I think that's caused by a bug in the Checkstyle core library, which supposedly is fixed in Checkstyle 6.0.
However due to some other issues in Checkstyle 6.0 I am currently holding off a new plugin version until Checkstyle 6.0.1 or 6.1 arrives.
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I had the same problem reported by David. I waited for the most current plugin to see if it would get fixed and it didn't (6.1.0.201411141422). So I decided to do some settings investigations. I tracked down my cause of NullPointerExceptions to the enabling of certain SevNTU checks: Avoid Modifiers For Types, Finalize Implementation, Custom Declaration Order, Confusing Condition, Overridable Method In Constructor, Simple Accessor Name Notation, and Cause Parameter In Exception. If I enable any of those with the default settings, I get a NullPointerException on every class when I check code with the plugin.
I hope this information is helpful.
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It would seem then that the sevntu extensions have a problem with newer checkstyle versions.
Since sevntu and Checkstyle core itself is now maintained by the same group of people maybe reporting this to the Checkstyle core project would be advisable.
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I think that's caused by a bug in the Checkstyle core library, which supposedly is fixed in Checkstyle 6.0.
However due to some other issues in Checkstyle 6.0 I am currently holding off a new plugin version until Checkstyle 6.0.1 or 6.1 arrives.
I had the same problem reported by David. I waited for the most current plugin to see if it would get fixed and it didn't (6.1.0.201411141422). So I decided to do some settings investigations. I tracked down my cause of NullPointerExceptions to the enabling of certain SevNTU checks: Avoid Modifiers For Types, Finalize Implementation, Custom Declaration Order, Confusing Condition, Overridable Method In Constructor, Simple Accessor Name Notation, and Cause Parameter In Exception. If I enable any of those with the default settings, I get a NullPointerException on every class when I check code with the plugin.
I hope this information is helpful.
Indeed your investigation is very helpful!
It would seem then that the sevntu extensions have a problem with newer checkstyle versions.
Since sevntu and Checkstyle core itself is now maintained by the same group of people maybe reporting this to the Checkstyle core project would be advisable.
I reported this as https://github.com/sevntu-checkstyle/sevntu.checkstyle/issues/272
This is related to this issue most likely: https://sourceforge.net/p/eclipse-cs/bugs/376/
According to the Checkstyle project this should be no issue from 6.2.0 onwards