diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 25f1570..9a9dfd2 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -3,9 +3,8 @@ plugins {
     id "pmd"
     id 'maven-publish'
     id 'signing'
-    id "io.github.gradle-nexus.publish-plugin" version "1.3.0"
-    id "org.cyclonedx.bom" version "1.7.2"
-    id "com.github.spotbugs" version "5.0.13"
+    id "io.github.gradle-nexus.publish-plugin" version "2.0.0-rc-1"
+    id "org.cyclonedx.bom" version "1.7.4"
     id "org.xbib.gradle.plugin.asciidoctor" version "3.0.0"
 }
 
@@ -32,22 +31,22 @@ ext {
 apply plugin: 'java-library'
 
 dependencies {
-    testImplementation libs.charactersets
-    testImplementation libs.json
-    testImplementation libs.xalan
-    testImplementation libs.xmlunit
-    testImplementation(libs.mockito) {
+    testImplementation testLibs.charactersets
+    testImplementation testLibs.json
+    testImplementation testLibs.xalan
+    testImplementation testLibs.xmlunit
+    testImplementation(testLibs.mockito) {
         exclude group: 'org.hamcrest'
     }
-    testImplementation libs.marc4j
+    testImplementation testLibs.marc4j
 }
 
-apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/ide/idea.gradle')
+//apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/ide/idea.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/compile/java.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/test/junit5.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/repositories/maven.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/quality/cyclonedx.gradle')
-apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/quality/spotbugs.gradle')
+//apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/quality/spotbugs.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/quality/checkstyle.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/quality/pmd.gradle')
 apply from: rootProject.file('gradle/publish/maven.gradle')
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index c13c726..1c703ab 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 group = org.xbib
 name = marc
-version = 2.13.0
+version = 2.14.0
 
 org.gradle.warning.mode = ALL
diff --git a/gradle/compile/java.gradle b/gradle/compile/java.gradle
index 5f54d0b..27639f4 100644
--- a/gradle/compile/java.gradle
+++ b/gradle/compile/java.gradle
@@ -2,21 +2,14 @@
 apply plugin: 'java-library'
 
 java {
+    toolchain {
+        languageVersion = JavaLanguageVersion.of(21)
+    }
     modularity.inferModulePath.set(true)
     withSourcesJar()
     withJavadocJar()
 }
 
-compileJava {
-    sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_17
-    targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_17
-}
-
-compileTestJava {
-    sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_17
-    targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_17
-}
-
 jar {
     manifest {
         attributes('Implementation-Version': project.version)
@@ -24,6 +17,8 @@ jar {
 }
 
 tasks.withType(JavaCompile) {
+    options.fork = true
+    options.forkOptions.jvmArgs += ['-Duser.language=en','-Duser.country=US']
     options.compilerArgs << '-Xlint:all'
     options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 }
diff --git a/gradle/test/junit5.gradle b/gradle/test/junit5.gradle
index 86ad3c9..7ad10fa 100644
--- a/gradle/test/junit5.gradle
+++ b/gradle/test/junit5.gradle
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 
 dependencies {
-    testImplementation libs.junit.jupiter.api
-    testImplementation libs.junit.jupiter.params
-    testImplementation libs.hamcrest
-    testRuntimeOnly libs.junit.jupiter.engine
+    testImplementation testLibs.junit.jupiter.api
+    testImplementation testLibs.junit.jupiter.params
+    testImplementation testLibs.hamcrest
+    testRuntimeOnly testLibs.junit.jupiter.engine
 }
 
 test {
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index c1962a7..7f93135 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 8707e8b..8838ba9 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.1.1-all.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.4-all.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index aeb74cb..1aa94a4 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -83,7 +83,8 @@ done
 # This is normally unused
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
+# Discard cd standard output in case $CDPATH is set (https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/25036)
+APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" > /dev/null && pwd -P ) || exit
 
 # Use the maximum available, or set MAX_FD != -1 to use that value.
 MAX_FD=maximum
@@ -130,10 +131,13 @@ location of your Java installation."
     fi
 else
     JAVACMD=java
-    which java >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
+    if ! command -v java >/dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
 
 Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
 location of your Java installation."
+    fi
 fi
 
 # Increase the maximum file descriptors if we can.
@@ -141,7 +145,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
     case $MAX_FD in #(
       max*)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -H is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         MAX_FD=$( ulimit -H -n ) ||
             warn "Could not query maximum file descriptor limit"
     esac
@@ -149,7 +153,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
       '' | soft) :;; #(
       *)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -n is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         ulimit -n "$MAX_FD" ||
             warn "Could not set maximum file descriptor limit to $MAX_FD"
     esac
@@ -198,11 +202,11 @@ fi
 # Add default JVM options here. You can also use JAVA_OPTS and GRADLE_OPTS to pass JVM options to this script.
 DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Xmx64m" "-Xms64m"'
 
-# Collect all arguments for the java command;
-#   * $DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, $JAVA_OPTS, and $GRADLE_OPTS can contain fragments of
-#     shell script including quotes and variable substitutions, so put them in
-#     double quotes to make sure that they get re-expanded; and
-#   * put everything else in single quotes, so that it's not re-expanded.
+# Collect all arguments for the java command:
+#   * DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, and optsEnvironmentVar are not allowed to contain shell fragments,
+#     and any embedded shellness will be escaped.
+#   * For example: A user cannot expect ${Hostname} to be expanded, as it is an environment variable and will be
+#     treated as '${Hostname}' itself on the command line.
 
 set -- \
         "-Dorg.gradle.appname=$APP_BASE_NAME" \
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
index 9718d85..2cd50b0 100644
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ b/settings.gradle
@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@ pluginManagement {
 dependencyResolutionManagement {
     versionCatalogs {
         libs {
-            version('gradle', '8.1.1')
-            version('groovy', '3.0.13')
-            version('junit', '5.9.2')
-            // all dependencies are test dependencies only
+            version('gradle', '8.4')
+        }
+        testLibs {
+            version('junit', '5.10.0')
             library('junit-jupiter-api', 'org.junit.jupiter', 'junit-jupiter-api').versionRef('junit')
             library('junit-jupiter-params', 'org.junit.jupiter', 'junit-jupiter-params').versionRef('junit')
             library('junit-jupiter-engine', 'org.junit.jupiter', 'junit-jupiter-engine').versionRef('junit')
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/MarcFieldDirectory.java b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/MarcFieldDirectory.java
index 0323b33..5f42c6f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/MarcFieldDirectory.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/MarcFieldDirectory.java
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import org.xbib.marc.label.RecordLabel;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.TreeMap;
 
-@SuppressWarnings("serial")
+@SuppressWarnings({"serial", "this-escape"})
 public class MarcFieldDirectory extends TreeMap<Integer, MarcField.Builder> {
 
     public MarcFieldDirectory(RecordLabel label, String encodedDirectory) throws IOException {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/dialects/mab/xml/MabXMLContentHandler.java b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/dialects/mab/xml/MabXMLContentHandler.java
index 04345d3..7d083ed 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/dialects/mab/xml/MabXMLContentHandler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/dialects/mab/xml/MabXMLContentHandler.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ public class MabXMLContentHandler extends MarcContentHandler implements MabXMLCo
 
     private final Set<String> validNamespaces = new HashSet<>(Collections.singletonList(MABXML_NAMESPACE));
 
+    @SuppressWarnings("this-escape")
     public MabXMLContentHandler() {
         setTrim(true);
     }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/io/ScanBuffer.java b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/io/ScanBuffer.java
index 39053f8..0e1d670 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/io/ScanBuffer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/io/ScanBuffer.java
@@ -18,15 +18,16 @@ package org.xbib.marc.io;
 /**
  * Scan buffer.
  */
+@SuppressWarnings("this-escape")
 public class ScanBuffer {
 
     private boolean cs;
 
-    private char[] buffer = new char[0];
+    private char[] buffer;
 
-    private int[] buffer2 = new int[0];
+    private int[] buffer2;
 
-    private char[] token = new char[0];
+    private char[] token;
 
     private int pos;
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/tools/MarcTool.java b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/tools/MarcTool.java
index 42c46bf..6096fd2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/tools/MarcTool.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/tools/MarcTool.java
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
 import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
 import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URI;
 import java.nio.charset.Charset;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ public class MarcTool {
                 if (schema != null && stylesheet != null && result != null) {
                     System.setProperty("http.agent", "Java Agent");
                     builder.setSchema(schema).build().transform(TransformerFactory.newInstance(),
-                            new URL(stylesheet),
+                            URI.create(stylesheet).toURL(),
                             new StreamResult(Files.newBufferedWriter(Paths.get(result))));
                 } else {
                     builder.build().writeCollection(65536);
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/xml/MarcXchangeWriter.java b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/xml/MarcXchangeWriter.java
index 2d11d64..1b37c9f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/xml/MarcXchangeWriter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/xbib/marc/xml/MarcXchangeWriter.java
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ import java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream;
  * This MarcXchange Writer writes MarcXchange events to a StaX XML output stream or XML event consumer.
  * Default output format is MarcXchange.
  */
+@SuppressWarnings("this-escape")
 public class MarcXchangeWriter extends MarcContentHandler implements Flushable, Closeable {
 
     private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(MarcXchangeWriter.class.getName());