improve UnsupportedClassVersionError error message

[tam512]

Test Liberty InstantOn 25.0.0.1 Java11 with sessionCache-1.0 on OCP and use RedHat Data Grid operator version 8.5.4. I got the following error when deploy the application image to OCP:

[1/31/25, 0:17:33:849 UTC] 00000037 io.openliberty.jcache.internal.CachingProviderService        E CWLJC0004E: The cacheManager[CacheManager]//io.openliberty.jcache.cachingprovider(cachingProvider)[default-0] caching provider failed to load. java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: JVMCFRE199E bad major version 61.0 of class=org/infinispan/jcache/remote/JCachingProvider, the maximum supported major version is 55.0; offset=6
	at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method)
	at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:467)
	at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:428)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.definePackageAndClass(AppClassLoader.java:435)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findClass(AppClassLoader.java:333)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.findOrDelegateLoadClass(AppClassLoader.java:705)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.AppClassLoader.loadClass(AppClassLoader.java:584)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.LibertyLoader.loadClassNoException(LibertyLoader.java:53)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.UnifiedClassLoader.findClass(UnifiedClassLoader.java:151)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.UnifiedClassLoader.loadClass0(UnifiedClassLoader.java:141)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.UnifiedClassLoader$Delegation.loadClass(UnifiedClassLoader.java:87)
	at com.ibm.ws.classloading.internal.UnifiedClassLoader.loadClass(UnifiedClassLoader.java:106)
	at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassHelper(ClassLoader.java:1165)
	at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:1092)
	at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:1075)
	at java.base/java.lang.Class.forNameImpl(Native Method)
	at java.base/java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:418)
	at java.base/java.util.ServiceLoader$LazyClassPathLookupIterator.nextProviderClass(ServiceLoader.java:1224)
	at java.base/java.util.ServiceLoader$LazyClassPathLookupIterator.hasNextService(ServiceLoader.java:1235)
	at java.base/java.util.ServiceLoader$LazyClassPathLookupIterator.hasNext(ServiceLoader.java:1284)
	at java.base/java.util.ServiceLoader$2.hasNext(ServiceLoader.java:1319)
	at java.base/java.util.ServiceLoader$3.hasNext(ServiceLoader.java:1404)
	at javax.cache.Caching$CachingProviderRegistry$1.run(Caching.java:448)
	at javax.cache.Caching$CachingProviderRegistry$1.run(Caching.java:442)
	at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:690)
	at javax.cache.Caching$CachingProviderRegistry.getCachingProviders(Caching.java:442)
	at javax.cache.Caching$CachingProviderRegistry.getCachingProvider(Caching.java:529)
	at javax.cache.Caching.getCachingProvider(Caching.java:247)
	at io.openliberty.jcache.internal.CachingProviderService$1.call(CachingProviderService.java:92)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.spi.CheckpointPhase$2.restore(CheckpointPhase.java:385)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.spi.CheckpointPhase$StaticCheckpointHook.restore(CheckpointPhase.java:590)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.internal.CheckpointImpl.callHooks(CheckpointImpl.java:575)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.internal.CheckpointImpl.restore(CheckpointImpl.java:611)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.internal.CheckpointImpl.checkpoint(CheckpointImpl.java:413)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.internal.CheckpointImpl.checkpointOrExitOnFailure(CheckpointImpl.java:301)
	at io.openliberty.checkpoint.internal.CheckpointImpl.check(CheckpointImpl.java:295)
	at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1541)
	at com.ibm.ws.kernel.feature.internal.FeatureManager.checkServerReady(FeatureManager.java:868)
	at com.ibm.ws.kernel.feature.internal.FeatureManager.update(FeatureManager.java:829)
	at com.ibm.ws.kernel.feature.internal.FeatureManager.processFeatureChanges(FeatureManager.java:931)
	at com.ibm.ws.kernel.feature.internal.FeatureManager$1.run(FeatureManager.java:714)
	at com.ibm.ws.threading.internal.ExecutorServiceImpl$RunnableWrapper.run(ExecutorServiceImpl.java:298)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
	at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:839)

Per RH Data Grid 8.5 release notes, The minimum supported Java version for RHDG 8.5 is Java 17

Please improve the error message to help users fix the problem

[tjwatson]

See https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jvms/se21/html/jvms-4.html

We could look at the class byte[] after defineClass fails to lookup the classes minor_version and major_version to determine the Java level that is expected for the class.