hi,all This problem puzzle me ,and I had debuged the system ,but still not resolve this problem ,help me! my Role Manager conf is : <role-list> ........................ <role name="test.avalon.framework.RoleASelector" shorthand="RoleA" default-class="org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.ExcaliburComponentSelector"> <hint shorthand="default" class="test.avalon.framework.DefaultRoleA"/> <hint shorthand="example" class="test.avalon.framework.ExampleRoleA"/> </role> <role name="test.avalon.framework.RoleB" shorthand="RoleB" default-class="test.avalon.framework.DefaultRoleB"/> .......................... </role-list> and System initialize as follow: ............. initialized = true; Logger logger = new Log4JLogger(Log4JUtil.getLogger("test")); manager.enableLogging(logger); manager.contextualize(new DefaultContext()); DefaultConfigurationBuilder builder = new DefaultConfigurationBuilder(false); String uri = CPResourceLoader.getResource("roles.xml").toString(); Configuration roleConf = builder.build(uri); DefaultRoleManager rm = new DefaultRoleManager(); rm.enableLogging(logger); rm.configure(roleConf); manager.setRoleManager(rm); Configuration sysConf = builder.build(CPResourceLoader.getResource("example.xml").toString()); manager.configure(sysConf); manager.configure(new DefaultConfiguration("", "")); manager.initialize(); .................... I user junit framework test the manager ,the code is public void testSelectorForA() throws Exception{ Log.print("begin to test look up RoleA"); ComponentSelector select = (ComponentSelector)manager.lookup(RoleA.ROLE + "Selector"); this.assertNotNull("message for not null assert!",select); ........................ } The test work is failed, the error is : 701 [main] DEBUG test - looking up shorthand RoleA, returning test.avalon.framework.RoleASelector 701 [main] DEBUG test - Adding component (test.avalon.framework.RoleASelector = org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.ExcaliburComponentSelector) 701 [main] DEBUG test - Attempting to get Handler for: test.avalon.framework.RoleASelector 701 [main] DEBUG test - Handler type = org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.ThreadSafeComponentHandler 701 [main] DEBUG test - looking up shorthand RoleB, returning test.avalon.framework.RoleB 721 [main] DEBUG test - Adding component (test.avalon.framework.RoleB = test.avalon.framework.DefaultRoleB) 721 [main] DEBUG test - Attempting to get Handler for: test.avalon.framework.RoleB 721 [main] DEBUG test - Handler type = org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.DefaultComponentHandler 721 [main] DEBUG test - looking up shorthand RoleC, returning test.avalon.framework.RoleC 721 [main] DEBUG test - Adding component (test.avalon.framework.RoleC = test.avalon.framework.PoolableTestObject) 721 [main] DEBUG test - Attempting to get Handler for: test.avalon.framework.RoleC 721 [main] DEBUG test - Handler type = org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.PoolableComponentHandler 721 [main] DEBUG test - ComponentFactory creating new instance of org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.ExcaliburComponentSelector. 721 [main] ERROR test - Caught an exception trying to initialize the component handler. java.lang.NullPointerException at org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.DefaultComponentFactory.newInstance(DefaultComponentFactory.java:180) at org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.ThreadSafeComponentHandler.initialize(ThreadSafeComponentHandler.java:98) at org.apache.avalon.excalibur.component.ExcaliburComponentManager.initialize DefaultComponentFactory.java:180 is: 178 if( component instanceof LogKitManageable ) 179 { 180 ( (LogKitManageable)component ).setLogKitManager( m_logkit.getLogKitManager() ); 181 } class ExcaliburComponentSelector is also implements LogKitManageable interface. I already used log4j.Does the EMC also need LogKit??? The NullPointerException looks like the log system raised,I use excalibur-*-20020622.jar. the avalon project Log system really confusing me!? ---------------- /|/| | -''/"',___,,--''"`-,_ `6_ 6 ) `-, ( ),`-.__.`) /_Y_./',, _ ) `._ `,``-..-' _.'.`=' _ / / --'_.',' (il)' (li)'' ((!-' * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * 571-85022088-3019