diff --git a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/AbstractRuleChainVisitor.java b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/AbstractRuleChainVisitor.java
index f9122dacb4..176e1f7c35 100644
--- a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/AbstractRuleChainVisitor.java
+++ b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/lang/rule/AbstractRuleChainVisitor.java
@@ -83,10 +83,11 @@ public abstract class AbstractRuleChainVisitor implements RuleChainVisitor {
                     List<Node> ns = nodeNameToNodes.get(nodeNames.get(j));
                     for (Node node : ns) {
                         // Visit with underlying Rule, not the RuleReference
-                        while (rule instanceof RuleReference) {
-                            rule = ((RuleReference) rule).getRule();
+                        Rule actualRule = rule;
+                        while (actualRule instanceof RuleReference) {
+                            actualRule = ((RuleReference) actualRule).getRule();
                         }
-                        visit(rule, node, ctx);
+                        visit(actualRule, node, ctx);
                     }
                     visits += ns.size();
                 }
diff --git a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/util/StringUtil.java b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/util/StringUtil.java
index bfc1a5f43c..ed6f9c5fce 100644
--- a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/util/StringUtil.java
+++ b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/util/StringUtil.java
@@ -257,16 +257,15 @@ public final class StringUtil {
         char c;
         int i = 0;
         while (i < src.length()) {
-            c = src.charAt(i);
+            c = src.charAt(i++);
             if (c > '~') {
                 // 126
                 if (!supportUTF8) {
                     int codepoint = c;
                     // surrogate characters are not allowed in XML
                     if (Character.isHighSurrogate(c)) {
-                        char low = src.charAt(i + 1);
+                        char low = src.charAt(i++);
                         codepoint = Character.toCodePoint(c, low);
-                        i += 1;
                     }
                     buf.append("&#x").append(Integer.toHexString(codepoint)).append(';');
                 } else {
@@ -283,7 +282,6 @@ public final class StringUtil {
             } else {
                 buf.append(c);
             }
-            i++;
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index dab9df0b52..739771a1d4 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -606,6 +606,7 @@
                 </dependencies>
                 <configuration>
                     <configLocation>/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-checkstyle-config.xml</configLocation>
+                    <suppressionsLocation>/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-checkstyle-suppressions.xml</suppressionsLocation>
                     <includeTestSourceDirectory>true</includeTestSourceDirectory>
                     <sourceDirectories>
                         <sourceDirectory>${project.build.sourceDirectory}</sourceDirectory>