christmas.

[tglman]

Hi,

To help a bit more, the error that you see happen only here: https://github.com/orientechnologies/orientdb/blob/3.2.47/core/src/main/java/com/orientechnologies/orient/core/serialization/serializer/record/binary/OSerializableWrapper.java#L33 so if you can debug if you add a break-point there you will be able to figure out what is the value that is causing the error and where it comes from