diff --git a/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh b/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh
index e4fff0dbaa3d63b794cd9a2b4423864f5b3000ac..931e509c1efad5b8afa2e4c49db8536e8f02c2d2 100644
--- a/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh
+++ b/releng.control/addRepoProperties.sh
@@ -7,9 +7,17 @@ APP_NAME=org.eclipse.wtp.releng.tools.addRepoProperties
 
 devworkspace=./workspace
 
-JAVA_5_HOME=/shared/webtools/apps/ibm-java2-sdk-5.0-12.1-linux-i386
-JAVA_6_HOME=/shared/webtools/apps/ibm-java-sdk-6.0-8.1-linux-i386
+# remember to leave no slashes on filename in source command,
+# (the commonVariations.shsource file, that is)
+# so that users path is used to find it (first)
+if [ -z $BUILD_INITIALIZED ]
+then
+   source commonVariations.shsource
+   source ${RELENG_CONTROL}/commonComputedVariables.shsource
+fi
+
 export JAVA_HOME=${JAVA_6_HOME}
+
 devJRE=$JAVA_HOME/jre/bin/java
 
 ibmDevArgs="-Xms128M -Xmx256M -Dosgi.ws=gtk -Dosgi.os=linux -Dosgi.arch=x86" 
@@ -35,7 +43,7 @@ echo "BUILD_BRANCH: ${BUILD_BRANCH}";
 echo "BUILD_ID: ${BUILD_ID}";
 echo "STATS_TAG_SUFFIX: ${STATS_TAG_SUFFIX}";
 
-if [[ \( ! \( -z "${BUILD_BRANCH"} \) \) -a \( ! \( -z "${BUILD_ID}" \) \) ]]
+if [[ \( ! \( -z "${BUILD_BRANCH"} \) \) && \( ! \( -z "${BUILD_ID}" \) \) ]]
 then 
  MIRRORURL="/webtools/downloads/drops/${BUILD_BRANCH}/${BUILD_ID}/repository/"
 else