Suddenly unable to launch Grails: "Error creating bean with name 'grailsApplication'" - grails

Question

I've been able to run Grails integration tests previously (I think Dec was the last time), but now I'm getting the error pasted below. A colleague has stated that he's currently able to run, so it seems like something must have changed on my laptop even though I can't imagine what (I'm using macOS Sierra, he's on Windows).
I tried clean, clean-all and those didn't help.
Is there something else I could try to clean or any other ideas on what has gone wrong?
Fatal error running tests: Error creating bean with name 'grailsApplication': Bean instantiation via constructor failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.codehaus.groovy.grails.commons.DefaultGrailsApplication]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException (NOTE: Stack trace has been filtered. Use --verbose to see entire trace.)
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'grailsApplication': Bean instantiation via constructor failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.codehaus.groovy.grails.commons.DefaultGrailsApplication]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:275)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.autowireConstructor(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1137)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1040)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:504)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:476)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:303)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:299)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:199)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:966)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.prepareBeanFactory(AbstractApplicationContext.java:553)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:455)
at grails.spring.BeanBuilder.createApplicationContext(BeanBuilder.java:593)
at _GrailsTest$_run_closure1.doCall(_GrailsTest.groovy:102)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantMetaClass.invokeMethod(GantMetaClass.java:133)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16_closure18.doCall(GantBinding.groovy:185)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16_closure18.doCall(GantBinding.groovy)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.withTargetEvent(GantBinding.groovy:90)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.this$4$withTargetEvent(GantBinding.groovy)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16.doCall(GantBinding.groovy:185)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16.doCall(GantBinding.groovy)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantMetaClass.invokeMethod(GantMetaClass.java:133)
at TestApp$_run_closure1.doCall(TestApp.groovy:32)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantMetaClass.invokeMethod(GantMetaClass.java:133)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16_closure18.doCall(GantBinding.groovy:185)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16_closure18.doCall(GantBinding.groovy)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.withTargetEvent(GantBinding.groovy:90)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding.this$4$withTargetEvent(GantBinding.groovy)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16.doCall(GantBinding.groovy:185)
at org.codehaus.gant.GantBinding$_initializeGantBinding_closure5_closure16.doCall(GantBinding.groovy)
at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure5.doCall(Gant.groovy:381)
at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy:415)
at gant.Gant$_dispatch_closure7.doCall(Gant.groovy)
at gant.Gant.withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy:427)
at gant.Gant.this$2$withBuildListeners(Gant.groovy)
at gant.Gant.dispatch(Gant.groovy:415)
at gant.Gant.this$2$dispatch(Gant.groovy)
at gant.Gant.invokeMethod(Gant.groovy)
at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:591)
at gant.Gant.executeTargets(Gant.groovy:590)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.codehaus.groovy.grails.commons.DefaultGrailsApplication]: Constructor threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:163)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:122)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.autowireConstructor(ConstructorResolver.java:267)
... 39 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils.instantiateClass(BeanUtils.java:147)
... 41 more
Here's the command IntelliJ tells me is running:
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java -Dgrails.home=/Users/username/src/grails-2.5.5 -Dtools.jar=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar -Dgroovy.starter.conf=/Users/username/src/grails-2.5.5/conf/groovy-starter.conf -Dbase.dir=/Users/username/IdeaProjects/gdbxt-git -Dgrails.build.listeners=org.jetbrains.groovy.grails.rt.GrailsIdeaTestListener -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -classpath /Users/username/src/grails-2.5.5/lib/org.codehaus.groovy/groovy-all/jars/groovy-all-2.4.5.jar:/Users/username/src/grails-2.5.5/dist/grails-bootstrap-2.5.5.jar org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.support.GrailsStarter --classpath "/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app/Contents/plugins/Grails/lib/grails-rt.jar" --main org.codehaus.groovy.grails.cli.GrailsScriptRunner --conf /Users/username/src/grails-2.5.5/conf/groovy-starter.conf "test-app integration: --stacktrace -plain-output"
But I get the same error if I run
grails test-app integration: --stacktrace -plain-output
in the terminal.
If I try grails run-app, then I see something similar:
2018-03-01 08:33:50,828 [main] WARN webxml.WebxmlGrailsPlugin - Did not find application config file: WebXmlConfig
| Running Grails application
2018-03-01 08:33:51,785 [localhost-startStop-1] INFO context.ContextLoader - Root WebApplicationContext: initialization started
2018-03-01 08:33:51,795 [localhost-startStop-1] INFO support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Refreshing Root WebApplicationContext: startup date [Thu Mar 01 08:33:51 EST 2018]; root of context hierarchy
2018-03-01 08:33:51,811 [localhost-startStop-1] INFO xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader - Loading XML bean definitions from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]
2018-03-01 08:33:52,863 [localhost-startStop-1] WARN support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'grailsApplication' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap.putVal(ConcurrentHashMap.java:1011)
at java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap.putIfAbsent(ConcurrentHashMap.java:1535)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.getClassLoadingLock(ClassLoader.java:463)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:404)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:411)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:411)
... 4 more
2018-03-01 08:33:52,864 [localhost-startStop-1] ERROR context.ContextLoader - Context initialization failed