diff --git a/bucklets/onos.bucklet b/bucklets/onos.bucklet
index 03b13a9..daaed5a 100644
--- a/bucklets/onos.bucklet
+++ b/bucklets/onos.bucklet
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@
 
     if srcs:
         base = get_base_path()
-        files = '%s\n%s\n' % (name, base) + '\n'.join(['%s/%s' % (base, s) for s in srcs])
+        # module name; base filepath; files (line-separated); empty line (to signify end of stream)
+        files = '%s\n%s\n' % (name, base) + '\n'.join(['%s/%s' % (base, s) for s in srcs]) + '\n\n'
 
         genrule(
                 name = name + '-checkstyle-files',
@@ -45,7 +46,9 @@
                     '$(location //tools/build/conf:checkstyle-xml)',
                     '$(location //tools/build/conf:suppressions-xml)',
                     ],
-                test_rule_timeout_ms = 20000,
+
+                #TODO test_rule_timeout_ms seems to be ignored on Linux
+                test_rule_timeout_ms = 45000,
                 labels = [ 'checkstyle' ],
         )
 
diff --git a/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckDaemon.java b/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckDaemon.java
index 9fdfbf2..56deadd 100644
--- a/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckDaemon.java
+++ b/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckDaemon.java
@@ -16,12 +16,13 @@
 
 package org.onosproject.buckdaemon;
 
-import com.google.common.io.ByteStreams;
 import com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.api.CheckstyleException;
 import org.onosproject.checkstyle.CheckstyleRunner;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
+import java.io.PrintWriter;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.net.ServerSocket;
 import java.net.Socket;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
@@ -34,11 +35,11 @@
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Timer;
 import java.util.TimerTask;
-import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
 
-import static java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption.*;
+import static java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption.CREATE;
+import static java.nio.file.StandardOpenOption.WRITE;
 
 /**
  * Buck daemon process.
@@ -95,7 +96,7 @@
                     Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
                     p.waitFor();
                     if (p.exitValue() != 0) {
-                        System.err.println("shutting down...");
+                        debug("shutting down...");
                         System.exit(0);
                     }
                 } catch (IOException | InterruptedException e) {
@@ -115,7 +116,7 @@
         FileChannel channel = FileChannel.open(portLockPath, WRITE, CREATE);
         FileLock lock = channel.tryLock();
         if (lock == null) {
-            System.out.println("Server is already running");
+            debug("Server is already running");
             System.exit(1);
         } //else, hold the lock until the JVM exits
 
@@ -130,7 +131,7 @@
             try {
                 channel.truncate(0);
                 channel.close();
-                System.err.println("tear down...");
+                debug("tear down...");
                 Files.delete(portLockPath);
             } catch (IOException e) {
                 //no-op: shutting down
@@ -142,6 +143,7 @@
         int port = server.getLocalPort();
         channel.truncate(0);
         channel.write(ByteBuffer.wrap(Integer.toString(port).getBytes()));
+        channel.force(false); // flush the port number to disk
 
         // Instantiate a Checkstyle runner and executor; serve until exit...
         ExecutorService executor = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
@@ -171,26 +173,34 @@
         @Override
         public void run() {
             try {
-                BuckTaskContext context = new BuckTaskContext(socket.getInputStream());
-                String taskName = context.taskName();
-                if (!taskName.isEmpty()) {
+                try {
+                    socket.setSoTimeout(1_000); //reads should time out after 1 second
+                    BuckTaskContext context = new BuckTaskContext(socket.getInputStream());
+
+                    String taskName = context.taskName();
                     BuckTask task = tasks.get(taskName);
                     if (task != null) {
-                        System.out.println(String.format("Executing task '%s'", taskName));
+                        debug(String.format("Executing task '%s'", taskName));
                         try {
                             task.execute(context);
                             for (String line : context.output()) {
-                                output(socket, line);
+                                send(socket, line);
                             }
-                        // TODO should we catch Exception, RuntimeException, or something specific?
+                            // TODO should we catch Exception, RuntimeException, or something specific?
                         } catch (Throwable e) {
                             e.printStackTrace(new PrintStream(socket.getOutputStream()));
                         }
                     } else {
                         String message = String.format("No task named '%s'", taskName);
-                        System.out.print(message);
-                        output(socket, message);
+                        debug(message);
+                        send(socket, message);
                     }
+                } catch (Throwable e) {
+                    StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
+                    e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(writer));
+                    String stacktrace = writer.toString();
+                    debug(stacktrace);
+                    send(socket, stacktrace);
                 }
                 socket.getOutputStream().flush();
                 socket.close();
@@ -199,8 +209,13 @@
             }
         }
 
-        private void output(Socket socket, String line) throws IOException {
-            socket.getOutputStream().write((line + "\n").getBytes());
-        }
+    }
+
+    private static void send(Socket socket, String line) throws IOException {
+        socket.getOutputStream().write((line + "\n").getBytes());
+    }
+
+    private static void debug(String message) {
+        // no-op; print to System.out if needed
     }
 }
diff --git a/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckTaskContext.java b/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckTaskContext.java
index 7e2046f..b8d189c 100644
--- a/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckTaskContext.java
+++ b/tools/build/conf/src/main/java/org/onosproject/buckdaemon/BuckTaskContext.java
@@ -17,11 +17,12 @@
 package org.onosproject.buckdaemon;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
-import com.google.common.io.ByteStreams;
+import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkArgument;
@@ -33,17 +34,36 @@
 
     private final String taskName;
     private final ImmutableList<String> input;
-    private final List<String> output = new ArrayList<>();
+    private final List<String> output;
 
-    BuckTaskContext(InputStream inputString) throws IOException {
-        String[] split = new String(ByteStreams.toByteArray(inputString)).split("\n");
-        checkArgument(split.length >= 1, "Request must contain at least task type");
-        this.taskName = split[0];
-        ImmutableList.Builder<String> builder = ImmutableList.builder();
-        for (int i = 1; i < split.length; i++) {
-            builder.add(split[i]);
+    BuckTaskContext(InputStream inputStream) throws IOException {
+        ImmutableList<String> lines = slurpInput(inputStream);
+        checkArgument(lines.size() >= 1 && !lines.get(0).isEmpty(),
+                "Request must contain at least task type");
+        this.taskName = lines.get(0);
+        this.input = lines.subList(1, lines.size());
+        this.output = Lists.newArrayList();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Reads all input, line by line, from a stream until an empty line or EOF is encountered.
+     *
+     * @param stream input stream
+     * @return the lines of the input
+     * @throws IOException
+     */
+    private static ImmutableList<String> slurpInput(InputStream stream) throws IOException {
+        ImmutableList.Builder<String> lines = ImmutableList.builder();
+        BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
+        while(true) {
+            String line = bufferedReader.readLine();
+            if (line == null || line.trim().length() == 0) {
+                // Empty line or EOF
+                break;
+            }
+            lines.add(line);
         }
-        input = builder.build();
+        return lines.build();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tools/build/conf/start-buck-daemon b/tools/build/conf/start-buck-daemon
index e6e9c1e..b747376 100755
--- a/tools/build/conf/start-buck-daemon
+++ b/tools/build/conf/start-buck-daemon
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 }
 
 function check_socket() {
-    nc localhost $(port) < /dev/null 2>/dev/null
+    printf "\n" | nc localhost $(port) 2>/dev/null
     return $?
 }