Delaying error reporting by setting classes to be runtime initialized may result in misleading errors

[zakkak]

Describe the issue
Setting classes marked for build time initialization to be initialized at runtime in order to delay error reporting in an effort to catch as many errors as possible may result in reporting misleading ParsingErrors.

The change happens in

graal/substratevm/src/com.oracle.svm.hosted/src/com/oracle/svm/hosted/classinitialization/ClassInitializationSupport.java

Line 198 in ebaa529

return InitKind.RUN_TIME;

Steps to reproduce the issue

cd /tmp
git clone --branch 2023-04-05-delayed-error-reporting-causing-issues https://github.com/zakkak/issue-reproducers reproducers
cd reproducers
mvn package
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jvms/graalvm-ce-java17-22.3.1
$JAVA_HOME/bin/native-image --initialize-at-build-time=. \
  --no-fallback -H:+ReportExceptionStackTraces \
  -jar target/reproducer-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

Describe GraalVM and your environment:

• GraalVM version: ebaa529
• JDK major version: 20
• OS: Fedora 37
• Architecture: AMD64

More details

When running the above reproducer we get the following exception:

Fatal error: com.oracle.graal.pointsto.util.AnalysisError$ParsingError: Error encountered while parsing Main.<clinit>(Main.java:4) 
Parsing context:
   at static root method.(Unknown Source)

	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.util.AnalysisError.parsingError(AnalysisError.java:149)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.MethodTypeFlow.createFlowsGraph(MethodTypeFlow.java:185)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.MethodTypeFlow.ensureFlowsGraphCreated(MethodTypeFlow.java:154)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.MethodTypeFlow.getOrCreateMethodFlowsGraphInfo(MethodTypeFlow.java:112)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.typestate.DefaultAnalysisPolicy.staticRootMethodGraph(DefaultAnalysisPolicy.java:199)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.PointsToAnalysis.lambda$addRootMethod$0(PointsToAnalysis.java:316)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.PointsToAnalysis$2.run(PointsToAnalysis.java:494)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.util.CompletionExecutor.executeCommand(CompletionExecutor.java:187)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.util.CompletionExecutor.lambda$executeService$0(CompletionExecutor.java:171)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask$RunnableExecuteAction.exec(ForkJoinTask.java:1423)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:387)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec(ForkJoinPool.java:1312)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan(ForkJoinPool.java:1843)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1808)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:188)
Caused by: org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser$BytecodeParserError: java.lang.InternalError: com.oracle.graal.pointsto.constraints.UnresolvedElementException: Error loading a referenced type: com.oracle.svm.hosted.substitute.DeletedElementException: Unsupported method Main.dontCallMe() is reachable
To diagnose the issue, you can add the option --report-unsupported-elements-at-runtime. The unsupported element is then reported at run time when it is accessed the first time.
	at parsing Main.<clinit>(Main.java:4)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.throwParserError(BytecodeParser.java:2538)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.builder/com.oracle.svm.hosted.phases.SharedGraphBuilderPhase$SharedBytecodeParser.throwParserError(SharedGraphBuilderPhase.java:173)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.iterateBytecodesForBlock(BytecodeParser.java:3416)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.builder/com.oracle.svm.hosted.phases.SharedGraphBuilderPhase$SharedBytecodeParser.iterateBytecodesForBlock(SharedGraphBuilderPhase.java:716)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.handleBytecodeBlock(BytecodeParser.java:3368)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.processBlock(BytecodeParser.java:3210)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.build(BytecodeParser.java:1136)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.builder/com.oracle.svm.hosted.phases.SharedGraphBuilderPhase$SharedBytecodeParser.build(SharedGraphBuilderPhase.java:153)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.buildRootMethod(BytecodeParser.java:1028)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.GraphBuilderPhase$Instance.run(GraphBuilderPhase.java:97)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.builder/com.oracle.svm.hosted.phases.SharedGraphBuilderPhase.run(SharedGraphBuilderPhase.java:115)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.phases.Phase.run(Phase.java:49)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.phases.BasePhase.apply(BasePhase.java:434)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.phases.Phase.apply(Phase.java:42)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.phases.Phase.apply(Phase.java:38)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.AnalysisParsedGraph.parseBytecode(AnalysisParsedGraph.java:146)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.meta.AnalysisMethod.parseGraph(AnalysisMethod.java:821)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.meta.AnalysisMethod.ensureGraphParsedHelper(AnalysisMethod.java:786)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.meta.AnalysisMethod.ensureGraphParsed(AnalysisMethod.java:769)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.MethodTypeFlowBuilder.parse(MethodTypeFlowBuilder.java:185)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.MethodTypeFlowBuilder.apply(MethodTypeFlowBuilder.java:586)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.flow.MethodTypeFlow.createFlowsGraph(MethodTypeFlow.java:168)
	... 13 more
Caused by: java.lang.InternalError: com.oracle.graal.pointsto.constraints.UnresolvedElementException: Error loading a referenced type: com.oracle.svm.hosted.substitute.DeletedElementException: Unsupported method Main.dontCallMe() is reachable
To diagnose the issue, you can add the option --report-unsupported-elements-at-runtime. The unsupported element is then reported at run time when it is accessed the first time.
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.serviceprovider.GraalServices.lookupMethodWithCaller(GraalServices.java:561)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.lookupMethodInPool(BytecodeParser.java:4246)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.builder/com.oracle.svm.hosted.phases.SharedGraphBuilderPhase$SharedBytecodeParser.lookupMethodInPool(SharedGraphBuilderPhase.java:201)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.lookupMethod(BytecodeParser.java:4238)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.genInvokeStatic(BytecodeParser.java:1654)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.processBytecode(BytecodeParser.java:5333)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.java.BytecodeParser.iterateBytecodesForBlock(BytecodeParser.java:3408)
	... 32 more
Caused by: com.oracle.graal.pointsto.constraints.UnresolvedElementException: Error loading a referenced type: com.oracle.svm.hosted.substitute.DeletedElementException: Unsupported method Main.dontCallMe() is reachable
To diagnose the issue, you can add the option --report-unsupported-elements-at-runtime. The unsupported element is then reported at run time when it is accessed the first time.
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.infrastructure.WrappedConstantPool.lookupMethod(WrappedConstantPool.java:149)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DirectMethodHandleAccessor.invoke(DirectMethodHandleAccessor.java:104)
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:578)
	at jdk.internal.vm.compiler/org.graalvm.compiler.serviceprovider.GraalServices.lookupMethodWithCaller(GraalServices.java:554)
	... 38 more
Caused by: com.oracle.svm.hosted.substitute.DeletedElementException: Unsupported method Main.dontCallMe() is reachable
To diagnose the issue, you can add the option --report-unsupported-elements-at-runtime. The unsupported element is then reported at run time when it is accessed the first time.
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.builder/com.oracle.svm.hosted.substitute.AnnotationSubstitutionProcessor.lookup(AnnotationSubstitutionProcessor.java:272)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.infrastructure.SubstitutionProcessor$ChainedSubstitutionProcessor.lookup(SubstitutionProcessor.java:140)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.infrastructure.SubstitutionProcessor$ChainedSubstitutionProcessor.lookup(SubstitutionProcessor.java:140)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.meta.AnalysisUniverse.lookupAllowUnresolved(AnalysisUniverse.java:438)
	at org.graalvm.nativeimage.pointsto/com.oracle.graal.pointsto.infrastructure.WrappedConstantPool.lookupMethod(WrappedConstantPool.java:141)
	... 41 more

Which informs us that a method, which we have marked for deletion, is reachable at runtime. However, that's not actually true as we only invoke this method from the static initializer of Main which we want to initialize at build time.

To make matters worse, GraalVM not only reports the above misleading error, it also doesn't report the original error that led us here.