Different behaviour reading static field Windows vs Linux

Question

I have a class B that is a subclass of class A. Class A has a protected static field. In windows, reading this field from a static method of class B yields the desired results, meaning that the field has the value updated somewhere else. Running the same code in Linux, the field contains the value assigned to it at declaration time:
It goes like this:
package packageA;
public class A
protected static Collection items = new ArrayList();
public static void addItem(Object item)
items.add(item);
} // class A
package packageB;
public class B
extends A
public static void methodA()
System.out.println(A.modules.size());
System.out.println(B.modules.getSize());
System.out.println(modules.size());
} // class B
import packageA.A;
import packageB.B;
public static void void main(String[] args)
Object item;
item = new String("");
A.addItem(item);
B.method();
} // main(String[])
What is even more strange, is that if I run the above example in a new project, the results are as expected. But if I run this other project I am working on, the results are as if B.items is independent of A.items. Even if I implement a method A.getItems() and call it from B.method() to store the items in a variable local to B.method(), the result is an empty ArrayList.
My first attempt was to place the A and B classes in the same package, and since the results were as expected, I changed each class to its own package and the Main class to an independent package. The results do not change in this scenario.
Your help is appreciated.
The environment is:
Netbeans 5.5
JRE 1.6.0-b105
xubuntu (Linux 2.6.20-16-generic i686 GNU/Linux(
Juan Carlos

Answer 1

I have just noticed that the "odd" behaviour does not happen everywhere (but it does happen everytime).
I realized that there is another part of code that references the same static field and the value in that case is the correct one.
Also, while debugging under Netbeans (on the line of code that gives the unexpected value), the "tip" that is displayed when the cursor is placed over the name of the field, the value is correct.
So I decided to check the Call Stack and noticed some Hidden Source Calls. They are hidden because of a call to LoginContext.login() Furthermore, that call results in a call to AccessController.doPrivileged()
Could that be the problem? If so, how do I solve it. At this point I am lost here, I don't have an idea of where to go now.
Thanks.
JC