I want to use one version of the Platform with another version of the build harness. Can I?

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Yes, you can use a pristine platform download (or platform built from sources) and use an external harness from another platform version without sacrificing repeatable builds.

The simplest way to set this up is to use Tools > NetBeans Platform Manager in IDE add/switch to the platform you want to change and select harness on Harness tab. Note that in-IDE module development support defaults to using the harness included with the IDE, ignoring the harness bundled with the platform. You can also configure your module or suite manually to use a specific harness location. As described in harness/README set up a relative path for the platform, but make the harness separate, e.g.

suite.dir=${basedir}
netbeans.dest.dir=${suite.dir}/../nb_sources/nbbuild/netbeans
# Rather than:
#harness.dir=${netbeans.dest.dir}/harness
# use:
harness.dir=${suite.dir}/../special-harness