diff --git a/distribution/src/main/bin/ycsb b/distribution/src/main/bin/ycsb
index 8ca3b098..50b52fe8 100755
--- a/distribution/src/main/bin/ycsb
+++ b/distribution/src/main/bin/ycsb
@@ -1,114 +1,98 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
 import os
 import sys
 import subprocess
 
 COMMANDS = {
     "load" : {
         "command"     : "-load",
         "description" : "Execute the load phase",
     },
     "run" : {
         "command"     : "-t",
         "description" : "Execute the transaction phase",
     },
 }
 
 DATABASES = {
     "basic"        : "com.yahoo.ycsb.BasicDB",
     "cassandra-7"  : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.CassandraClient7",
     "cassandra-8"  : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.CassandraClient8",
     "cassandra-10" : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.CassandraClient10",
+    "gemfire"      : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.GemFireClient",
     "hbase"        : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.HBaseClient",
     "infinispan"   : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.InfinispanClient",
     "jdbc"         : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.JdbcDBClient",
     "mapkeeper"    : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.MapKeeperClient",
     "mongodb"      : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.MongoDbClient",
     "redis"        : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.RedisClient", 
     "voldemort"    : "com.yahoo.ycsb.db.VoldemortClient", 
 }
 
 OPTIONS = {
     "-p key=value" : "Override workload property",
     "-s"           : "Print status to stderr",
     "-target n"    : "Target ops/sec (default: unthrottled)",
     "-threads n"   : "Number of client threads (default: 1)",
 }
+
 def usage():
-    usage = "Usage: %s command database workload-file [options]" % sys.argv[0]
-    print usage
+    print "Usage: %s command database workload-file [options]" % sys.argv[0]
 
-    print "Commands:"
+    print "\nCommands:"
     for command in sorted(COMMANDS.keys()):
         print "    {0:13} {1}".format(command, COMMANDS[command]["description"])
-    print
 
-    print "Databases:"
+    print "\nDatabases:"
     for db in sorted(DATABASES.keys()):
         print "    %s" % db
-    print
 
-    print """Workload Files:
+    print """\nWorkload Files:
     There are various predefined workloads under workloads/ directory.
     See https://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB/wiki/Core-Properties
-    for the list of workload properties.
-    """
+    for the list of workload properties."""
 
-    print "Options:"
+    print "\nOptions:"
     for option in sorted(OPTIONS.keys()):
         print "    {0:13} {1}".format(option, OPTIONS[option])
     sys.exit(1)
 
 def find_jars(dir, database):
     jars = []
-    print database
     for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(dir):
+        if dirpath.endswith("conf"):
+            jars.append(dirpath)
         for filename in filenames:
-            print filename
             if filename.endswith(".jar") and \
-               filename.startswith("core") or filename.startswith(database.split("-")[0]):
-                print filename
+               filename.startswith("core") or \
+               filename.startswith(database.split("-")[0]):
                 jars.append(os.path.join(dirpath, filename))
     return jars
 
 def get_ycsb_home():
     dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0]))
     while "CHANGELOG" not in os.listdir(dir):
         dir = os.path.join(dir, os.path.pardir)
-    return os.path.abspath(dir )
-
-def get_command():
-    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
-        usage()
-    if sys.argv[1] not in COMMANDS:
-        print "ERROR: Command '%s' not found" % sys.argv[1]
-        usage()
-    return COMMANDS[sys.argv[1]]["command"]
-
-def get_database():
-    if len(sys.argv) < 3:
-        usage()
-    if sys.argv[2] not in DATABASES:
-        print "ERROR: Database '%s' not found" % sys.argv[2]
-        usage()
-    return sys.argv[2], DATABASES[sys.argv[2]]
+    return os.path.abspath(dir)
 
-def get_workload():
-    if len(sys.argv) < 4:
-        usage()
-    return sys.argv[3]
-
-def get_options():
-    return sys.argv[4:]
+if len(sys.argv) < 4:
+    usage()
+if sys.argv[1] not in COMMANDS:
+    print "ERROR: Command '%s' not found" % sys.argv[1]
+    usage()
+if sys.argv[2] not in DATABASES:
+    print "ERROR: Database '%s' not found" % sys.argv[2]
+    usage()
 
 ycsb_home = get_ycsb_home()
-command = get_command()
-database, db_classname = get_database()
-workload = get_workload()
-options = get_options()
+command = COMMANDS[sys.argv[1]]["command"]
+database = sys.argv[2]
+db_classname = DATABASES[database]
+workload = sys.argv[3]
+options = sys.argv[4:]
+
 ycsb_command = ["java", "-cp", ":".join(find_jars(ycsb_home, database)), \
                 "com.yahoo.ycsb.Client", command, "-db", db_classname, \
                 "-P", workload] + options
-print " ".join(ycsb_command)
 subprocess.call(ycsb_command)
diff --git a/gemfire/pom.xml b/gemfire/pom.xml
index ba979440..63acb5d2 100644
--- a/gemfire/pom.xml
+++ b/gemfire/pom.xml
@@ -1,63 +1,58 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <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/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>org.apache.ycsb</groupId>
     <artifactId>root</artifactId>
     <version>0.1.3</version>
   </parent>
   
   <artifactId>gemfire-binding</artifactId>
   <name>Gemfire DB Binding</name>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.gemstone.gemfire</groupId>
       <artifactId>gemfire</artifactId>
       <version>6.6</version>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
-      <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
-      <version>${gemfire.version}</version>
-    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.ycsb</groupId>
       <artifactId>core</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   
   <repositories>
     <repository>
       <id>gemstone</id>
       <url>http://dist.gemstone.com.s3.amazonaws.com/maven/release/</url>
     </repository>
   </repositories>	
  
   <build>
     <plugins>
      <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>${maven.assembly.version}</version>
         <configuration>
           <descriptorRefs>
             <descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
           </descriptorRefs>
           <appendAssemblyId>false</appendAssemblyId>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <phase>package</phase>
             <goals>
               <goal>single</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
 </project>
diff --git a/mapkeeper/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/MapKeeperClient.java b/mapkeeper/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/MapKeeperClient.java
index 594c9308..5af5ed9e 100644
--- a/mapkeeper/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/MapKeeperClient.java
+++ b/mapkeeper/src/main/java/com/yahoo/ycsb/db/MapKeeperClient.java
@@ -1,196 +1,202 @@
 package com.yahoo.ycsb.db;
 
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.Vector;
 
 import org.apache.thrift.TException;
 import org.apache.thrift.protocol.TBinaryProtocol;
 import org.apache.thrift.protocol.TProtocol;
 import org.apache.thrift.transport.TFramedTransport;
 import org.apache.thrift.transport.TSocket;
 import org.apache.thrift.transport.TTransport;
 
 import com.yahoo.mapkeeper.BinaryResponse;
 import com.yahoo.mapkeeper.MapKeeper;
 import com.yahoo.mapkeeper.Record;
 import com.yahoo.mapkeeper.RecordListResponse;
 import com.yahoo.mapkeeper.ResponseCode;
 import com.yahoo.mapkeeper.ScanOrder;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.ByteIterator;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.DB;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.StringByteIterator;
 import com.yahoo.ycsb.workloads.CoreWorkload;
 
 public class MapKeeperClient extends DB {
+    private static final String HOST = "mapkeeper.host";
+    private static final String HOST_DEFAULT = "localhost";
+    private static final String PORT = "mapkeeper.port";
+    private static final String PORT_DEFAULT = "9090";
     MapKeeper.Client c; 
     boolean writeallfields;
     static boolean initteddb = false;
     private synchronized static void initDB(Properties p, MapKeeper.Client c) throws TException {
         if(!initteddb) {
             initteddb = true;
             c.addMap(p.getProperty(CoreWorkload.TABLENAME_PROPERTY, CoreWorkload.TABLENAME_PROPERTY_DEFAULT));
         }
     }
 
     public void init() {
-        TTransport tr = new TFramedTransport(new TSocket("localhost", 9090));
+        String host = getProperties().getProperty(HOST, HOST_DEFAULT);
+        int port = Integer.parseInt(getProperties().getProperty(PORT, PORT_DEFAULT));
+        TTransport tr = new TFramedTransport(new TSocket(host, port));
         TProtocol proto = new TBinaryProtocol(tr);
         c = new MapKeeper.Client(proto);
         try {
             tr.open();
             initDB(getProperties(), c);
         } catch(TException e) {
             throw new RuntimeException(e);
         }
         writeallfields = Boolean.parseBoolean(getProperties().getProperty(CoreWorkload.WRITE_ALL_FIELDS_PROPERTY, 
                     CoreWorkload.WRITE_ALL_FIELDS_PROPERTY_DEFAULT));
     }
 
     ByteBuffer encode(HashMap<String, ByteIterator> values) {
         int len = 0;
         for(String k : values.keySet()) {
             len += (k.length() + 1 + values.get(k).bytesLeft() + 1);
         }
         byte[] array = new byte[len];
         int i = 0;
         for(String k : values.keySet()) {
             for(int j = 0; j < k.length(); j++) {
                 array[i] = (byte)k.charAt(j);
                 i++;
             }
             array[i] = '\t'; // XXX would like to use sane delimiter (null, 254, 255, ...) but java makes this nearly impossible
             i++;
             ByteIterator v = values.get(k);
             i = v.nextBuf(array, i);
             array[i] = '\t';
             i++;
         }
         array[array.length-1] = 0;
         ByteBuffer buf = ByteBuffer.wrap(array);
         buf.rewind();
         return buf;
     }
     void decode(Set<String> fields, String tups, HashMap<String, ByteIterator> tup) {
         String[] tok = tups.split("\\t");
         if(tok.length == 0) { throw new IllegalStateException("split returned empty array!"); }
         for(int i = 0; i < tok.length; i+=2) {
             if(fields == null || fields.contains(tok[i])) {
                 if(tok.length < i+2) { throw new IllegalStateException("Couldn't parse tuple <" + tups + "> at index " + i); }
                 if(tok[i] == null || tok[i+1] == null) throw new NullPointerException("Key is " + tok[i] + " val is + " + tok[i+1]);
                 tup.put(tok[i], new StringByteIterator(tok[i+1]));
             }
         }
         if(tok.length == 0) {
             System.err.println("Empty tuple: " + tups);
         }
     }
 
     int ycsbThriftRet(BinaryResponse succ, ResponseCode zero, ResponseCode one) {
         return ycsbThriftRet(succ.responseCode, zero, one);
     }
     int ycsbThriftRet(ResponseCode rc, ResponseCode zero, ResponseCode one) {
         return
             rc == zero ? 0 :
             rc == one  ? 1 : 2;
     }
     ByteBuffer bufStr(String str) {
         ByteBuffer buf = ByteBuffer.wrap(str.getBytes());
         return buf;
     }
     String strResponse(BinaryResponse buf) {
         return new String(buf.value.array());
     }
 
     @Override
     public int read(String table, String key, Set<String> fields,
             HashMap<String, ByteIterator> result) {
         try {
             ByteBuffer buf = bufStr(key);
 
             BinaryResponse succ = c.get(table, buf);
 
             int ret = ycsbThriftRet(
                     succ,
                     ResponseCode.RecordExists,
                     ResponseCode.RecordNotFound);
 
             if(ret == 0) {
                 decode(fields, strResponse(succ), result);
             }
             return ret;
         } catch(TException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
             return 2;
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public int scan(String table, String startkey, int recordcount,
             Set<String> fields, Vector<HashMap<String, ByteIterator>> result) {
         try {
             //XXX what to pass in for nulls / zeros?
             RecordListResponse res = c.scan(table, ScanOrder.Ascending, bufStr(startkey), true, null, false, recordcount, 0);
             int ret = ycsbThriftRet(res.responseCode, ResponseCode.Success, ResponseCode.ScanEnded);
             if(ret == 0) {
                 for(Record r : res.records) {
                     HashMap<String, ByteIterator> tuple = new HashMap<String, ByteIterator>();
                     // Note: r.getKey() and r.getValue() call special helper methods that trim the buffer
                     // to an appropriate length, and memcpy it to a byte[].  Trying to manipulate the ByteBuffer
                     // directly leads to trouble.
                     tuple.put("key", new StringByteIterator(new String(r.getKey())));
                     decode(fields, new String(r.getValue())/*strBuf(r.bufferForValue())*/, tuple);
                     result.add(tuple);
                 }
             }
             return ret;
         } catch(TException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
             return 2;
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public int update(String table, String key,
             HashMap<String, ByteIterator> values) {
         try {
             if(!writeallfields) {
                 HashMap<String, ByteIterator> oldval = new HashMap<String, ByteIterator>();
                 read(table, key, null, oldval);
                 for(String k: values.keySet()) {
                     oldval.put(k, values.get(k));
                 }
                 values = oldval;
             }
             ResponseCode succ = c.update(table, bufStr(key), encode(values));
             return ycsbThriftRet(succ, ResponseCode.RecordExists, ResponseCode.RecordNotFound);
         } catch(TException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
             return 2;
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public int insert(String table, String key,
             HashMap<String, ByteIterator> values) {
         try {
             int ret = ycsbThriftRet(c.insert(table, bufStr(key), encode(values)), ResponseCode.Success, ResponseCode.RecordExists);
             return ret;
         } catch(TException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
             return 2;
         }
     }
 
     @Override
     public int delete(String table, String key) {
         try {
             return ycsbThriftRet(c.remove(table, bufStr(key)), ResponseCode.Success, ResponseCode.RecordExists);
         } catch(TException e) {
             e.printStackTrace();
             return 2;
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 286d23c5..f0d88561 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1,77 +1,76 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <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>
 
   <groupId>org.apache.ycsb</groupId>
   <artifactId>root</artifactId>
   <version>0.1.3</version>
   <packaging>pom</packaging>
 
   <name>YCSB Root</name>
 
   <description>
     This is the top level project that builds, packages the core and all the DB bindings for YCSB infrastructure.
   </description>
   <dependencies>
     <!-- voldemort -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.collections</groupId>
       <artifactId>google-collections</artifactId>
       <version>1.0</version>
       </dependency>
     <!--
     Nail down slf4j version to 1.6 so that it defaults to no-op logger.
     http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder
     -->
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
       <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
       <version>1.6.4</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
  
   <!-- Properties Management -->
   <properties>
     <maven.assembly.version>2.2.1</maven.assembly.version>
     <hbase.version>0.90.5</hbase.version>
     <cassandra.version>0.7.0</cassandra.version>
-    <gemfire.version>1.0.0.M3</gemfire.version>
     <infinispan.version>7.1.0.CR1</infinispan.version>
     <openjpa.jdbc.version>2.1.1</openjpa.jdbc.version>
     <mapkeeper.version>1.0</mapkeeper.version>
     <mongodb.version>2.7.2</mongodb.version>
     <redis.version>2.0.0</redis.version>
     <voldemort.version>0.81</voldemort.version>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
   </properties>
 
   <modules>
     <module>core</module>
     <module>hbase</module>
     <module>cassandra</module>
-    <!--module>gemfire</module-->
+    <module>gemfire</module>
     <module>infinispan</module>
     <module>jdbc</module>
     <module>mapkeeper</module>
     <module>mongodb</module>
     <module>redis</module>
     <module>voldemort</module>
     <module>distribution</module>
   </modules>
 
   <build>
     <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.3.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <source>1.6</source>
          <target>1.6</target>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
   </build>
 
 </project>