[jboss-as7-dev] Deployment -- why marker files?

[Howard Gao]

Hi,

In AS7 it uses a bunch of 'Marker files' to control and indicate a 
deployment. Comparing to previous AS 4 I found this is not so 
convenient. For example if I want to deploy an EJB jar I need to drop it 
to the /deployments dir and create a .dodeploy marker file. And if my 
EJB failed to deploy the marker file changed to .fail mark file. In a 
debug process this deployment can be repeated many times, each time a 
.dodeploy has to be manually added. And that's for a single EJB. If I 
have 5 EJB jars deployed I need file marker files manually created.

In AS 4 I just drop it and done. I wonder what's the good reason for 
those marker files? From a user's point of view, for what other purposes 
could it be to drop something to the deployments directory than for 
deploying it right away?

Thanks
Howard