java.lang.IllegalAccessError and other classloader issues

Update 4/1/2015: I have verified that 9.0.0.Beta2 fixes the IllegalAccessError and the war file in problem-demo.zip/hello-world6/target now duplicates the original problem. The order of the jar files in the classpath should be
WEB-INF/lib/patch/patch2.jar
WEB-INF/lib/patch/patch1.jar
WEB-INF/lib/base/helloworld-sans-cdi.jar

org.jboss.as.quickstarts.helloworld.HelloService exists in both patch2.jar and helloworld-sans-cdi.jar. The version from patch2.jar should be used because it is first in the classpath, but the classloader is picking up the original class from helloworld-sans-cdi.jar instead.

Original problem description follows:

We use manifest-only jar files in our WAR and EAR files to control the order that jar files are searched for classes. When we issue patches, we put the modified class(es) in a separate jar file, add that jar file to the affected EAR or WAR file, and update the classpath in our manifest-only jar file to put the new patch at the beginning of the class path so that it will be used in place of the original class (which is still in the original jar file).

For example, WEB-INF/lib will contain a single jar file named manifest.jar and sub-folders named 3rdparty, base, patch, and custom. The Class-Path entry in WEB-INF/lib/manifest.jar|META-INF/MANIFEST.MF looks like this:
Class-Path: 3rdparty/manifest.jar patch/manifest.jar base/manifest.jar custom/manifest.jar

When we publish a patch, the patch jar file is added to WEB-INF/lib/patch and to the front of the classpath in WEB-INF/lib/patch/manifest.jar's MANIFEST.MF.

This worked fine for us for years with JBoss 4.2.3.GA, 5.1.0.GA, 7.1.2.Final, and 7.2.0.Final, but it's broken in WildFly 8.2.0.Final.

When I run it in debug I can see where the problem shows up in this section of org.jboss.modules.Module (lines 562 - 573).

final String path = pathOfClass(className);
final Map<String, List<LocalLoader>> paths = getPathsUnchecked();
final List<LocalLoader> loaders = paths.get(path);
if (loaders != null) {
Class<?> clazz;
for (LocalLoader loader : loaders) {
clazz = loader.loadClassLocal(className, resolve);
if (clazz != null)

}
}

The modules in the loaders list at line 565 are

• deployment.service.ear.lib/base/shared.jar:main
• deployment.service.ear.lib/base/deployment.jar:main
• deployment.service.ear.lib/patch/patch.jar:main

The last one should actually be the first in the list. I haven't been able to track down the actual source of the error yet.

I've been trying to create a simple example based on the helloworld quickstart to reproduce the problem, but I haven't been successful yet because of other classloader errors that I've run into. I decided to go ahead and open this issue and document the things I am able to reproduce. Those are:

1. CDI injection doesn't work when the annotated classes are in jar files under WEB-INF/lib instead of unpacked in WEB-INF/classes.
2. WildFly doesn't process the javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet annotation if the jar file containing the annotated class is in a sub-folder of WEB-INF/lib.
3. WildFly throws a java.lang.IllegalAccessError trying to load a "patched" class.

The first problem exists in both 7.2.0.Final and 8.2.0.Final. The other two problems are new in 8.2.0.Final.