What causes " " in GoogleContainerTools/jib?

Inspect the 'Caused by' exception in the Maven output to find the real root cause and address it specifically.

GoogleContainerTools/jib · error · MojoExecutionException

<message from BuildStepsExecutionException>

Error message

<message from BuildStepsExecutionException>

What it means

The core Jib build steps (building and exporting the image to the Docker daemon) failed. BuildDockerMojo.execute() catches BuildStepsExecutionException and rethrows its message as a MojoExecutionException, using ex.getCause() as the root cause — so the interesting underlying error is in the 'Caused by' chain, not the top-line message.

Source

Thrown at jib-maven-plugin/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/tools/jib/maven/BuildDockerMojo.java:167

    } catch (IncompatibleBaseImageJavaVersionException ex) {
      throw new MojoExecutionException(
          HelpfulSuggestions.forIncompatibleBaseImageJavaVersionForMaven(
              ex.getBaseImageMajorJavaVersion(), ex.getProjectMajorJavaVersion()),
          ex);

    } catch (InvalidImageReferenceException ex) {
      throw new MojoExecutionException(
          HelpfulSuggestions.forInvalidImageReference(ex.getInvalidReference()), ex);

    } catch (IOException
        | CacheDirectoryCreationException
        | MainClassInferenceException
        | InvalidGlobalConfigException ex) {
      throw new MojoExecutionException(ex.getMessage(), ex);

    } catch (BuildStepsExecutionException ex) {
      throw new MojoExecutionException(ex.getMessage(), ex.getCause());

    } catch (ExtraDirectoryNotFoundException ex) {
      throw new MojoExecutionException(
          "<extraDirectories><paths> contain \"from\" directory that doesn't exist locally: "
              + ex.getPath(),
          ex);
    } finally {
      tempDirectoryProvider.close();
      MojoCommon.finishUpdateChecker(projectProperties, updateCheckFuture);
      projectProperties.waitForLoggingThread();
      getLog().info("");
    }
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to fb949e2676)

Solutions

Inspect the 'Caused by' exception in the Maven output to find the real root cause and address it specifically.
If the cause is daemon-related, verify Docker is installed and running (docker info) — jib:dockerBuild requires a reachable daemon.
Re-run after fixing credentials/network issues; for cache corruption delete the Jib cache directory (default ~/.cache/google-cloud-tools-java/jib or target/jib-cache).
Run with -X (mvn -X jib:dockerBuild) for full stack traces when the cause chain is unclear.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// Pre-flight: docker info || echo 'Docker daemon not reachable'
// and: mvn -q jib:dockerBuild -Djib.skip=false --dry-run scenarios in CI

Try / catch

try {
  mvn jib:dockerBuild
} catch (MojoExecutionException e) {
  Throwable root = e; while (root.getCause() != null) root = root.getCause();
  // inspect root (e.g. registry auth, network) and retry transient failures
}

Prevention

Ensure the Docker daemon is running before jib:dockerBuild in local and CI environments.
Always read the 'Caused by' chain — the top message is only the wrapper.
Configure registry credentials in settings.xml ahead of the build.
Retry transient network/registry failures rather than assuming a config bug.

When it happens

Trigger: Any failure during the dockerBuild runBuild() pipeline: registry authentication failures pulling the base image, network errors, layer cache problems, or export errors writing to the Docker daemon — anything that makes BuildStepsRunner throw BuildStepsExecutionException.

Common situations: Docker daemon stopped or unreachable while jib:dockerBuild runs; wrong registry credentials in settings.xml; transient network failure pulling the base image; corrupted local Jib cache.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/jib@fb949e2676 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ba82ed4c8a80c1f1. Report an issue: GitHub.