We'll need more information to duplicate the problem.

For example, are all the plugins you've installed also enabled? If not, does enabling all the installed plugins change the behavior?

Are there entries in a Jenkins log file which give further hints why core Jenkins is unable to find a class on which it depends?

Are the other plugin versions also up to date?

I'm using jenkins out of the box, with all of the default plugins enabled, and jenkins security. I downloaded the git plugin, and the dependencies automatically come with it. All the plugins that are being used are up to date. I am using it as my SCM to periodically poll the repo for changes, and kick off a build. The jenkins system log file doesn't give me anything more verbose than std out. i don't even see this exception in std out.

also, i'm talking to a gitblit repo

Does the same failure happen if you use the following URLs?

• git://github.com/jenkinsci/git-client-plugin.git
• https://github.com/jenkinsci/git-client-plugin.git

Unfortunately, I can't duplicate the problem. The steps I took to try to duplicate the problem included:

1. Download jenkins.war 1.583
2. Run it from a freshly created temporary directory (JENKINS_HOME=$PWD java -jar jenkins.war)
3. Update all the plugins to the latest versions and restart
4. Install git plugin and restart
5. Create a new freestyle project named "gitblit"
6. Configure Git as the SCM for the freestyle project, with git://github.com/jenkinsci/git-client-plugin.git as the repo URL
7. Choose gitblit as the repository browser and enter https://github.com/jenkinsgit/git-client-plugin.git

I was running on a Ubuntu Linux 14.04 using Oracle JDK 1.7.0_67 Can you compare my steps to the steps you took in case there are relevant differences between your environment and mine?

Per your suggestion, I tested by changing the repo to https://github.com/jenkinsci/git-client-plugin.git, and it doesn't trigger the error, so the issue must have something to do with communication with gitblit?

It might help to note that I'm running several webapps in tomcat side by side: a home grown app, gitblit, jenkins, and solr.

Could you also try running the test with your gitblit repository, but using jenkins.war with its self-contained HTTP server, rather than tomcat? I'd like to confirm that it is not related to your use of tomcat.

JENKINS_HOME=/tmp/JENKINS-25013
export JENKINS_HOME
mkdir $JENKINS_HOME
java -jar /usr/share/jenkins/jenkins.war --httpPort=10101

Once that is started, install the git plugin in the Jenkins at http://localhost:10101/, define a job and confirm that it behaves the same as your tomcat configured Jenkins. I expect it will, and that will give further credence to the issue being somehow related to the gitblit browser code in the git plugin, rather than being related to your tomcat configuration.

I'll give it a try later. In the meantime, the only thing I could do to fix it was to copy the commons-codec 1.8 jar from the jenkins war into tomcat's lib dir.