EnvInject NPE on Jenkins 2.462.3: Cannot invoke "java.util.Map.size()" because "m" is null (no workspace created)

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Hi Jenkins community,

We are seeing a job failure on Jenkins 2.462.3 (build running on an AWS EC2 agent) where the build fails very early during environment setup.

Error snippet from console log:

[EnvInject] - Loading node environment variables.
FATAL: Cannot invoke "java.util.Map.size()" because "m" is null
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "java.util.Map.size()" because "m" is null
  at java.base/java.util.HashMap.putMapEntries(HashMap.java:503)
  at java.base/java.util.HashMap.putAll(HashMap.java:791)
  at org.jenkinsci.plugins.envinject.service.EnvironmentVariablesNodeLoader.gatherEnvVarsForNode(EnvironmentVariablesNodeLoader.java:68)
  at org.jenkinsci.plugins.envinject.EnvInjectListener.loadEnvironmentVariablesNode(EnvInjectListener.java:78)
  at org.jenkinsci.plugins.envinject.EnvInjectListener.setUpEnvironment(EnvInjectListener.java:42)

After this, multiple steps fail with workspace-related errors (likely cascading), for example:

ERROR: Step ‘GitHub PR: set PR status’ failed: no workspace for <job> #<build>
ERROR: Error: No workspace found!

Notes / environment:

  • Jenkins version: 2.462.3
  • Plugin visible in UI: EnvInject API 1.199.v3ce31253ed13
  • We don’t clearly see the “EnvInject / Environment Injector” plugin in the plugin list, but the stacktrace shows PluginClassLoader for envinject
  • Build is a Freestyle job triggered via GitHub PR build

Question:
Has anyone seen this EnvInject-related NPE on Jenkins 2.462.x?
What could cause gatherEnvVarsForNode() to receive a null map (m == null) while loading node environment variables?

Also, what is the recommended fix here:

  • upgrade/remove EnvInject,
  • disable node environment injection,
  • or fix something specific in the EC2 agent/node configuration?

Any guidance or known issue links would be appreciated. Thanks!
Jenkins setup:2.462.3,

  • Plugin visible in UI: EnvInject API 1.199.v3ce31253ed13
2

You definitely have the Environment Injector Plugin plugin installed otherwise that stacktrace wouldn’t be possible.
But the problem seems to be more related to the EC2 agents as follow up steps have problems with the workspace missing.
Is that reproducible? Is the agent provisioned dynamically for each build or is this a longer running EC2 agent?