Spring Boot – NoClassDefFoundError: ch/qos/logback/classic/Level

I created a vanilla Spring Boot App (1.5.9.RELEASE) but when I Run As -> Spring Boot App (in Eclipse Oxygen) I get

SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further details.
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: ch/qos/logback/classic/Level
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.<clinit>(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:66)
    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.springframework.boot.logging.LoggingSystem.get(LoggingSystem.java:170)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.LoggingSystem.get(LoggingSystem.java:160)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.onApplicationStartingEvent(LoggingApplicationListener.java:229)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.onApplicationEvent(LoggingApplicationListener.java:209)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.doInvokeListener(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:172)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.invokeListener(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:165)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:139)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:122)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.event.EventPublishingRunListener.starting(EventPublishingRunListener.java:69)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.starting(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:48)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:292)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1118)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1107)
    at demo.spring.boot.app.CourseApiApp.main(CourseApiApp.java:11)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: ch.qos.logback.classic.Level
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    ... 19 more

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>demo.spring.boot</groupId>
  <artifactId>boot-demo</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.9.RELEASE</version>
  </parent>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <properties>
    <java.version>1.8</java.version>
  </properties>

  <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

App

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;

@SpringBootApplication
public class CourseApiApp {

    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        SpringApplication.run(CourseApiApp.class, args);
    }
}

Remark

I also tried mvn clean package -> java -jar target/boot-demo.jar which gives me

Failed to instantiate SLF4J LoggerFactory
Reported exception:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: ch/qos/logback/classic/LoggerContext
    at org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder.<init>(StaticLoggerBinder.java:59)
    at org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder.<clinit>(StaticLoggerBinder.java:50)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.bind(LoggerFactory.java:150)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.performInitialization(LoggerFactory.java:124)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory(LoggerFactory.java:412)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:357)
    at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLogFactory.getInstance(SLF4JLogFactory.java:155)
    at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLogFactory.getInstance(SLF4JLogFactory.java:132)
    at org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory.getLog(LogFactory.java:273)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.<clinit>(SpringApplication.java:179)
    at demo.spring.boot.app.CourseApiApp.main(CourseApiApp.java:11)
    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.springframework.boot.loader.MainMethodRunner.run(MainMethodRunner.java:48)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:87)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:50)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher.main(JarLauncher.java:51)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: ch.qos.logback.classic.LoggerContext
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:370)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:362)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:361)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.LaunchedURLClassLoader.loadClass(LaunchedURLClassLoader.java:94)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    ... 19 more
Caused by: java.util.zip.ZipException: invalid stored block lengths
    at java.util.zip.InflaterInputStream.read(InflaterInputStream.java:164)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.jar.ZipInflaterInputStream.read(ZipInflaterInputStream.java:52)
    at sun.misc.Resource.getBytes(Resource.java:124)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:462)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:73)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:368)
    ... 25 more
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    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.springframework.boot.loader.MainMethodRunner.run(MainMethodRunner.java:48)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:87)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:50)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher.main(JarLauncher.java:51)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: ch/qos/logback/classic/LoggerContext
    at org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder.<init>(StaticLoggerBinder.java:59)
    at org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder.<clinit>(StaticLoggerBinder.java:50)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.bind(LoggerFactory.java:150)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.performInitialization(LoggerFactory.java:124)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getILoggerFactory(LoggerFactory.java:412)
    at org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger(LoggerFactory.java:357)
    at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLogFactory.getInstance(SLF4JLogFactory.java:155)
    at org.apache.commons.logging.impl.SLF4JLogFactory.getInstance(SLF4JLogFactory.java:132)
    at org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory.getLog(LogFactory.java:273)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.<clinit>(SpringApplication.java:179)
    at demo.spring.boot.app.CourseApiApp.main(CourseApiApp.java:11)
    ... 8 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: ch.qos.logback.classic.LoggerContext
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:370)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:362)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:361)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.LaunchedURLClassLoader.loadClass(LaunchedURLClassLoader.java:94)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
    ... 19 more
Caused by: java.util.zip.ZipException: invalid stored block lengths
    at java.util.zip.InflaterInputStream.read(InflaterInputStream.java:164)
    at org.springframework.boot.loader.jar.ZipInflaterInputStream.read(ZipInflaterInputStream.java:52)
    at sun.misc.Resource.getBytes(Resource.java:124)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:462)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:73)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:368)
    ... 25 more

Answer

Extending Mark Bramnik answer, It does look like you don’t have logback, which is pretty weird because spring-boot-starter-web have a dependency on spring-boot-starter-logging. Just try to add spring-boot-starter-logging to your POM file