pub.dev fails to run dartdoc: "NoSuchMethodError: The getter 'documentationComment' was called on null."

[sebthom]

When we try to publish our Dart library hotreloader, the dartdoc generation task on pub.dev fails with a dartdoc internal error message.

Unhandled exception:
NoSuchMethodError: The getter 'documentationComment' was called on null.
Receiver: null
Tried calling: documentationComment
#0      Object.noSuchMethod (dart:core-patch/object_patch.dart:51:5)
#1      Accessor.computeDocumentationComment (package:dartdoc/src/model/accessor.dart:67:44)
#2      DocumentationComment.documentationComment (package:dartdoc/src/model/documentation_comment.dart:39:31)
#3      ModelElement.computeDocumentationFrom (package:dartdoc/src/model/model_element.dart:589:9)
#4      ModelElement.documentationFrom (package:dartdoc/src/model/model_element.dart:569:28)
#5      PackageGraph.precacheLocalDocs.<anonymous closure>.precacheOneElement.<anonymous closure> (package:dartdoc/src/model/package_graph.dart:109:16)
#6      _SyncIterator.moveNext (dart:core-patch/core_patch.dart:165:25)
#7      Future.wait (dart:async/future.dart:406:26)
#8      PackageGraph.initializePackageGraph (package:dartdoc/src/model/package_graph.dart:74:18)
#9      PubPackageBuilder.buildPackageGraph (package:dartdoc/src/model/package_builder.dart:77:20)
<asynchronous suspension>
#10     Dartdoc.generateDocsBase (package:dartdoc/dartdoc.dart:182:41)
#11     Dartdoc.generateDocs (package:dartdoc/dartdoc.dart:223:34)
#12     main (file:///project/pkg/pub_dartdoc/bin/pub_dartdoc.dart:32:33)
<asynchronous suspension>
#13     _startIsolate.<anonymous closure> (dart:isolate-patch/isolate_patch.dart:299:32)
#14     _RawReceivePortImpl._handleMessage (dart:isolate-patch/isolate_patch.dart:168:12)

See https://pub.dev/packages/hotreloader/score

When running dartdoc locally the documentation is generated successfully. So we cannot reproduce the issue and don't know how to prevent it.

[isoos]

I've reproduced this with both dartdoc 0.35.0 (the version we are using on pub.dev) and dartdoc 0.36.0 (the latest published). Reported at the dartdoc repository: dart-lang/dartdoc#2402

[znjameswu]

Any updates on this? dartdoc has released 0.36.2.

[jonataslaw]

The problem still persists today

[isoos]

@jonataslaw We haven't deployed a new version of pub.dev yet, and this change (among others that were marked as fixed) is not in prod. Please have a bit of patience until it happens, probably soon.