Pentaho commandline nullpointer exception - pentaho

Question

Pentaho PDI version 8.3.0 CE if it matters
When I try to run a job or transformation commandline using kitchen or pan respectively I get a nullpointer exception. This happens only when trying to run something from a repository.
When I try to run the same transformation or job from spoon, all is fine and the job runs great.
I use the following commands, which both provide the same error:
./pan.sh -trans=get_clusters -rep=myrepo -user=admin -pass=mypass -dir=/Transformations
and
./kitchen.sh -job=scheduled_update_job -rep=myrepo -user=admin -pass=mypass -dir=/Jobs
NOTE: This error also happens when I try to run the job or transformation from a docker container.
The error I receive is as follows and identical for PAN and Kitchen:
020/02/05 09:07:56 - Pan - Start of run.
Processing has stopped because of an error: null
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.pentaho.di.core.plugins.PluginRegistry.getPluginId(PluginRegistry.java:689)
at org.pentaho.di.core.plugins.PluginRegistry.getPlugin(PluginRegistry.java:715)
at org.pentaho.di.core.plugins.PluginRegistry.loadClass(PluginRegistry.java:370)
at org.pentaho.di.base.AbstractBaseCommandExecutor.establishRepositoryConnection(AbstractBaseCommandExecutor.java:195)
at org.pentaho.di.pan.PanCommandExecutor.execute(PanCommandExecutor.java:119)
at org.pentaho.di.pan.Pan.main(Pan.java:270)
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:498)
at org.pentaho.commons.launcher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:92)
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Run the job from your home directory (as working directory) using the full path of pan.sh or kitchen.sh.
I'm not sure what exactly causes the trouble. Likely causes:
Your KETTLE_HOME is not valid, causing Pentaho to look for .kettle in the working directory. (Do not include .kettle in the HOME)
A variant of this is that you don't have permissions on the files if you copied/moved them as root.
Your user does not have write access to the data-integration directory, causing some failure writing a configuration that would normally go into the working dir. It is normal to run Pentaho with an account that does not have write access here, that is not the problem, just that it doesn't like a non-writable working dir.