Documentation update regarding aspectjrt and aspectjweaver jars usage [SPR-8896]

[spring-projects-issues]

Andrei Stefan opened SPR-8896 and commented

In this section of the Spring Framework reference documentation it is mentioned that both aspectjrt.jar and aspectjweaver.jar files should be present in the classpath in case @AspectJ support needs to be enabled in the project. Also, it is mentioned where is the location of those jars within the Spring distribution.

I believe there are two small issues with that respective section of the documentation:

• the two jars are not available anymore with a Spring distribution
• the classes and package structure in aspectjrt.jar form a subset of the classes that can be found in aspectjweaver.jar. Using both at the same time doesn't seem to be actually required.

---

Affects: 2.5.6, 3.0.6, 3.1 RC2

Sub-tasks:

• Backport "Documentation update regarding aspectjrt and aspectjweaver jars usage" [SPR-10009] #14643 Backport "Documentation update regarding aspectjrt and aspectjweaver jars usage"

Issue Links:

• Chapter 7.2.1 of the ref manual still refers to the Spring-with-dependencies distribution [SPR-7788] #12444 Chapter 7.2.1 of the ref manual still refers to the Spring-with-dependencies distribution ("duplicates")

[spring-projects-issues]

Andrei Stefan commented

Chris, #12444 refers only to the name of the distribution that contains those jars.
In my description I'm, also, pointing out a second possible problem: why both aspectjrt and aspectjweaver jars are needed in the classpath since aspectjrt is a subset of aspectjweaver?

Thanks.

[spring-projects-issues]

Chris Beams commented

Thanks Andrei, Andy.

commit e173ffe0f8a7e226569f23835570273fe22aaae1 (HEAD, trunk, master)
Author: Chris Beams <cbeams@vmware.com>
Date:   Thu Dec 8 13:46:47 2011 +0000

    Remove unnecessary mentions of aspectjrt/aspectjweaver
    
    aspectjrt is a subset of aspectjweaver. Eliminate mentions of aspectjrt
    where aspectjweaver is already necessary (e.g. LTW), and do not mention
    aspectjweaver where only aspectrt is required (e.g. @Aspect proxying)
    
    Also bump required version of aspect* libs from 1.5 to 1.6.8, reflecting
    OSGi and pom metadata.
    
    Issue: SPR-8896
    
    git-svn-id: https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-framework/trunk@5312 50f2f4bb-b051-0410-bef5-90022cba6387

diff --git spring-framework-reference/src/aop.xml spring-framework-reference/src/aop.xml
index 69d3802..8cddb12 100644
--- spring-framework-reference/src/aop.xml
+++ spring-framework-reference/src/aop.xml
@@ -343,12 +343,11 @@
 
       <programlisting language="xml">&lt;bean class="org.springframework.aop.aspectj.annotation.AnnotationAwareAspectJAutoProxyCreator" /&gt;</programlisting>
 
-      <para>You will also need two AspectJ libraries on the classpath of your
-      application: <filename class="libraryfile">aspectjweaver.jar</filename>
-      and <filename class="libraryfile">aspectjrt.jar</filename>, version 1.6.8
-      or later required. These libraries are available in the <filename
-      class="directory">'lib'</filename> directory of an AspectJ distribution
-      or via the Maven Central repository.</para>
+      <para>You will also need AspectJ's
+      <filename class="libraryfile">aspectjrt.jar</filename> library on the
+      classpath of your application, version 1.6.8 or later. This library is
+      available in the <filename class="directory">'lib'</filename> directory
+      of an AspectJ distribution or via the Maven Central repository.</para>
     </section>
 
     <section id="aop-at-aspectj">
@@ -3432,13 +3431,8 @@ public final class Main {
           </listitem>
 
           <listitem>
-            <para><filename class="libraryfile">aspectjrt.jar</filename>
-            (version 1.5 or later)</para>
-          </listitem>
-
-          <listitem>
             <para><filename class="libraryfile">aspectjweaver.jar</filename>
-            (version 1.5 or later)</para>
+            (version 1.6.8 or later)</para>
           </listitem>
         </orderedlist>
 

[spring-projects-issues]

Mark Janssen commented

There is a mistake in the documentation update (see above diff): the top section mentions only aspectjrt.jar should be used, while the bottom section refers to aspectjweaver.jar. Both should be aspectjweaver.jar since, as Andrei Stefan mentioned, rt is a subset of weaver. Without the weaver jar aspects do not work.

[spring-projects-issues]

Phil Webb commented

Good catch Mark, thanks.

commit d70762baafd77d0528c1deadf70ed59ae40a2f45
Author: Phillip Webb <pwebb@vmware.com>
Commit: Phillip Webb <pwebb@vmware.com>

    Replace reference to aspectjrt with aspectjweaver
    
    Replace reference to aspectjrt.jar with aspectjweaver.jar since
    aspectjrt is a subset of aspectjweaver and the full jar is required
    by Spring.
    
    Issue: SPR-8896