Maven plugin error on Windows when JAVA_HOME path contains spaces

The gatling-maven-plugin fails with an error on Windows, when the JAVA_HOME path contains a space. The problem seems to be that the plugin cannot find the java executable.

We see this problem when running the plugin with the following conditions:

• Windows 7
• JDK 1.8.0_121
• Maven 3.3.9
• Gatling 2.2.4
• gatling-maven-plugin 2.2.4
• JDK installed at the default location: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_121
• JAVA_HOME env variable set to: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_121

The problem seems to depend on the Windows version. In particular, we have seen this happen on Windows 7; but we could not reproduce this on Windows 10, where everything works just fine.

We first observed this on a project we are working on, but we were able to reproduce the problem with the demo application (https://github.com/gatling/gatling-maven-plugin-demo). We simply cloned the demo project, and run mvn gatling:execute without any modification to the project code, and the problem appeared.

This is the full error with stacktrace:

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal io.gatling:gatling-maven-plugin:2.2.4:execute (default-cli) on project test: Gatling failed. Cannot run program “C:\Progra~1\Java\jdk1.8.0_121\bin\java" (in directory "."): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified -> [Help 1]
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal io.gatling:gatling-maven-plugin:2.2.4:execute (default-cli) on project matchboxPerformanceTesting: Gatling failed.
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:212)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:153)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:145)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:116)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleModuleBuilder.buildProject(LifecycleModuleBuilder.java:80)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder.build(SingleThreadedBuilder.java:51)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.LifecycleStarter.execute(LifecycleStarter.java:128)
        at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:307)
        at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:193)
        at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:106)
        at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.execute(MavenCli.java:863)
        at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.doMain(MavenCli.java:288)
        at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:199)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:289)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:229)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:415)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:356)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException: Gatling failed.
        at io.gatling.mojo.GatlingMojo.execute(GatlingMojo.java:219)
        at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultBuildPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultBuildPluginManager.java:134)
        at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.MojoExecutor.execute(MojoExecutor.java:207)
        ... 20 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "C:\Progra~1\Java\jdk1.8.0_121\bin\java" (in directory "."): CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
        at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.commons.exec.launcher.Java13CommandLauncher.exec(Java13CommandLauncher.java:58)
        at org.apache.commons.exec.DefaultExecutor.launch(DefaultExecutor.java:277)
        at org.apache.commons.exec.DefaultExecutor.executeInternal(DefaultExecutor.java:334)
        at org.apache.commons.exec.DefaultExecutor.execute(DefaultExecutor.java:164)
        at org.apache.commons.exec.DefaultExecutor.execute(DefaultExecutor.java:151)
        at io.gatling.mojo.Fork.run(Fork.java:120)
        at io.gatling.mojo.GatlingMojo.executeGatling(GatlingMojo.java:274)
        at io.gatling.mojo.GatlingMojo.iterateBySimulations(GatlingMojo.java:236)
        at io.gatling.mojo.GatlingMojo.execute(GatlingMojo.java:214)
        ... 22 more
Caused by: java.io.IOException: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified
        at java.lang.ProcessImpl.create(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ProcessImpl.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(Unknown Source)
        ... 33 more
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoExecutionException

Thanks.

[mdarke]

To get around this issue with white space in JAVA_HOME path, I created a symbolic link called Program-Files and used it in the JAVA_HOME variable. c:>mklink /J c:\Program-Files “c:\Program Files” https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

[slandelle]

No it’s not. This issue was because of the white space in the full name, before we were trying to use the short name instead.