We're building multiple projects checked out of SVN using Jenkins. Every once in a while they fail with this exception:

FATAL: String index out of range: -1
java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1

For one particular project, which is quite small and involves checking out one item, half of the builds fail. Even when this exception is raised, the checkout seems successful (I compare the output to successful builds). Maybe it fails while trying to determine the list of changes? The checkout strategy is 'always check out a fresh copy'; for build triggers, I've set 'poll SCM' @midnight and 'trigger remotely'. IIRC the exception also happens for builds triggered remotely.

Let me know if you need more info. Both the SVN and Jenkins servers are internal to the company. I've attached the XML file I get by querying the plugin list using 'http://<jenkins>/pluginManager/api/xml?depth=1' in a browser (based on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9815273/how-to-get-a-list-of-installed-jenkins-plugins-with-name-and-version-pair)

Checking out <repo> at revision '2014-10-08T03:18:06.153 -0500'
A License
AU build_deb.sh
A debug
[...]
A test/python/gb_json_tester.py
A test/python/test_simpleCmd.py
A test/python/test_cmds.py
U .
At revision 126377
FATAL: String index out of range: -1

java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1875)
at hudson.scm.DirAwareSVNXMLLogHandler.sendToHandler(DirAwareSVNXMLLogHandler.java:121)
at hudson.scm.DirAwareSVNXMLLogHandler.handleLogEntry(DirAwareSVNXMLLogHandler.java:83)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc2.compat.SvnCodec$7.receive(SvnCodec.java:167)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc2.compat.SvnCodec$7.receive(SvnCodec.java:164)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.wc2.SvnReceivingOperation.receive(SvnReceivingOperation.java:78)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc2.remote.SvnRemoteLog.handleLogEntry(SvnRemoteLog.java:199)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.io.svn.SVNRepositoryImpl.logImpl(SVNRepositoryImpl.java:827)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.io.SVNRepository.log(SVNRepository.java:1035)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc2.remote.SvnRemoteLog.run(SvnRemoteLog.java:181)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc2.remote.SvnRemoteLog.run(SvnRemoteLog.java:35)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc2.SvnOperationRunner.run(SvnOperationRunner.java:20)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.wc2.SvnOperationFactory.run(SvnOperationFactory.java:1238)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.wc2.SvnOperation.run(SvnOperation.java:294)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.wc.SVNLogClient.doLog(SVNLogClient.java:967)
at org.tmatesoft.svn.core.wc.SVNLogClient.doLog(SVNLogClient.java:872)
at hudson.scm.SubversionChangeLogBuilder.buildModule(SubversionChangeLogBuilder.java:179)
at hudson.scm.SubversionChangeLogBuilder.run(SubversionChangeLogBuilder.java:118)
at hudson.scm.SubversionSCM.calcChangeLog(SubversionSCM.java:735)
at hudson.scm.SubversionSCM.checkout(SubversionSCM.java:873)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.checkout(AbstractProject.java:1254)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.defaultCheckout(AbstractBuild.java:624)
at jenkins.scm.SCMCheckoutStrategy.checkout(SCMCheckoutStrategy.java:86)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.run(AbstractBuild.java:530)
at hudson.model.Run.execute(Run.java:1740)
at hudson.model.FreeStyleBuild.run(FreeStyleBuild.java:43)
at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:88)
at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:234)