Bug#649476: fop: Fails to build publican's user guide with org.apache.fop.apps.FOPException java.lang.NullPointerException

[Raphaël Hertzog]

Package: fop
Version: 1:1.0.dfsg2-3
Severity: important

publican 2.8 (that I just uploaded to unstable) has a test suite and fop is
called as part of this test suite since it's the tool used to generate
the PDF output. But fop fails with this highly unhelpful error message:
Exception
org.apache.fop.apps.FOPException
java.lang.NullPointerException

It works fine with the manual in the version 2.5. I'm not sure what is
the change that fop does not like. I disabled the test suite for now but
it would be nice to see fop fixed instead. :)

A bit more context in the build log gives this:

Making portrait pages on A4 paper (210mmx297mm)
No "en" localization of "other" exists.
[warning] /usr/bin/fop: Unable to locate servlet-api in /usr/share/java
Couldn't find hyphenation pattern en
Invalid property value encountered in keep-together.within-column="": org.apache.fop.fo.expr.PropertyException: file:/«PKGBUILDDIR»/Users_Guide/build/en-US/xml/Users_Guide.fo:413:27: No conversion defined ; property:'keep-together.within-column' (See position 413:399)
Invalid property value encountered in keep-together.within-column="": org.apache.fop.fo.expr.PropertyException: file:/«PKGBUILDDIR»/Users_Guide/build/en-US/xml/Users_Guide.fo:486:27: No conversion defined ; property:'keep-together.within-column' (See position 486:399)
Invalid property value encountered in keep-together.within-column="": org.apache.fop.fo.expr.PropertyException: file:/«PKGBUILDDIR»/Users_Guide/build/en-US/xml/Users_Guide.fo:534:27: No conversion defined ; property:'keep-together.within-column' (See position 534:399)
Invalid property value encountered in keep-together.within-column="": org.apache.fop.fo.expr.PropertyException: file:/«PKGBUILDDIR»/Users_Guide/build/en-US/xml/Users_Guide.fo:806:24: No conversion defined ; property:'keep-together.within-column' (See position 806:396)
Invalid property value encountered in keep-together.within-column="": org.apache.fop.fo.expr.PropertyException: file:/«PKGBUILDDIR»/Users_Guide/build/en-US/xml/Users_Guide.fo:1288:88: No conversion defined ; property:'keep-together.within-column' (See position 1288:461)
Invalid property value encountered in keep-together.within-column="": org.apache.fop.fo.expr.PropertyException: file:/«PKGBUILDDIR»/Users_Guide/build/en-US/xml/Users_Guide.fo:1320:955: No conversion defined ; property:'keep-together.within-column' (See position 1320:1327)
Exception
org.apache.fop.apps.FOPException
java.lang.NullPointerException


FOP error, PDF generation failed. Check log for details.
 at /«PKGBUILDDIR»/blib/script/publican line 763
# 
# result 5 = 512

#   Failed test 'build the Users Guide in all formats'
#   at t/910.publican.Users_Guide.t line 69.
#          got: '512'
#     expected: '0'
# Looks like you failed 1 test of 5.
t/910.publican.Users_Guide.t .. 
Dubious, test returned 1 (wstat 256, 0x100)
Failed 1/5 subtests 
t/perlcritic.t ................ ok
t/pod-coverage.t .............. ok
t/pod.t ....................... ok
Failed 1/10 test programs. 1/68 subtests failed.




-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'proposed-updates'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (150, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.1.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.utf8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages fop depends on:
ii  default-jre-headless [java2-runtime-headless]    1:1.6-43    
ii  gcj-4.6-jre-headless [java2-runtime-headless]    4.6.2-2     
ii  gcj-jre-headless [java2-runtime-headless]        4:4.6.1-3   
ii  java-wrappers                                    0.1.24      
ii  libavalon-framework-java                         4.2.0-8     
ii  libbatik-java                                    1.7-8       
ii  libbsf-java                                      1:2.4.0-4   
ii  libcommons-io-java                               1.4-4       
ii  libcommons-logging-java                          1.1.1-8     
ii  libxalan2-java                                   2.7.1-5     
ii  libxerces2-java                                  2.11.0-3    
ii  libxml-commons-external-java                     1.4.01-2    
ii  libxmlgraphics-commons-java                      1.4.dfsg-3  
ii  libxt6                                           1:1.1.1-2   
ii  libxtst6                                         2:1.2.0-4   
ii  openjdk-6-jre-headless [java2-runtime-headless]  6b23~pre11-1
ii  sun-java6-jre [java2-runtime-headless]           6.26-3      

Versions of packages fop recommends:
ii  libsaxon-java  1:6.5.5-7

Versions of packages fop suggests:
pn  fop-doc             <none>
pn  libservlet2.4-java  <none>

-- no debconf information