-P circumvents the additional processing needed for some props

org.jboss.Main does some special handling for some specific system properties (see JBAS-4181 for example).

So, when -b is passed in for example, it does some special things for UDP/JGroups stuff.

However, if I start JBossAS using the -P option (a properties file that sets things like jboss.bind.address and a bunch of other things), none of this special processing is done. From Main.java:

case 'P':

{ // Set system properties from url/file URL url = makeURL(getopt.getOptarg()); Properties props = System.getProperties(); props.load(url.openConnection().getInputStream()); break; }

I think that case statement needs to do the things that the case '-b' does and that case 'u' does - based on what properties were loaded from that file.