Thanks Jonah
              
              I now can at least say the JRE inside a Feature is valid
              approach and still in use.  
              
              I can confirm the issue does occur in 0.25.0, not just
              0.26.0-SNAPSHOT.  I can also say that the error occurs
              with each of the four JRE Feature projects, not just the 
jre.linux.gtk.x86_64.Feature
              project.  
              
              I have added a typical 
pom.xml,
              
feature.xml and 
build.properties files for
              additional background.  
              
              Creating a MCVE is no small task, the application stands a
              ~5,000 files, and will require more time then I have. 
              Something that works 'live' is due in 7 days for a
              conference.  When the conference is over I can try then. 
              I was hoping to get this working for the conference.
              
              ====================================== jre.*.*.*.Feature
=======pom.xml===============================================================
              <project xmlns=
"http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
              xmlns:xsi=
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                  xsi:schemaLocation=
"http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
                http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
                  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
                  <name>Usque linux JRE feature</name>
                  <groupId>software.usque.features</groupId>
                 
              <artifactId>jre.linux.gtk.x86_64.Feature</artifactId>
                  <packaging>eclipse-feature</packaging>   
              
                  <parent>
                      <groupId>software.usque</groupId>
                     
              <artifactId>software.usque.features</artifactId>
                      <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
                     
<relativePath>../../releng/software.usque.releng.parent/features/pom.xml</relativePath>
                  </parent>
              </project>
============================================================================================================
              
              =======================================jre.master.Feature
feature.xml====================================================================
              <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
              <feature
                    id="jre.master.Feature"
                    label="JRE MASTER Feature"
                    version="0.0.1.qualifier"
                    provider-name="Ortho Group LLC"
                    plugin="software.usque">
              
                 <description url="" moz-do-not-send="true"
                href="http://www.example.com/description"
                target="_blank">"http://www.example.com/description">
                    [Enter Feature Description here.]
                 </description>
              
                 <copyright url="" moz-do-not-send="true"
                href="http://www.example.com/copyright" target="_blank">"http://www.example.com/copyright">
                    [Enter Copyright Description here.]
                 </copyright>
              
                 <license url="" moz-do-not-send="true"
                href="http://www.example.com/license" target="_blank">"http://www.example.com/license">
                    [Enter License Description here.]
                 </license>
              
                 <includes
                       id="jre.linux.gtk.x86_64.Feature"
                       version="0.0.1"
                       optional="true"
                       os="linux"
                       ws="gtk"
                       arch="x86_64"/>
              
                 <includes
                       id="jre.macosx.cocoa.x86_64.Feature"
                       version="0.0.1"
                       optional="true"
                       os="macosx"
                       ws="cocoa"
                       arch="x86_64"/>
              
                 <includes
                       id="jre.win32.win32.x86_64.Feature"
                       version="0.0.1"
                       optional="true"
                       os="win32"
                       ws="win32"
                       arch="x86_64"/>
              
                 <includes
                       id="jre.win32.win32.x86.Feature"
                       version="0.0.1"
                       optional="true"
                       os="win32"
                       ws="win32"
                       arch="x86"/>
              
              </feature>
              
================================================================================================================================
              
              =============================== jre.*.*.*.Feature
              ===========
              feature.xml=============================================================
              <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
              <feature
                    id="jre.linux.gtk.x86_64.Feature"
                    label="JRE Linux Feature"
                    version="0.0.1.qualifier"
                    provider-name="Ortho Group LLC"
                    plugin="software.usque"
                    os="linux">
              
                 <description url="" moz-do-not-send="true"
                href="http://www.example.com/description"
                target="_blank">"http://www.example.com/description">
                    [Enter Feature Description here.]
                 </description>
              
                 <copyright url="" moz-do-not-send="true"
                href="http://www.example.com/copyright" target="_blank">"http://www.example.com/copyright">
                    [Enter Copyright Description here.]
                 </copyright>
              
                 <license url="" moz-do-not-send="true"
                href="http://www.example.com/license" target="_blank">"http://www.example.com/license">
                    [Enter License Description here.]
                 </license>
              
              </feature>
              
=========================================================================================================================================
              =============================== jre.*.*.*.Feature
========build.properties=====================================================================
              bin.includes = .,\
                             feature.xml
=========================================================================================================================================