elastic/elasticsearch · error · GradleException

Error parsing xml report ${xmlReportFileAbsolutePath}

Error message

Error parsing xml report ${xmlReportFileAbsolutePath}

What it means

After generating the RAT XML report, unapprovedFiles parses it with a secured DocumentBuilderFactory to list resources whose license-approval is false. If the parse fails (SAXException, IOException, or ParserConfigurationException) this GradleException is thrown. Notably the original exception is not attached as a cause, which makes diagnosis harder.

Source

Thrown at build-conventions/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gradle/internal/conventions/precommit/LicenseHeadersTask.java:337

        writer.close();
        return stats;
    }

    private static List<String> unapprovedFiles(File xmlReportFile) {
        try {
            NodeList resourcesNodes = createXmlDocumentBuilderFactory().newDocumentBuilder()
                .parse(xmlReportFile)
                .getElementsByTagName("resource");
            return elementList(resourcesNodes).stream()
                .filter(
                    resource -> elementList(resource.getChildNodes()).stream()
                        .anyMatch(n -> n.getTagName().equals("license-approval") && n.getAttribute("name").equals("false"))
                )
                .map(e -> e.getAttribute("name"))
                .sorted()
                .collect(Collectors.toList());
        } catch (SAXException | IOException | ParserConfigurationException e) {
            throw new GradleException("Error parsing xml report " + xmlReportFile.getAbsolutePath());
        }
    }

    private static DocumentBuilderFactory createXmlDocumentBuilderFactory() throws ParserConfigurationException {
        final DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        dbf.setXIncludeAware(false);
        dbf.setIgnoringComments(true);
        dbf.setExpandEntityReferences(false);
        dbf.setAttribute(XMLConstants.ACCESS_EXTERNAL_DTD, "");
        dbf.setAttribute(XMLConstants.ACCESS_EXTERNAL_SCHEMA, "");
        dbf.setFeature(XMLConstants.FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING, true);
        dbf.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/disallow-doctype-decl", true);
        dbf.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities", false);
        dbf.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/external-parameter-entities", false);
        dbf.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-external-dtd", false);
        return dbf;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to db6a809a66)

Solutions

1. Open the report file at the printed path and check it is well-formed XML.
2. Delete the report and rerun with `--rerun-tasks` to regenerate it cleanly.
3. If ParserConfigurationException, check the JDK vendor/version supports disallow-doctype-decl and FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING.
4. Free disk space if the file is truncated.

Example fix

// before: truncated report from a previous failed run
rm build/reports/licenseHeaders/rat.xml && ./gradlew licenseHeaders --rerun-tasks

File xml = reportFile.getAsFile().get();
if (!xml.isFile() || xml.length() == 0) {
    throw new GradleException("RAT XML report missing or empty: " + xml);
}
// Optionally validate well-formedness before parsing
DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = createXmlDocumentBuilderFactory();
dbf.newDocumentBuilder().parse(xml);

try {
    return unapprovedFiles(xmlReportFile);
} catch (GradleException e) {
    // The wrapper drops the cause; re-open the file to diagnose
    if (!xmlReportFile.isFile()) { throw new GradleException("Report vanished: " + xmlReportFile); }
    throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The XML report file is empty, truncated, or malformed when DocumentBuilder.parse runs; the JAXP configuration rejects the secured features (ParserConfigurationException); the report file was deleted between generation and parsing.

Common situations: A previous generateReport wrote a partial/corrupt file (disk full, interrupted); an XML parser feature unsupported by the runtime JDK; the reportFile was concurrently modified; antivirus quarantined the XML.

Related errors

• Cannot generate license header report for ${path}
• Cannot read ${f} to check for duplicate license headers
• Failed to write keywords report
• License category name must be exactly 5 characters, got ${ca
• Classes from a previous version have been modified, violatin

AI-assisted analysis of elastic/elasticsearch@db6a809a66 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b6e74d9175c4de9. Report an issue: GitHub.