JDK 11.0.2 has a bug which is solved in JDK 12 (and backported to 11.0.4). compiler message file broken: key=compiler.misc.msg.bug arguments=11.0.2, {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6}, {7} This seems to be related to: stackoverflow.com JDK 11.0.2 compilation fails with javac NPE on anonymous parameterized class type inference java, javac, type-inference, java-11 asked by Mikhail Kholodkov on 09:33PM - 19 Feb 19 UTC https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8212586 http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk/jdk/rev/bbbc110cdffe My pipeline fails, because circle ci is still on an old JDK (11.0.2), and althought the circle ci docker files for JDK12 are ready, they are not on a docker registry. CCI-I-983