Upgrading from Versions of JIRA Prior to 3.1 Results in 'SAXParseException The Character Sequence' Error

Still need help?

The Atlassian Community is here for you.

Ask the community

Symptoms

When importing an XML backup made in JIRA 3.1 or lower into a newer version of JIRA, the import fails with following error:

Exception occurred: org.xml/sax.SAXParseException: The character sequence "]]>" must not appear in content unless used to mark the end of the CDATA section.

Cause

JIRA versions prior to 3.1 generate XML backups containing incorrectly escaped CDATA sections. See JRA-4980.

Resolution

As per [JRA-4980@JIRA], create a new backup from your instance of JIRA 3.1 or lower:

  1. Replace the jar file <jira install>atlassia-jira/WEB-INF/lib/ofbcore-entity-2.1.1.jar with the one attached to JRA-4980
  2. Perform the export
  3. If an error like Parser has reached the entity expansion limit is observed in JIRA log, add a JVM option -DentityExpansionLimit=100000
Last modified on Mar 30, 2016

Was this helpful?

Yes
No
Provide feedback about this article
Powered by Confluence and Scroll Viewport.