Solution for 'NullPointerException' on Eclipse Startup

We faced a scenario where we abruptly had to kill the java while eclipse was running on system. However, when we tried to run the Eclipse again, it just get hanged and console/logs exposed us following error:

[weblogic@localhost oepe-indigo-12.1.1.0.1]$ /home/weblogic/Programs/Oracle/oepe-indigo-12.1.1.0.1/eclipse -vm /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_33/bin
LogFilter.isLoggable threw a non-fatal unchecked exception as follows:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.Log.isLoggable(Log.java:101)
org.eclipse.equinox.log.internal.ExtendedLogReaderServiceFactory.safeIsLoggable(ExtendedLogReaderServiceFactory.java:59)
org.eclipse.equinox.log.internal.ExtendedLogReaderServiceFactory.logPrivileged(ExtendedLogReaderServiceFactory.java:164)
org.eclipse.equinox.log.internal.ExtendedLogReaderServiceFactory.log(ExtendedLogReaderServiceFactory.java:150)
org.eclipse.equinox.log.internal.ExtendedLogServiceFactory.log(ExtendedLogServiceFactory.java:65)
org.eclipse.equinox.log.internal.ExtendedLogServiceImpl.log(ExtendedLogServiceImpl.java:87)
org.eclipse.equinox.log.internal.LoggerImpl.log(LoggerImpl.java:54)
org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.Log.log(Log.java:60)
org.tigris.subversion.clientadapter.javahl.Activator.isAvailable(Activator.java:92)
org.tigris.subversion.clientadapter.Activator.getClientAdapter(Activator.java:67)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.SVNClientManager.getAdapter(SVNClientManager.java:127)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.SVNClientManager.getSVNClient(SVNClientManager.java:94)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.SVNProviderPlugin.getSVNClient(SVNProviderPlugin.java:462)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.status.RecursiveStatusUpdateStrategy.statusesToUpdate(RecursiveStatusUpdateStrategy.java:62)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.status.StatusCacheManager.refreshStatus(StatusCacheManager.java:270)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.resourcesListeners.FileModificationManager.refreshStatus(FileModificationManager.java:220)
org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.core.resourcesListeners.FileModificationManager.resourceChanged(FileModificationManager.java:161)
org.eclipse.core.internal.events.NotificationManager$1.run(NotificationManager.java:291)
org.eclipse.core.runtime.SafeRunner.run(SafeRunner.java:42)
org.eclipse.core.internal.events.NotificationManager.notify(NotificationManager.java:285)
org.eclipse.core.internal.events.NotificationManager.broadcastChanges(NotificationManager.java:149)
org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.Workspace.broadcastPostChange(Workspace.java:395)
org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.Workspace.endOperation(Workspace.java:1530)
org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.InternalWorkspaceJob.run(InternalWorkspaceJob.java:45)
org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:54)

And the solution we found was, it happens because some of the metadata file got corrupted during abrupt exit. So we follows the steps mentioned below to get eclipse started again:

1. cd .metadata/.plugins
2. mv org.eclipse.core.resources org.eclipse.core.resources.bak
3. Start eclipse
4. It will start but will show errors with opened tabs. This is because we have changed the resources folder, which eclipse use for managing the resources
5. Close all opened tabs
6. Exit from Eclipse
7. Delete any newly create org.eclipse.core.resources folder
8. Rename back the 'org.eclipse.core.resources.bak' to 'org.eclipse.core.resources'
9. Start Eclipse
10. It should start fine with all projects

 Hopefully you won't face any problem further, but will depend on scenario. Please share your experience if that was different.