Heya There is no automatic fall back. Currently the containers default to what ever makes sense to them. It's a bit debated up and down weather they should be 'allowed' to go outside of arq.xml or not, but currently they do. The problem with using env or system properties directly is the unpredictable nature of it, as they make the run bound to a specific environment (hidden from the users plain sight). I would in general discourage it.. You can use expressions in arq.xml to do the same: <container qualifier="Z"> <property name="X">${systemPropertyName}</property> <property name="Y">${ENV.name}</property> </container> or even override xml via system properties -Darquillian.container.Z.configuration.X=abc -aslak- ----- Original Message ----- > Hi Aslak, > > could you please remind me how properties on the > ContainerConfiguration > are supposed to get handled. I vaguely remember that there was some > auto > magic fall back to system properties if not specified in > arquillian.xml. > In AS7 ManagedContainerConfiguration we access system properties > explicitly, is this right? > > https://github.com/jbossas/jboss-as/pull/2755/files?_nid=65796751#r1250241 > > cheers > -thomas > > -- > xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Thomas Diesler > JBoss OSGi Lead > JBoss, a division of Red Hat > xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > >