I think we should start brainstorming better ways to handle and present configuration errors in the various .xml descriptors that we have. In other words, it should be possible (somehow) for my service's start method to relate an error back to a specific line in a specific configuration file in a specific deployment unit, if there is such a line that relates to the error. So if I have a service which binds an socket, and that bind fails, it should be possible for me (as the service author) to present an error message like this: Could not bind requested address: address already in use (specified in META-INF/network-beans.xml:49 in foo-bar.jar in bla-bzzt.ear in server/default/deploy/) This implies that every bit of metadata that I assemble should be capable of having complete location information associated with it. Even better if we came up with a format-agnostic mechanism (in other words, not specific to XML) so that deployment types whose metadata is specified via properties or something else can make use of it as well. What do you guys think? Is this desirable as a feature? Any great ideas on how to actually do it? View the original post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4229574#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...