Cannot run scheduled jobs - cli.php errors out with uninformative "Error"

Question

I upgraded to 5.56.0 from 5.55.2, run in Joomla 3.10, and power with php 7.4.32 and apache httpd 2.4.54. The very next cron run produced "Error". Running by hand also produces "Error".

There are no entries in access_log or error_log. Successive issuing of the cli command may produce warnings:

root@host:/var/log/httpd# php .../administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/bin/cli.php -u user -p pw -e Job -a execute
Errorroot@host:/var/log/httpd# php .../administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/bin/cli.php -u user -p pw -e Job -a execute
WARNING: Class Civi\Api4\Event\Subscriber\ActivityPreCreationSubscriber was expected to have a service definition, but it did not. Perhaps it needs service name.
WARNING: Class Civi\Api4\Event\Subscriber\ContactPreSaveSubscriber was expected to have a service definition, but it did not. Perhaps it needs service name.
WARNING: Class Civi\Api4\Event\Subscriber\ContributionPreSaveSubscriber was expected to have a service definition, but it did not. Perhaps it needs service name.
WARNING: Class Civi\Api4\Event\Subscriber\CustomFieldPreSaveSubscriber was expected to have a service definition, but it did not. Perhaps it needs service name.
WARNING: Class Civi\Api4\Event\Subscriber\CustomGroupPreCreationSubscriber was expected to have a service definition, but it did not. Perhaps it needs service name.
WARNING: Class Civi\Api4\Event\Subscriber\OptionValuePreCreationSubscriber was expected to have a service definition, but it did not. Perhaps it needs service name.
Errorroot@host:/var/log/httpd#  php .../administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/bin/cli.php -u user -p pw -e Job -a execute
Errorroot@host:/var/log/httpd#  php .../administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/bin/cli.php -u user -p pw -e Job -a execute
Errorroot@host:/var/log/httpd#

What should we fix to remedy this issue?

Answer 1

This is caused by this bug introduced in 5.56. The related pull request fixes this.

We will have to watchout when updating until the PR has been introduced.

Answer 2

It might be from some bad smarty code in a template. You can try installing https://civicrm.org/extensions/smarty-message-template-error-handler or applying this patch which is roughly the same thing that might make the error more visible.

Otherwise you could try running the job with cv and see if that gives a different error.

I assume you've checked all the civi logs too.