I'm trying to use XStream to persist a toolkit-auto-generated Java class to XML and retrieve it when required.

For lucidity, here's a skeletal look of what the generated classes look like:

final public class CHSMTestClass {

public CHSMTestClass() {
myCluster = new Cluster();
}

static public abstract class Parent {

protected Parent(int[] children)
{
children_ = children;
}
private final int[] children_; // <----------------
}

static public class Cluster extends Parent {
private static int[] children_ = new int[] { 0, 1, 2, 3 }; // <----------------
public Cluster()
{
super(children_);
activeChild_ = lastChild_ = null;
history_ = false;
}

private final boolean history_;
private String activeChild_;
private String lastChild_;
}
final public Cluster myCluster;
}

Notice that there exist 2 variables called "children_" : the first being a static class variable of Cluster and the other being a private variable of Parent.

XStream generates the following XML file:

<test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass>
  <myCluster>
    <history__>false</history__>
    <children__>
      <int>0</int>
      <int>1</int>
      <int>2</int>
      <int>3</int>
    </children__>
  </myCluster>
</test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass>

Now during unmarshalling, XStream is unable to distinguish the static class member "children_" from a similarly named variable derived from the super class Parent. It tries to set the static class variable and hence the following exceptions:

Exception in thread "main" com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConversionException: Could not set field class test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass$Cluster.children_ : null
---- Debugging information ----
required-type : test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass$Cluster
cause-message : Could not set field class test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass$Cluster.children_ : null
class : test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass
message : Could not set field class test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass$Cluster.children_ : null
path : /test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass/myCluster/children__
cause-exception : com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ObjectAccessException
-------------------------------
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:45)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.convertAnother(ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.java:39)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ReflectionConverter.unmarshal(ReflectionConverter.java:103)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:38)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.convertAnother(ReferenceByXPathUnmarshaller.java:39)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.start(TreeUnmarshaller.java:99)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.ReferenceByXPathMarshallingStrategy.unmarshal(ReferenceByXPathMarshallingStrategy.java:12)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:552)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:540)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.fromXML(XStream.java:524)
at test.mblox.xstream.MyXStreamTestClass.deserializeDummyClassObject(MyXStreamTestClass.java:81)
at test.mblox.xstream.MyXStreamTestClass.main(MyXStreamTestClass.java:34)
Caused by: com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ObjectAccessException: Could not set field class test.mblox.xstream.CHSMTestClass$Cluster.children_ : null
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.Sun14ReflectionProvider.write(Sun14ReflectionProvider.java:102)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.Sun14ReflectionProvider.writeField(Sun14ReflectionProvider.java:67)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ReflectionConverter.unmarshal(ReflectionConverter.java:106)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:38)
... 11 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
at sun.misc.Unsafe.objectFieldOffset(Native Method)
at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.Sun14ReflectionProvider.write(Sun14ReflectionProvider.java:73)
... 14 more

------------

Elementary JUnit test cases attached with this bug report