diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 3cd6f0ba077e877aa7c1802aa807f9481a073c75..74c59086064789144e328c4d1bc911c410658d5e 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+#
+# (c) Copyright 2018 CORSIKA Project, corsika-project@lists.kit.edu
+#
+# See file AUTHORS for a list of contributors.
+#
+# This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
+# Licence version 3 (GPL Version 3). See file LICENSE for a full version of
+# the license.
+#
+
 cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.9)
 
 #+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
@@ -32,12 +42,6 @@ if (POLICY CMP0079)
     cmake_policy (SET CMP0079 NEW)
 endif ()
 
-#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-# as long as there still are modules using it:
-#
-enable_language (Fortran)
-set (CMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS "-std=legacy -Wfunction-elimination")
-
 #+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 # warn user if system is not UNIX
 #
@@ -50,15 +54,19 @@ endif ()
 #
 set (CORSIKA8_CMAKE_DIR "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake")
 set (CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${CORSIKA8_CMAKE_DIR}" ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH})
-include (CorsikaUtilities) # extra cmake function
 set (CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE  OFF) # this can be done with `make VERBOSE=1`
 # ignore many irrelevant Up-to-date messages during install
 set (CMAKE_INSTALL_MESSAGE LAZY)
 
 #+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-# Setup hardware and infrastructure dependent defines
+# Extra cmake functions for registering and running tests
+#
+include (corsikaUtilities) # extra cmake functions
+
+#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+# Setup hardware and infrastructure dependent defines, and general settings
 #
-include (CorsikaDefines)
+include (corsikaDefines)
 
 #+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 # check if compiler is C++17 compliant
@@ -81,50 +89,14 @@ set (CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
 # debug: O0, relwithdebinfo: 02, release: O3, minsizerel: Os (all defaults)
 set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "-Wall -pedantic -Wextra -Wno-ignored-qualifiers")
 if (CORSIKA_SCL_CXX)
-  add_definitions(-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0)
+  add_definitions (-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0)
 endif()
-set (DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Release")
 
 # clang produces a lot of unecessary warnings without this:
 add_compile_options (
   $<$<OR:$<CXX_COMPILER_ID:Clang>,$<CXX_COMPILER_ID:AppleClang>>:-Wno-nonportable-include-path>
   )
 
-#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-# Build types settings
-#
-# setup coverage build type
-set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g --coverage")
-set (CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "--coverage")
-set (CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "--coverage")
-# set a flag to inform code that we are in debug mode
-set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG} -DDEBUG")
-
-#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-# Build type selection
-#
-# Set the possible values of build type for cmake-gui and command line check
-set (ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES Debug Release MinSizeRel RelWithDebInfo Coverage)
-set_property (CACHE CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE PROPERTY STRINGS ${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES})
-# Set a default build type if none was specified
-# by default: "Debug", if local ".git" directory is found, otherwise "Release"
-set (DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Release")
-if (EXISTS "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/.git")
-  set (DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Debug")
-endif ()
-if (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
-  message (STATUS "Setting build type to '${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}' as no other was specified.")
-  set (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}" CACHE
-      STRING "Choose the type of build." FORCE)
-else (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
-  # Ignore capitalization when build type is selected manually and check for valid setting
-  string (TOLOWER ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} SELECTED_LOWER)
-  string (TOLOWER "${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES}" BUILD_TYPES_LOWER)
-  if (NOT SELECTED_LOWER IN_LIST BUILD_TYPES_LOWER)
-    message (FATAL_ERROR "Unknown build type: ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} [allowed: ${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES}]")
-  endif ()
-  message (STATUS "Build type is: ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}")
-endif (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
 
 #+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 # Setup external dependencies.
@@ -314,6 +286,13 @@ configure_package_config_file (
   INSTALL_DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}
   )
 
+# corsikaDefines for build tree
+configure_package_config_file (
+  cmake/corsikaDefines.cmake
+  ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/corsikaDefines.cmake
+  INSTALL_DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}
+  )
+
 # config for install tree
 # overwrite with install location (if it was build as part of corsika)
 set (Pythia8_INCDIR ${Pythia8_INCDIR_INSTALL}) 
@@ -329,6 +308,7 @@ install (
   ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conanbuildinfo.cmake
   ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/conaninfo.txt
   ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/corsikaConfig.cmake
+  ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/corsikaDefines.cmake
   ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/corsikaConfigVersion.cmake
   DESTINATION lib/cmake/corsika
   )
diff --git a/cmake/CorsikaDefines.cmake b/cmake/CorsikaDefines.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index 2019ce2f906f9025e2181a0c9eb624e99f9ca44e..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/cmake/CorsikaDefines.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,29 +0,0 @@
-#
-# Floating point exception support - select implementation to use
-#
-include (CheckIncludeFileCXX)
-CHECK_INCLUDE_FILE_CXX ("fenv.h" HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT)
-if (HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT) # FLOATING_POINT_ENVIRONMENT
-    set (CORSIKA_HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT 1)
-    set_property (DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_HOME_DIRECTORY} APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_DEFINITIONS "HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT")
-endif ()
-
-
-#
-# General OS Detection
-#
-if (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Windows")
-    set (CORSIKA_OS_WINDOWS TRUE)
-    set (CORSIKA_OS "Windows")
-elseif (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Linux")
-    set (CORSIKA_OS_LINUX TRUE)
-    set (CORSIKA_OS "Linux")
-    # check for RedHat/CentOS compiler from the software collections (scl)
-    string (FIND ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} "/opt/rh/devtoolset-" index)
-    if (${index} EQUAL 0)
-      set (CORSIKA_SCL_CXX TRUE)
-    endif ()
-elseif (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Darwin")
-    set (CORSIKA_OS_MAC TRUE)  
-    set (CORSIKA_OS "Mac") 
-endif ()
diff --git a/cmake/FindPhysUnits.cmake b/cmake/FindPhysUnits.cmake
index 321ec043e882c5c98d611a6daf5c23438e8b4c81..20fa1aaa4928ec0f37ce8ee573c7a4659756f98b 100644
--- a/cmake/FindPhysUnits.cmake
+++ b/cmake/FindPhysUnits.cmake
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+#
+# (c) Copyright 2018 CORSIKA Project, corsika-project@lists.kit.edu
+#
+# See file AUTHORS for a list of contributors.
+#
+# This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
+# Licence version 3 (GPL Version 3). See file LICENSE for a full version of
+# the license.
+#
+
 add_library (PhysUnits INTERFACE)
 
 target_compile_options (PhysUnits
diff --git a/cmake/FindSphinx.cmake b/cmake/FindSphinx.cmake
index 9a6705c4840e57d3c7940289be5e498ad0fcce15..62825ee4c3d14139ca371c9dd8d8f028da25181e 100644
--- a/cmake/FindSphinx.cmake
+++ b/cmake/FindSphinx.cmake
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+#
+# (c) Copyright 2018 CORSIKA Project, corsika-project@lists.kit.edu
+#
+# See file AUTHORS for a list of contributors.
+#
+# This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
+# Licence version 3 (GPL Version 3). See file LICENSE for a full version of
+# the license.
+#
+
 # Look for an executable called sphinx-build
 find_program (SPHINX_EXECUTABLE
               NAMES sphinx-build
diff --git a/cmake/corsikaConfig.cmake.in b/cmake/corsikaConfig.cmake.in
index 546d5141d2c467cf7293bddf4cabef6fa28d481f..3a833b71c2ad78dcd0d8af5b194bd004774407f6 100644
--- a/cmake/corsikaConfig.cmake.in
+++ b/cmake/corsikaConfig.cmake.in
@@ -1,37 +1,27 @@
+#
+# (c) Copyright 2018 CORSIKA Project, corsika-project@lists.kit.edu
+#
+# See file AUTHORS for a list of contributors.
+#
+# This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
+# Licence version 3 (GPL Version 3). See file LICENSE for a full version of
+# the license.
+#
+
 set (CORSIKA8_VERSION @c8_version@)
 
 @PACKAGE_INIT@
 
+#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+# Setup hardware and infrastructure dependent defines and other setting
+#
+include (${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/corsikaDefines.cmake)
+
 #+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 # Options
 #
 option (WITH_HISTORY "Flag to switch on/off HISTORY" ON)
-
-
-#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-# Build types settings
-#
-# setup coverage build type
-set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g --coverage")
-set (CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "--coverage")
-set (CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "--coverage")
-# set a flag to inform code that we are in debug mode
-set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG} -DDEBUG")
-set (ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES Debug Release MinSizeRel RelWithDebInfo Coverage)
-set_property (CACHE CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE PROPERTY STRINGS ${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES})
-set (DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Release")
-if (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
-  set (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}" CACHE
-    STRING "Choose the type of build." FORCE)
-endif (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
   
-#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-# as long as there still are modules using it:
-#
-enable_language (Fortran)
-set (CMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS "-std=legacy -Wfunction-elimination")
-
-
 #++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 # General config and flags
 #
diff --git a/cmake/corsikaDefines.cmake b/cmake/corsikaDefines.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..60cf7da9a930a6bb7b39e35678e8b7064c411f42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/corsikaDefines.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+#
+# (c) Copyright 2018 CORSIKA Project, corsika-project@lists.kit.edu
+#
+# See file AUTHORS for a list of contributors.
+#
+# This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
+# Licence version 3 (GPL Version 3). See file LICENSE for a full version of
+# the license.
+#
+
+
+#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+# as long as there still are modules using it:
+#
+enable_language (Fortran)
+set (CMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS "-std=legacy -Wfunction-elimination")
+
+
+#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+# Build types settings
+#
+# setup coverage build type
+set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_COVERAGE "-g --coverage")
+set (CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "--coverage")
+set (CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS_COVERAGE "--coverage")
+# set a flag to inform code that we are in debug mode
+set (CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG} -DDEBUG")
+
+
+#+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+# Build type selection
+#
+# Set the possible values of build type for cmake-gui and command line check
+set (ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES Debug Release MinSizeRel RelWithDebInfo Coverage)
+set_property (CACHE CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE PROPERTY STRINGS ${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES})
+
+set (DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Release")
+if (EXISTS "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/.git")
+  set (DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE "Debug")
+endif ()
+
+if (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
+  message (STATUS "Setting build type to '${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}' as no other was specified.")
+  set (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "${DEFAULT_BUILD_TYPE}" CACHE
+      STRING "Choose the type of build." FORCE)
+else (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
+  # Ignore capitalization when build type is selected manually and check for valid setting
+  string (TOLOWER ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} SELECTED_LOWER)
+  string (TOLOWER "${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES}" BUILD_TYPES_LOWER)
+  if (NOT SELECTED_LOWER IN_LIST BUILD_TYPES_LOWER)
+    message (FATAL_ERROR "Unknown build type: ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE} [allowed: ${ALLOWED_BUILD_TYPES}]")
+  endif ()
+  message (STATUS "Build type is: ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}")
+endif (NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE AND NOT CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES)
+
+
+
+#
+# Floating point exception support - select implementation to use
+#
+include (CheckIncludeFileCXX)
+CHECK_INCLUDE_FILE_CXX ("fenv.h" HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT)
+if (HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT) # FLOATING_POINT_ENVIRONMENT
+    set (CORSIKA_HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT 1)
+    set_property (DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_HOME_DIRECTORY} APPEND PROPERTY COMPILE_DEFINITIONS "CORSIKA_HAS_FEENABLEEXCEPT")
+endif ()
+
+
+#
+# General OS Detection
+#
+if (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Windows")
+    set (CORSIKA_OS_WINDOWS TRUE)
+    set (CORSIKA_OS "Windows")
+elseif (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Linux")
+    set (CORSIKA_OS_LINUX TRUE)
+    set (CORSIKA_OS "Linux")
+    # check for RedHat/CentOS compiler from the software collections (scl)
+    string (FIND ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} "/opt/rh/devtoolset-" index)
+    if (${index} EQUAL 0)
+      set (CORSIKA_SCL_CXX TRUE)
+    endif ()
+elseif (${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME} MATCHES "Darwin")
+    set (CORSIKA_OS_MAC TRUE)  
+    set (CORSIKA_OS "Mac") 
+endif ()
diff --git a/cmake/CorsikaUtilities.cmake b/cmake/corsikaUtilities.cmake
similarity index 100%
rename from cmake/CorsikaUtilities.cmake
rename to cmake/corsikaUtilities.cmake
diff --git a/corsika/detail/media/ShowerAxis.inl b/corsika/detail/media/ShowerAxis.inl
index a42989e9222f0c4ec6131d42fe37110ff62faf5a..4cabe21b5a3e4cee53cfedcaf6b211f9b93a47fa 100644
--- a/corsika/detail/media/ShowerAxis.inl
+++ b/corsika/detail/media/ShowerAxis.inl
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ namespace corsika {
             l / max_length_);
         throw std::runtime_error(err.c_str());
       }
+      return getMaximumX();
     }
     CORSIKA_LOG_TRACE("showerAxis::X frac={}, fractionalBin={}, lower={}, upper={}",
                       fraction, fractionalBin, lower, upper);
diff --git a/examples/CMakeLists.txt b/examples/CMakeLists.txt
index 8cd42babe67261c0f17e52805e67bfceb8a09ab7..3240a632cb15c390454e99e0515c52f7945336e7 100644
--- a/examples/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/examples/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ set (CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE OFF) # this can be changed with `make VERBOSE=1`
 find_package (corsika CONFIG REQUIRED)
 
 # this is only for CORSIKA_REGISTER_EXAMPLE
-include ("${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeHelper.cmake")
+include ("${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/corsikaExamples.cmake")
 
 add_executable (helix_example helix_example.cpp)
 target_link_libraries (helix_example CORSIKA8::CORSIKA8)
diff --git a/examples/cascade_example.cpp b/examples/cascade_example.cpp
index eb0938d9fe08e93ac3a3f9d972362d9c58a0ef48..b9195515c189d992adaedba6f59cf99496ab44e5 100644
--- a/examples/cascade_example.cpp
+++ b/examples/cascade_example.cpp
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@ using namespace std;
 //
 int main() {
 
-  corsika_logger->set_pattern("[%n:%^%-8l%$] custom pattern: %v");
   logging::set_level(logging::level::trace);
 
   std::cout << "cascade_example" << std::endl;
diff --git a/examples/CMakeHelper.cmake b/examples/corsikaExamples.cmake
similarity index 100%
rename from examples/CMakeHelper.cmake
rename to examples/corsikaExamples.cmake
diff --git a/tests/framework/testCombinedStack.cpp b/tests/framework/testCombinedStack.cpp
index 7d01f3fcd3139507c41617a2fd276ddfedb46138..1f76fafc21927832063f5271fb8ed26443dffa50 100644
--- a/tests/framework/testCombinedStack.cpp
+++ b/tests/framework/testCombinedStack.cpp
@@ -218,6 +218,16 @@ TEST_CASE("Combined Stack", "[stack]") {
     CHECK(s.getEntries() == 0);
     CHECK(s.isEmpty());
   }
+
+  SECTION("exceptions") {
+    StackTest s;
+    auto p1 = s.addParticle(std::tuple{9.9});
+    auto p2 = s.addParticle(std::tuple{9.9});
+    ++p2;
+    CHECK_THROWS(s.copy(p1, p2));
+    CHECK_THROWS(s.swap(p1, p2));
+    CHECK(s.getSize() == 2);
+  }
 }
 
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
@@ -288,7 +298,6 @@ using StackTest2 = CombinedStack<typename StackTest::stack_implementation_type,
 TEST_CASE("Combined Stack - multi", "[stack]") {
 
   logging::set_level(logging::level::info);
-  corsika_logger->set_pattern("[%n:%^%-8l%$] custom pattern: %v");
 
   SECTION("create secondaries") {