diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index 9c4faab34d..a0752203b3 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -246,15 +246,19 @@ THE SOFTWARE.
         </exclusion>
       </exclusions>
     </dependency>
+    <!--
+    still including the xpp3 driver to ensure backwards compatibilty
+    for other plugins that may be depending on it
+    -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>xpp3</groupId>
       <artifactId>xpp3</artifactId>
       <version>1.1.4c</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
-        <groupId>net.sf.kxml</groupId>
-        <artifactId>kxml2</artifactId>
-        <version>2.3.0</version>
+      <groupId>net.sf.kxml</groupId>
+      <artifactId>kxml2</artifactId>
+      <version>2.3.0</version>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>jfree</groupId>
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/XStream2.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/XStream2.java
index 13d0b359c9..4f90342ea9 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/XStream2.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/XStream2.java
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ public class XStream2 extends XStream {
     private MapperInjectionPoint mapperInjectionPoint;
 
     /**
-     * Convinience method so we only have to change the driver in one place
+     * Convenience method so we only have to change the driver in one place
      * if we switch to something new in the future
      *
      * @return a new instance of the HierarchicalStreamDriver we want to use
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/hudson/XmlFileTest.java b/core/src/test/java/hudson/XmlFileTest.java
index f4c3c42e02..69c85a93f7 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/hudson/XmlFileTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/hudson/XmlFileTest.java
@@ -20,11 +20,10 @@ public class XmlFileTest {
     @Test
     public void canReadXml1_0Test() throws IOException {
         URL configUrl = getClass().getResource("/hudson/config_1_0.xml");
-        File configFile = new File(configUrl.getFile());
         XStream2  xs = new XStream2();
         xs.alias("hudson", Jenkins.class);
 
-        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, configFile);
+        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, new File(configUrl.getFile()));
         if (xmlFile.exists()) {
             Node n = (Node) xmlFile.read();
             assertThat(n.getNumExecutors(), is(2));
@@ -38,11 +37,10 @@ public class XmlFileTest {
     @Test(expected = SAXParseException.class)
     public void xml1_0_withSpecialCharsShouldFail() throws IOException {
         URL configUrl = getClass().getResource("/hudson/config_1_0_with_special_chars.xml");
-        File configFile = new File(configUrl.getFile());
         XStream2  xs = new XStream2();
         xs.alias("hudson", Jenkins.class);
 
-        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, configFile);
+        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, new File(configUrl.getFile()));
         if (xmlFile.exists()) {
             Node n = (Node) xmlFile.read();
             assertThat(n.getNumExecutors(), is(2));
@@ -53,11 +51,10 @@ public class XmlFileTest {
     @Test
     public void canReadXml1_1Test() throws IOException {
         URL configUrl = getClass().getResource("/hudson/config_1_1.xml");
-        File configFile = new File(configUrl.getFile());
         XStream2  xs = new XStream2();
         xs.alias("hudson", Jenkins.class);
 
-        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, configFile);
+        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, new File(configUrl.getFile()));
         if (xmlFile.exists()) {
             Node n = (Node) xmlFile.read();
             assertThat(n.getNumExecutors(), is(2));
@@ -68,11 +65,10 @@ public class XmlFileTest {
     @Test
     public void canReadXmlWithControlCharsTest() throws IOException {
         URL configUrl = getClass().getResource("/hudson/config_1_1_with_special_chars.xml");
-        File configFile = new File(configUrl.getFile());
         XStream2  xs = new XStream2();
         xs.alias("hudson", Jenkins.class);
 
-        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, configFile);
+        XmlFile xmlFile =  new XmlFile(xs, new File(configUrl.getFile()));
         if (xmlFile.exists()) {
             Node n = (Node) xmlFile.read();
             assertThat(n.getNumExecutors(), is(2));
diff --git a/test/src/test/java/hudson/XMLFileTest.java b/test/src/test/java/hudson/XMLFileTest.java
index b384ee7dfb..1b3a9ff3ea 100644
--- a/test/src/test/java/hudson/XMLFileTest.java
+++ b/test/src/test/java/hudson/XMLFileTest.java
@@ -36,10 +36,12 @@ public class XMLFileTest {
         // verify that we did indeed load our test config.xml
         assertThat(j.jenkins.getLabelString(), is("I am a label"));
         //verify that the persisted top level config.xml is v1.1
-        File configFile = new File(j.jenkins.getRootPath().getRemote() + File.separator + "config.xml");
+        File configFile = new File(j.jenkins.getRootDir(), "config.xml");
         assertThat(configFile.exists(), is(true));
-        BufferedReader config = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(configFile));
-        assertThat(config.readLine(), is("<?xml version='1.1' encoding='UTF-8'?>"));
-        config.close();
+
+        try (BufferedReader config = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(configFile))) {
+            assertThat(config.readLine(), is("<?xml version='1.1' encoding='UTF-8'?>"));
+            config.close();
+        }
     }
 }