Xfce: changing standard global keyboard shortcuts

Q: Did you ever face the problem with Xfce not all of the globally defined keyboard shortcuts can be changed?

In my case Eclipse IDE shortcuts that I'm used to:

• Perspective switch (Ctrl + F8)
• Editor switch (Ctrl + F6)
• ...

all of these were eaten by Xfce (as they're supposed to be used for some multi-workspace experience)
But hey! I don't use multiple workspaces! I'd rather like to use the full power of eclipse here.

Changing via UI 

But if you go over: Menu -> Settings -> Keyboad
There are not all the global shortcuts listed (at least those mentioned earlier are missing).

Looking for help

As I faced this problem already quite some time ago, I even participated in some discussions (like this on myeclipse related), and even submitted Xfce bug report.

Good old plain xml way 

But when I came back to this problem after some time, I've googled and found some references to file:
~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml

As I checked the contents, there seem to be even the shortcuts I'm facing the problem with.

I've seen there:

  <property name="xfwm4" type="empty">
    <property name="default" type="empty">
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Insert" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Escape" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Left" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Right" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Up" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Down" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Tab" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;Tab" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Delete" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Down" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Down" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F4" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F6" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F7" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F8" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F9" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F10" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F11" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F12" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;End" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;Home" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_1" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_2" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_3" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_4" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_5" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_6" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_7" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_8" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_9" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;space" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Up" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;d" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Super&gt;Tab" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F1" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F2" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F3" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F4" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F5" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F6" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F7" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F8" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F9" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F10" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F11" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F12" type="empty"/>
    </property>
    <property name="custom" type="empty">
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F3" type="string" value="workspace_3_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F4" type="string" value="workspace_4_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F5" type="string" value="workspace_5_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F6" type="string" value="workspace_6_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F7" type="string" value="workspace_7_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F8" type="string" value="workspace_8_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F9" type="string" value="workspace_9_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Tab" type="string" value="cycle_windows_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="string" value="right_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="Left" type="string" value="left_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;d" type="string" value="show_desktop_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="string" value="move_window_left_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="string" value="move_window_right_key"/>
      <property name="Up" type="string" value="up_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F4" type="string" value="close_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F6" type="string" value="stick_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Down" type="string" value="down_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F7" type="string" value="move_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F9" type="string" value="hide_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F11" type="string" value="fullscreen_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F8" type="string" value="resize_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Super&gt;Tab" type="string" value="switch_window_key"/>
      <property name="Escape" type="string" value="cancel_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_1" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_1_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_2" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_2_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_3" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_3_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_4" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_4_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_5" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_5_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_6" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_6_key"/>
      <property name="Down" type="string" value="down_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="string" value="move_window_up_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Down" type="string" value="lower_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F12" type="string" value="above_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_8" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_8_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_9" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_9_key"/>
      <property name="Right" type="string" value="right_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F10" type="string" value="maximize_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="string" value="up_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F10" type="string" value="workspace_10_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_7" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_7_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;End" type="string" value="move_window_next_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Delete" type="string" value="del_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="string" value="left_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F12" type="string" value="workspace_12_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;space" type="string" value="popup_menu_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;Tab" type="string" value="cycle_reverse_windows_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Up" type="string" value="raise_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Insert" type="string" value="add_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;Home" type="string" value="move_window_prev_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F2" type="string" value="workspace_2_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F1" type="string" value="workspace_1_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F11" type="string" value="workspace_11_key"/>
      <property name="override" type="bool" value="true"/>
    </property>
  </property>

That sounds promissing! Let's remove multi-workspace relevant and see if that helps.

After my update:

  <property name="xfwm4" type="empty">
    <property name="default" type="empty">
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Insert" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Escape" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Left" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Right" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Up" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Down" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Tab" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;Tab" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Delete" type="empty"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Down" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="empty"/>
-->
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Down" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F4" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F6" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F7" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F8" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F9" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F10" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F11" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F12" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="empty"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;End" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;Home" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="empty"/>

      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_1" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_2" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_3" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_4" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_5" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_6" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_7" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_8" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_9" type="empty"/>
-->
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;space" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Up" type="empty"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="empty"/>
-->
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;d" type="empty"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="empty"/>
-->
      <property name="&lt;Super&gt;Tab" type="empty"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F1" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F2" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F3" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F4" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F5" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F6" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F7" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F8" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F9" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F10" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F11" type="empty"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F12" type="empty"/>
-->
    </property>
    <property name="custom" type="empty">
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F3" type="string" value="workspace_3_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F4" type="string" value="workspace_4_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F5" type="string" value="workspace_5_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F6" type="string" value="workspace_6_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F7" type="string" value="workspace_7_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F8" type="string" value="workspace_8_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F9" type="string" value="workspace_9_key"/>
-->
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Tab" type="string" value="cycle_windows_key"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="string" value="right_workspace_key"/>
-->
      <property name="Left" type="string" value="left_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;d" type="string" value="show_desktop_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="string" value="move_window_left_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Right" type="string" value="move_window_right_key"/>
      <property name="Up" type="string" value="up_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F4" type="string" value="close_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F6" type="string" value="stick_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Down" type="string" value="down_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F7" type="string" value="move_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F9" type="string" value="hide_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F11" type="string" value="fullscreen_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F8" type="string" value="resize_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Super&gt;Tab" type="string" value="switch_window_key"/>
      <property name="Escape" type="string" value="cancel_key"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_1" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_1_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_2" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_2_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_3" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_3_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_4" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_4_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_5" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_5_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_6" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_6_key"/>
-->
      <property name="Down" type="string" value="down_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="string" value="move_window_up_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Down" type="string" value="lower_window_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F12" type="string" value="above_key"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_8" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_8_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_9" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_9_key"/>
-->
      <property name="Right" type="string" value="right_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;F10" type="string" value="maximize_window_key"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Up" type="string" value="up_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F10" type="string" value="workspace_10_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;KP_7" type="string" value="move_window_workspace_7_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;End" type="string" value="move_window_next_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Delete" type="string" value="del_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Left" type="string" value="left_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F12" type="string" value="workspace_12_key"/>
-->
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;space" type="string" value="popup_menu_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;Tab" type="string" value="cycle_reverse_windows_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;Page_Up" type="string" value="raise_window_key"/>
<!--
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;Insert" type="string" value="add_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Control&gt;Home" type="string" value="move_window_prev_workspace_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F2" type="string" value="workspace_2_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F1" type="string" value="workspace_1_key"/>
      <property name="&lt;Control&gt;F11" type="string" value="workspace_11_key"/>
-->
      <property name="override" type="bool" value="true"/>
    </property>

to be honest, I'm not sure if I need to update them in both sections, but to make things fast, let's do so.

OK, I guess I need to log-out/and in and see if that helped.

And as you could guess it...... worked!  (otherwise I would not write a blog post, right? :-) )

Xfce: keyboard layouts

If you use multiple keyboard layouts on the Xfce, you might have noticed problems on restart of the system, that all layouts added via keyboard plugin are gone.

Well that is quite annoying to add these each time you need it.

As I searched for the problem (whether I'm the only one facing it), I've found following bug reports:
- ubuntu bug report
- upstream bug report
- arch linux discussion (with possibly working patch)

However, as I'm not willing to build some xfce components myself, I rather searched for a workaround.

Workaround found

After briefly reading the notes in the ubuntu bug report I've found following idea: Adding keyboard layout via Menu -> System -> Settings -> Keyboard (hope the names are exact, as for me it's Menu -> Einstellungen -> Tastatur) solves the problem.

As it seems the settings section saves preferences to permanent store, however keyboard plugin uses some other place (that possibly gets overwritten by the settings one).

Thunderbird addon: FireTray

If you're using Thunderbird on Linux, FireTray should be one of the must addons to use.

At least for me, as I have previous Outlook experience, following was missing in the default Thunderbird features:

• minimize to system tray on main window close
• show unread messages count in system tray

The first one, I used to solve with MinimizeToTray revived addon, however FireTray does for me both.

The only disadvantage for some I guess might be that FireTray seems to be supported on Linux only. However that's perfectly fine with my environment.

Java web start: running unsigned jars

Q: Did you ever need to run unsigned jar files referred from jnlp (java web start)?

There is a simple (but dangerous) way.
There might be various reasons such a bad thing (bad from the security point of view), but most probably to speed up development (as jars signing is quite time intensive process).

Depending if you have jdk/jre installed add to the file (in my case jdk installed):

$JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/javaws.policy

following:

grant {
    permission java.security.AllPermission;
};

Since now on you should be able to run even unsigned code started using javaws command.

Maven: listing dependencies

Q: Did you ever try to find out all the dependencies in the maven project (even transitive ones)?
A: maven-dependency-plugin should help here.

Following is the command I use to find out:

mvn dependency:tree -Dverbose

Linux: showing full path of command

Q: Did you ever face the problem that you used the command that just worked for you, but you didn't have any idea where the script itself is located?
A: Life is simple here, just use command: which.

As an example, imagine you'd like to find out where the famous cp command is located, you'd run (included with the output in my case as well):

which cp
/usr/bin/cp

now you know :)

This is really powerful mostly for those scripts with multiple versions present on the system. To ensure you use the correct one.

If interested in full power, check the man page: http://www.linuxmanpages.com/man1/which.1.php

Glassfish: default keystore and truststore

Q: Do you need to use keystores/truststores of the glassfish OSE?

There are 2 files you should be interested in (please note domain1 used by me):

• $GLASSFISH_HOME/domains/domain1/config/cacerts.jks - truststore - holding all the public keys
• $GLASSFISH_HOME/domains/domain1/config/keystore.jks - keystore - holding all the private keys

The default alias used for the secured http-listeners is called: s1as.

To examine the contents

To list truststore contents use:

keytool -list -v -storepass changeit -keystore $GLASSFISH_HOME/domains/domain1/config/keystore.jks
keytool -list -v -storepass changeit -keystore $GLASSFISH_HOME/domains/domain1/config/cacerts.jks

Please note that you need to adapt path to keystores, depending on domains used as well as password you have configured for glassfish to protect the keystore/truststore.

Digging deeper

Default keys are generated during domain creation via asadmin's create-domain command.

Implementation is present in (in my case I refer to version 3.1.1): https://svn.java.net/svn/glassfish~svn/tags/3.1.1/admin/server-mgmt/src/main/java/com/sun/enterprise/admin/servermgmt/KeystoreManager.java
see methods:

createKeyStore()
createTrustStore()

Glassfish: sources

Where are all those sources of the glassfish that one can use for addapting the behavior/studing the way it operates?

I've found following link for svn access:

https://svn.java.net/svn/glassfish~svn

Therefor as in my case if I need 3.1.1 version I can obtain it simply via:

svn co https://svn.java.net/svn/glassfish~svn/tags/3.1.1/ glassfish_3.1.1

Java Web Start: debugging

Have you ever been in a need to debug JWS application?

One way to do the trick is to adapt environment variable: JAVAWS_VM_ARGS

As I'm running linux and need this in my daily work, I added following to my .bashrc file:

export JAVAWS_VM_ARGS="-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=9010,server=y,suspend=n -XX:MaxPermSize=128m"

Some notes:

• suspend=n - this makes sence for me, as I'm not waiting for debugger to connect. To make sure I connect only once I'm interested. And app won't get stuck
• -XX:MaxPermSize=128m - is not related to debugging but rather to memory, feel free to remove/adapt to your needs

After jws runs, I can connect from eclipse to port configured, in my case: 9010 (use the one that fits your environment) and remotely debug the app.

That's it. Easy, right?

There are however also some disadvatages of my simple solution.
Major one is that I can have only one JWS instance running at time. As there is a port conflict (same ons is in use for every one), but I can live with that.

Glassfish: Exception while shutting down application container : java.lang.NullPointerException

OK, this one is one of the crazy ones :)
Have you ever seen exception like this in your glassfish server logs during ear deployment?

[#|2013-02-05T08:08:40.769+0100|SEVERE|glassfish3.1.1|javax.enterprise.system.tools.admin.org.glassfish.deployment.admin|_ThreadID=90;_ThreadName=Thread-2;|Exception while shutting down application container|#]

[#|2013-02-05T08:08:40.938+0100|SEVERE|glassfish3.1.1|javax.enterprise.system.tools.admin.org.glassfish.deployment.admin|_ThreadID=90;_ThreadName=Thread-2;|Exception while shutting down application container : java.lang.NullPointerException|#]

Well I did, today. And as I've googled, noone could ever get some more meaningfull stacktrace out of it. Sounds like a nightmare. So where the problem could be?

In development following rule usually works for me:
If you can't get any meaningful information on the problem you're facing and googling didn't help, think of what has been changed since the last success. 
(Well this doesn't seem to be always applicable, but most of the time it is)

This rule was also worked for another guy facing similar exception.

Well in my case too many things changed, but I had backup of the last successfully built artifact. Comparing it with the latest one I've found out that I forgot to include commons-pool dependency in my ear file. So finally following did the trick for me:

<dependency>
 <groupId>commons-pool</groupId>
 <artifactId>commons-pool</artifactId>
 <version>1.6</version>
 <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

As I introduced for client-server communication spring remoting (as a corba alternative) where pooling is used.

So hey, that wasn't so bad although exception handling of glassfish didn't show something useful! I tought I'll be stuck here for at least a day :)

Maven: debugging

If you've ever been in the situation that you'd need to debug maven build, these are the options that could help.

Debugging maven run

If you need to debug maven plugins run itself use instead of standard:

mvn <your sfuff>

the debug one:

mvnDebug <your sfuff>

It should tell you it's waiting for connection, in a way like this:

Preparing to Execute Maven in Debug Mode
Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 8000

Afterwards use your preffered way to connect to socket 8000 via remote debugger. (For eclipse steps can be found here, or googled)

Debugging test execution

If you need to debug maven-surefire-plugin run use following:

mvn -Dmaven.surefire.debug test

It would wait for connection, in a way like this:

Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 5005

Afterwards use your preffered way to connect to socket 5005 via remote debugger. (For eclipse steps can be found here, or googled)
Easy, isn't it?