Test logs (for at least C/C++ pack tests) have lots of "Parameter file was not normalized" stack traces:


INFO: Parameter file was not normalized. Was \Preferences\org\netbeans\modules\nativeexecution\api\util.properties(class java.io.File) instead of C:\Preferences\org\netbeans\modules\nativeexecution\api\util.properties(class java.io.File)
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Parameter file was not normalized. Was \Preferences\org\netbeans\modules\nativeexecution\api\util.properties(class java.io.File) instead of C:\Preferences\org\netbeans\modules\nativeexecution\api\util.properties(class java.io.File)
	at org.openide.filesystems.FileUtil.toFileObject(FileUtil.java:881)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.PropertiesStorage.toPropertiesFile(PropertiesStorage.java:329)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.PropertiesStorage.outputStream(PropertiesStorage.java:263)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.PropertiesStorage.save(PropertiesStorage.java:237)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.NbPreferences.flushSpi(NbPreferences.java:244)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.NbPreferences$1$1.run(NbPreferences.java:86)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.PropertiesStorage$3.run(PropertiesStorage.java:354)
	at org.openide.filesystems.EventControl.runAtomicAction(EventControl.java:127)
	at org.openide.filesystems.FileSystem.runAtomicAction(FileSystem.java:609)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.PropertiesStorage.runAtomic(PropertiesStorage.java:352)
	at org.netbeans.core.startup.preferences.NbPreferences$1.run(NbPreferences.java:81)
	at org.openide.util.RequestProcessor$Task.run(RequestProcessor.java:1423)
	at org.openide.util.RequestProcessor$Processor.run(RequestProcessor.java:2033)


This is a consequence of change set 
http://hg.netbeans.org/core-main/rev/5554af903e4b
that was supposed to fix issue #235625

This change set looks for a file on disk 
that has the same path as properties storage.
But properties storage resides not on disk, but in System file system.
It seems this does not make sense.

But even if it does, it breaks the rule that FileUtil.toFileObject should be called or normalized files. So at least 
retval = FileUtil.toFileObject(new File(FileUtil.toFile(SFS_ROOT), filePath()));
should be changed to 
retval = FileUtil.toFileObject(FileUtil.normalizeFile(new File(FileUtil.toFile(SFS_ROOT), filePath())));

Pleas note that on Windows it tries to find file "\Preferences\org\netbeans\modules...", so the file object is always null.