GlassFish 8.x Web Profile rejected by Add Server wizard (modules/glassfish.jar removed in GF 8)

[renatsaf]

Apache NetBeans version

Apache NetBeans 25 / dev (longstanding; affects all current versions)

What happened

Registering a GlassFish 8.x Web Profile install via Services → Servers → Add Server → GlassFish Server fails: NetBeans reports the installation as invalid and refuses the directory. The Full distribution of the same version is accepted. Reported downstream at eclipse-ee4j/glassfish#26098.

Root cause

ServerWizardIterator.isValidInstall() (module enterprise/glassfish.common) gates on finding a jar in modules/ whose name matches ServerUtilities.GFV3_JAR_MATCHER:

glassfish(?:-[0-9bSNAPHOT]+(?:\.[0-9]+(?:_[0-9]+|)|).*|).jar

This was meant to find the kernel jar modules/glassfish.jar (or glassfish-<version>.jar) shipped by GlassFish 3–7.

In GlassFish 8.x there is no modules/glassfish.jar anymore — the bootstrap jar moved to lib/bootstrap/glassfish.jar, which getJarName() (it only scans modules/) never sees. Detection then falls back to matching the loose regex against whatever else is in modules/. Matching jars present (case-sensitive, as Java matches):

Distribution	modules/*.jar that match
Full	glassfish-batch-commands.jar, glassfish-batch-connector.jar
Web Profile	(none)

The Full profile passes only by accident — glassfish-batch-*.jar matches because the char class [0-9bSNAPHOT] contains a lowercase b (glassfish-api.jar, glassfish-naming.jar, etc. do not match). The Web Profile excludes the Batch feature, so no jar qualifies, getJarName() returns null, and the install is rejected.

Note: NetBeans' actual version detection, ServerUtils.getServerVersion() (reads Bundle-Version from modules/common-util.jar), works for both profiles. Only the brittle glassfish*.jar presence gate fails.

Steps to reproduce

1. Download Eclipse GlassFish 8.0.x Web Profile, unzip.
2. Services → Servers → Add Server → GlassFish Server.
3. Point the wizard at the unzipped directory → "the installation is invalid".
4. Repeat with the Full distribution → accepted.

Proposed fix

In ServerWizardIterator.isValidInstall(), accept lib/bootstrap/glassfish.jar (present in every GF distribution, full and web) as a fallback when the legacy modules/glassfish*.jar is absent. Backward-compatible with GF 3–7; config/glassfish.container check and version resolution via getServerVersion() stay unchanged.

File jar = ServerUtilities.getJarName(glassfishDir.getAbsolutePath(), ServerUtilities.GFV3_JAR_MATCHER);
if (jar == null || !jar.exists()) {
    File bootstrapJar = new File(glassfishDir,
            "lib" + File.separator + "bootstrap" + File.separator + "glassfish.jar"); // NOI18N
    if (!bootstrapJar.exists()) {
        return null;
    }
}

I'm happy to open a PR for this.

Are you willing to submit a pull request?

Yes