Armed with more information on Drizzle JDBC being a JDBC 4.0 implementation (helps to explain my issues in Getting started with Drizzle JDBC) I took the time to read about some other new JDBC 4.0 features.

There was reference to handling chained exceptions, however when trying to get this working for SQLException was more complex on Ubuntu 9.04 then I anticipated.

My first problem was an apparent source level problem.

$ javac ExampleDrizzle.java
----------
1. ERROR in ExampleDrizzle.java (at line 14)
	for(Throwable e : sx ) {
	    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Syntax error, 'for each' statements are only available if source level is 1.5

That’s weird, what java version was I running now I’d changed with update-alternatives –config java yesterday.

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_16"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_16-b01)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.2-b01, mixed mode)

No issues here, a quick man reference gives me:

-1.5                    set compliance level to 1.5

I try that, and well that fixes one problem, but creates another.

$ javac -1.5 ExampleDrizzle.java
----------
1. ERROR in ExampleDrizzle.java (at line 14)
	for(Throwable e : sx ) {
	                  ^^
Can only iterate over an array or an instance of java.lang.Iterable

Now Class SQLException 1.6 javadocs shows SQLException as implementing the generics Iterable<Throwable>, while 1.5 javadoc does not. I guess I need to use 1.6 then.

$ javac -1.6 ExampleDrizzle.java
Annotation processing got disabled, since it requires a 1.6 compliant JVM
----------
1. ERROR in ExampleDrizzle.java (at line 14)
	for(Throwable e : sx ) {
	                  ^^
Can only iterate over an array or an instance of java.lang.Iterable

Wait a minute, I’m using a 1.6 compliant JVM. Double checking

$ ls -al /etc/alternatives/java*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 36 2009-09-17 18:53 /etc/alternatives/java -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 2009-09-17 18:53 /etc/alternatives/java.1.gz -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/man/man1/java.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 2009-09-17 17:50 /etc/alternatives/javac -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/bin/javac
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 41 2009-09-17 17:50 /etc/alternatives/javac.1.gz -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/man/man1/javac.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 2009-09-17 17:50 /etc/alternatives/javadoc -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/bin/javadoc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 43 2009-09-17 17:50 /etc/alternatives/javadoc.1.gz -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/man/man1/javadoc.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31 2009-09-17 17:50 /etc/alternatives/javah -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/bin/javah
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 41 2009-09-17 17:50 /etc/alternatives/javah.1.gz -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/man/man1/javah.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 2009-09-11 10:06 /etc/alternatives/javap -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/bin/javap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 43 2009-09-11 10:06 /etc/alternatives/javap.1.gz -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/man/man1/javap.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 39 2009-09-11 10:06 /etc/alternatives/java_vm -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java_vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 38 2009-09-11 10:06 /etc/alternatives/javaws -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/javaws
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2009-09-11 10:06 /etc/alternatives/javaws.1.gz -> /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/man/man1/javaws.1.gz

javac is not using Sun Java 6. I have no idea how that happened, but it explains now the problem, should be checking javac version, not java version.

$ javac -version
Eclipse Java Compiler 0.894_R34x, 3.4.2 release, Copyright IBM Corp 2000, 2008. All rights reserved.

What the? I was writing Java code on this server by hand, but decided last night to install eclipse after the fact. Did this affect this. I’m not certain whether I installed eclipse before or after my work last night.

I try to change the alternatives again.

$ sudo update-alternatives --config java

There are 4 alternatives which provide `java'.

  Selection    Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
*         1    /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java
          2    /usr/bin/gij-4.3
          3    /usr/bin/gij-4.2
 +        4    /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 1
Using '/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java' to provide 'java'.

$ javac -version
Eclipse Java Compiler 0.894_R34x, 3.4.2 release, Copyright IBM Corp 2000, 2008. All rights reserved.

That doesn’t work. One needs to know that java and javac operate independently.

$ sudo update-alternatives --config javac

There are 4 alternatives which provide `javac'.

  Selection    Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
          1    /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/bin/javac
          2    /usr/bin/ecj
          3    /usr/bin/gcj-wrapper-4.3
*+        4    /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/bin/javac

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 1
Using '/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/bin/javac' to provide 'javac'.
$ javac -version
javac 1.6.0_16

$ javac ExampleDrizzle.java

Buyer beware with Ubuntu and it’s rather messed up implementation approach toward alternative java JVM’s.