Hi Lawrence,
Thanks for your kind words.
I would still believe "\u" definitely causes the error and it does not rely on other factors.
(Mostly due to the fact that I'm saying this remotely.. Besides that, we are not involving dynamic factors like network, racing, etc)
Afaik, the config.properties file comes with guilty "\u" after installation.
Indeed under this case it's unwise for PcdCheckTool to read it via Properties.load() method.
Nevertheless if you ever change the connection property in configtool, the "\u" will automatically become "/u", and issue won't occur.
Otherwise you have to change "\u" to "/u" or "\\u" manually.
In contrary, configtool (7.3 +) reads "\u", "/u" and "\\u" perfectly. Why?
Configtool implemented its own method to avoid this IllegalArgumentException. (checked on 7.3)
(It was also using Properties.load in earlier releases)
Perhaps it's because configtool is much more popular than PcdCheckTool.
BR, Tom