Resolving Spark 1.6.0 “java.lang.NullPointerException, not found: value sqlContext” error when running spark-shell on Windows 10 (64-bit)

It is easy to follow the instructions on http://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/ and download Spark 1.6.0 (Jan 04 2016) with the “Pre-build for Hadoop 2.6 and later” package type from http://spark.apache.org/downloads.html

However, when you try to run spark-shell on your Windows 10 (64-bit) machine, you may receive a java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.NullPointerException (not found: value sqlContext)

java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.NullPointerException
 at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.session.SessionState.start(SessionState.java:522) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.client.ClientWrapper.<init>(ClientWrapper.scala:194) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.client.IsolatedClientLoader.createClient(IsolatedClientLoader.scala:238) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext.executionHive$lzycompute(HiveContext.scala:218) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext.executionHive(HiveContext.scala:208) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext.functionRegistry$lzycompute(HiveContext.scala:462) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext.functionRegistry(HiveContext.scala:461) at org.apache.spark.sql.UDFRegistration.<init>(UDFRegistration.scala:40) at org.apache.spark.sql.SQLContext.<init>(SQLContext.scala:330) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext.<init>(HiveContext.scala:90) at org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveContext.<init>(HiveContext.scala:101) at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:62) at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45) at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:422) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.createSQLContext(SparkILoop.scala:1028) at $iwC$$iwC.<init>(<console>:15) at $iwC.<init>(<console>:24) at <init>(<console>:26) at .<init>(<console>:30) at .<clinit>(<console>) at .<init>(<console>:7) at .<clinit>(<console>) at $print(<console>) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkIMain$ReadEvalPrint.call(SparkIMain.scala:1065) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkIMain$Request.loadAndRun(SparkIMain.scala:1346) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkIMain.loadAndRunReq$1(SparkIMain.scala:840) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkIMain.interpret(SparkIMain.scala:871) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkIMain.interpret(SparkIMain.scala:819) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.reallyInterpret$1(SparkILoop.scala:857) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.interpretStartingWith(SparkILoop.scala:902) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.command(SparkILoop.scala:814) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoopInit$$anonfun$initializeSpark$1.apply(SparkILoopInit.scala:132) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoopInit$$anonfun$initializeSpark$1.apply(SparkILoopInit.scala:124) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkIMain.beQuietDuring(SparkIMain.scala:324) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoopInit$class.initializeSpark(SparkILoopInit.scala:124) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.initializeSpark(SparkILoop.scala:64) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop$$anonfun$org$apache$spark$repl$SparkILoop$$process$1$$anonfun$apply$mcZ$sp$5.apply$mcV$sp(SparkILoop.scala:974) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoopInit$class.runThunks(SparkILoopInit.scala:159) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.runThunks(SparkILoop.scala:64) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoopInit$class.postInitialization(SparkILoopInit.scala:108) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.postInitialization(SparkILoop.scala:64) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop$$anonfun$org$apache$spark$repl$SparkILoop$$process$1.apply$mcZ$sp(SparkILoop.scala:991) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop$$anonfun$org$apache$spark$repl$SparkILoop$$process$1.apply(SparkILoop.scala:945) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop$$anonfun$org$apache$spark$repl$SparkILoop$$process$1.apply(SparkILoop.scala:945) at scala.tools.nsc.util.ScalaClassLoader$.savingContextLoader(ScalaClassLoader.scala:135) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.org$apache$spark$repl$SparkILoop$$process(SparkILoop.scala:945) at org.apache.spark.repl.SparkILoop.process(SparkILoop.scala:1059) at org.apache.spark.repl.Main$.main(Main.scala:31) at org.apache.spark.repl.Main.main(Main.scala) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497) at org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmit$.org$apache$spark$deploy$SparkSubmit$$runMain(SparkSubmit.scala:731) at org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmit$.doRunMain$1(SparkSubmit.scala:181) at org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmit$.submit(SparkSubmit.scala:206) at org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmit$.main(SparkSubmit.scala:121) at org.apache.spark.deploy.SparkSubmit.main(SparkSubmit.scala) Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1012) at org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell.runCommand(Shell.java:482) at org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell.run(Shell.java:455) at org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell$ShellCommandExecutor.execute(Shell.java:715) at org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell.execCommand(Shell.java:808) at org.apache.hadoop.util.Shell.execCommand(Shell.java:791) at org.apache.hadoop.fs.FileUtil.execCommand(FileUtil.java:1097) at org.apache.hadoop.fs.RawLocalFileSystem$DeprecatedRawLocalFileStatus.loadPermissionInfo(RawLocalFileSystem.java:582) at org.apache.hadoop.fs.RawLocalFileSystem$DeprecatedRawLocalFileStatus.getPermission(RawLocalFileSystem.java:557) at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.session.SessionState.createRootHDFSDir(SessionState.java:599) at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.session.SessionState.createSessionDirs(SessionState.java:554) at org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.session.SessionState.start(SessionState.java:508)
… 62 more
<console>:16: error: not found: value sqlContext import sqlContext.implicits._ ^ <console>:16: error: not found: value sqlContext
import sqlContext.sql

This issue is often caused by a missing winutils.exe file that Spark needs in order to initialize the Hive context, which in turn depends on Hadoop, which requires native libraries on Windows to work properly. Unfortunately, this happens even if you are using Spark in local mode without utilizing any of the HDFS features directly.

To resolve this problem, you need to:

• download the 64-bit winutils.exe (106KB)
• copy the downloaded file winutils.exe into a folder like C:\hadoop\bin (or C:\spark\hadoop\bin)
• set the environment variable HADOOP_HOME to point to the above directory but without \bin. For example:
• if you copied the winutils.exe to C:\hadoop\bin, set HADOOP_HOME=C:\hadoop
• if you copied the winutils.exe to C:\spark\hadoop\bin, set HADOOP_HOME=C:\spark\hadoop

Double-check that the environment variable HADOOP_HOME is set properly by opening the Command Prompt and running echo %HADOOP_HOME%

You will also notice that when starting the spark-shell.cmd, Hive will create a C:\tmp\hive folder. If you receive any errors related to permissions of this folder, use the following commands to set that permissions on that folder:

• List current permissions: %HADOOP_HOME%\bin\winutils.exe ls \tmp\hive
• Set permissions: %HADOOP_HOME%\bin\winutils.exe chmod 777 \tmp\hive
• List updated permissions: %HADOOP_HOME%\bin\winutils.exe ls \tmp\hive

When you re-run the spark-shell, it should work as expected.

Related Spark JIRAs and StackOverflow threads:

I’m looking forward to your feedback and questions via Twitter https://twitter.com/ArsenVlad

Originally published at blogs.msdn.microsoft.com on February 9, 2016.