While replicating JBIDE-8863, I discovered the following. To replicate it, ensure that you have an EAR project Ear1, a util project U1, and a utility project U2.

Nest U1 inside Ear1, then nest U2 inside U1. Publish. Ensure no errors.

Trace is:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.wst.server.core 4 0 2013-02-19 18:24:30.185
!MESSAGE Could not publish to the server.
!STACK 0
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Prefix string too short
at java.io.File.createTempFile(File.java:1860)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.publishers.AbstractServerToolsPublisher.createForceZippedChild(AbstractServerToolsPublisher.java:272)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.publishers.AbstractServerToolsPublisher.transferForceZippedChild(AbstractServerToolsPublisher.java:321)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.publishers.AbstractServerToolsPublisher.fullPublish(AbstractServerToolsPublisher.java:235)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.publishers.AbstractServerToolsPublisher.publishModule(AbstractServerToolsPublisher.java:106)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.server.internal.v7.JBoss7JSTPublisher.publishModuleToAS7(JBoss7JSTPublisher.java:59)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.server.internal.v7.JBoss7JSTPublisher.publishModule(JBoss7JSTPublisher.java:39)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.publishers.AbstractPublishMethod.publishModule(AbstractPublishMethod.java:76)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.server.internal.DeployableServerBehavior.publishModule(DeployableServerBehavior.java:120)
at org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.core.server.internal.v7.DelegatingJBoss7ServerBehavior.publishModule(DelegatingJBoss7ServerBehavior.java:74)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publishModule(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:1091)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publishModules(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:1183)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publish(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:987)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publish(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:774)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.internal.Server.publishImpl(Server.java:3153)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.internal.Server$PublishJob.run(Server.java:345)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:53)