The Universe of Discourse

Worst error messages this month
This month's winner is:

Line 319 in XML document from class path resource
[applicationContext-standalone.xml] is invalid; nested exception is
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: cvc-complex-type.2.3: Element 'beans'
cannot have character [children], because the type's content type is
element-only.

What this actually means is that there is a stray plus sign at the end of line 54.

Well, that is the ultimate cause. The Fregean Bedeutung, as it were.

What it really means (the Sinn) is that the <beans>...</beans> element is allowed to contain sub-elements, but not naked text ("content type is element-only") and the stray plus sign is naked text.

The mixture of weird jargon ("cvc-complex-type.2.3") and obscure anaphora ("character [children]" for "plus sign") got this message nominated for the competition. The totally wrong line number is a bonus. But what won this message the prize is that even if you somehow understand what it means, it doesn't help you find the actual problem! You get to grovel over the 319-line XML file line-by-line, looking for the extra character.

Come on, folks, it's a SAX parser, so how hard is it to complain about the plus sign as soon as it shows up?

You'll be flown to lovely Centralia, Pennsylvania, where you'll enjoy four days and three nights of solitude in an abandoned coal mine being flogged with holly branches and CAT-5 ethernet cable by the cast of "The Hills"!

  % badblocks /home
  badblocks: invalid starting block (0): must be less than 0

Happy spring, everyone!

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