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Posted to dev@tomcat.apache.org by bu...@apache.org on 2017/12/08 19:13:16 UTC
[Bug 61877] New: use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
Bug ID: 61877
Summary: use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Product: Tomcat 8
Version: 8.5.x-trunk
Hardware: PC
OS: Mac OS X 10.1
Status: NEW
Severity: normal
Priority: P2
Component: Catalina
Assignee: dev@tomcat.apache.org
Reporter: yahoonomas@gmail.com
Target Milestone: ----
When using separate CATALINA_HOME and CATALINA_BASE directories, some config
files default to the copy from HOME/conf if there is none in BASE/conf.
Apparently web.xml is not one of these. Documentation doesn't say that it needs
copying, but without copying it to BASE the following appears in the catalina
log file :
INFO ... org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.getDefaultWebXmlFragment No
global web.xml found
Startup continues without further errors, but accessing any webapp (including
manager) yields a 404.
Please allow catalina to default to HOME/conf/web.xml if BASE/conf/web.xml is
not present.
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #5 from Christopher Schultz <ch...@christopherschultz.net> ---
Removing an unmodified CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml also allows
upgrades/downgrades to be more seamless because CATALINA_BASE's web.xml does
not have to match the version of Tomcat being used.
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #2 from Chris Cheshire <ya...@gmail.com> ---
Fair enough, then I request the documentation be made a little clearer. The
section "Advanced Configuration - Multiple Tomcat Instances" in RUNNING.txt,
states
* conf - Server configuration files (including server.xml)
which is a little open to interpretation, especially after the bin section
specifies a subset of files. I can see how it can be interpreted either way
though. Perhaps remove "(including server files)" and add a sentence or two
below stating everything is required to be copied and pointing out which files
definitely need editing (server.xml at a minimum), and which probably don't.
Further, if these files are required in CATALINA_BASE (when different to
CATALINA_HOME), then an INFO message saying it isn't present is misleading
also. Shouldn't it be a WARN at a minimum, indicating that certain
functionality will not be available?
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org> changed:
What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Severity|normal |enhancement
--- Comment #8 from Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org> ---
This is an enhancement rather than a bug so changing the classification.
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #4 from Christopher Schultz <ch...@christopherschultz.net> ---
I'm +1 on this request. We often tell people "don't modify conf/web.xml" or
"don't modify conf/context.xml", but we are encouraging people to make "local"
copies of those files like CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml.
(In reply to Mark Thomas from comment #1)
> As far as I recall, no configuration files are read from CATALINA_HOME. They
> are always read, and only read, from CATALINA_BASE. I don't think making the
> default web.xml an exception is a good idea.
Counterexamples: if CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml is not present,
CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml will be read instead. Also,
CATALINA_HOME/bin/setenv.sh is executed if CATALINA_BASE/bin/setenv.sh does not
exist (this may be considered something other than a "configuration file", but
I think it helps illustrate the point).
There are at least *some* files that Tomcat will fall-back to in CATALINA_HOME
if they are not present in CATALINA_BASE. It's "surprising"[1] to find out that
a "stock" configuration file -- one users are actively discouraged from editing
-- does not enjoy this kind of fall-back semantics.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #7 from Christopher Schultz <ch...@christopherschultz.net> ---
(In reply to Mark Thomas from comment #6)
> (In reply to Christopher Schultz from comment #4)
> > (In reply to Mark Thomas from comment #1)
> > > As far as I recall, no configuration files are read from CATALINA_HOME. They
> > > are always read, and only read, from CATALINA_BASE. I don't think making the
> > > default web.xml an exception is a good idea.
> >
> > Counterexamples: if CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml is not present,
> > CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml will be read instead.
>
> Code reference please. The only code I can find always reads from
> CATALINA_BASE.
I don't have a code reference, but I have a long history of applications that
have no CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml and they seem to be working fine. Maybe
a missing CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml doesn't represent a problem because
the default has very little configured inside it. If I "touch
webapps/[app]/WEB-INF/web.xml" Tomcat will reload the web application. Perhaps
that's a default buried deeply within the code somewhere, or perhaps it's
configured somewhere I'm not looking.
I had always assumed that CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml was being used.
Perhaps it is not.
> > Also,
> > CATALINA_HOME/bin/setenv.sh is executed if CATALINA_BASE/bin/setenv.sh does
> > not exist (this may be considered something other than a "configuration
> > file", but I think it helps illustrate the point).
>
> That is historical. Originally, it was read only from CATALINA_HOME. The
> point was made (bug 43594) that it made more sense to be read from
> CATALINA_BASE. The fall-back to CATALINA_HOME is there for backwards
> compatibility.
>
> > There are at least *some* files that Tomcat will fall-back to in
> > CATALINA_HOME if they are not present in CATALINA_BASE. It's "surprising"[1]
> > to find out that a "stock" configuration file -- one users are actively
> > discouraged from editing -- does not enjoy this kind of fall-back semantics.
> >
> > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment
>
> As far as I can tell there is a single file and it behaves this way for
> backwards compatibility reasons. In all other cases configuration is read
> only from CATALINA_BASE. I would argue that it is more surprising to change
> that.
>
> Additionally, web.xml has merging rules applied to it. Is the proposal that
> CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml is merged on top of CATALINA_HOME/conf/web.xml or
> only CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml is used?
My proposal would be that they all be merged together using the same rules,
with the application's web.xml overriding the items in
CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml, those overriding the items in
CATALINA_HOME/conf/web.xml as necessary.
That would allow a CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml to add e.g. a JNDI mapping for
all local applications, but wouldn't have to specify all the details for e.g.
the JSP servlet and the default servlet.
> With the former option, a complex process will get more complex and user
> applications might break - in theory a security issue be introduced. That
> means the behaviour needs to be made optional which creates more complexity.
Hmm.
Is this any more of a problem that merging WEB-INF/web.xml with
CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml?
> With the latter option, the same issues exists except the merging complexity.
>
> Overall, this seems like an awful lot of effort to address a documentation
> issue that looks like it could be fixed with a couple of sentences.
This is definitely true. The question is whether or not there is a good reason
to support this kind of thing at all. I think it would be nice to be able to
make a small change to web.xml for a single Tomcat instance without having to
configure everything that CATALINA_HOME/conf/web.xml configures. This provides
a reduction in maintenance costs for the user, and makes CATALINA_BASE more
compatible across versions of Tomcat.
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #6 from Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org> ---
(In reply to Christopher Schultz from comment #4)
<snip/>
> (In reply to Mark Thomas from comment #1)
> > As far as I recall, no configuration files are read from CATALINA_HOME. They
> > are always read, and only read, from CATALINA_BASE. I don't think making the
> > default web.xml an exception is a good idea.
>
> Counterexamples: if CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml is not present,
> CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml will be read instead.
Code reference please. The only code I can find always reads from
CATALINA_BASE.
> Also,
> CATALINA_HOME/bin/setenv.sh is executed if CATALINA_BASE/bin/setenv.sh does
> not exist (this may be considered something other than a "configuration
> file", but I think it helps illustrate the point).
That is historical. Originally, it was read only from CATALINA_HOME. The point
was made (bug 43594) that it made more sense to be read from CATALINA_BASE. The
fall-back to CATALINA_HOME is there for backwards compatibility.
> There are at least *some* files that Tomcat will fall-back to in
> CATALINA_HOME if they are not present in CATALINA_BASE. It's "surprising"[1]
> to find out that a "stock" configuration file -- one users are actively
> discouraged from editing -- does not enjoy this kind of fall-back semantics.
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment
As far as I can tell there is a single file and it behaves this way for
backwards compatibility reasons. In all other cases configuration is read only
from CATALINA_BASE. I would argue that it is more surprising to change that.
Additionally, web.xml has merging rules applied to it. Is the proposal that
CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml is merged on top of CATALINA_HOME/conf/web.xml or
only CATALINA_BASE/conf/web.xml is used?
With the former option, a complex process will get more complex and user
applications might break - in theory a security issue be introduced. That means
the behaviour needs to be made optional which creates more complexity.
With the latter option, the same issues exists except the merging complexity.
Overall, this seems like an awful lot of effort to address a documentation
issue that looks like it could be fixed with a couple of sentences.
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #1 from Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org> ---
I'm leaning towards WONTFIX for this.
As far as I recall, no configuration files are read from CATALINA_HOME. They
are always read, and only read, from CATALINA_BASE. I don't think making the
default web.xml an exception is a good idea.
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #3 from Igal Sapir <de...@21solutions.net> ---
The documentation is open-sourced. You can make the changes exactly as you see
fit and propose them as a patch.
See https://github.com/apache/tomcat/tree/trunk/webapps/docs
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[Bug 61877] use web.xml from CATALINA_HOME by default
Posted by bu...@apache.org.
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=61877
--- Comment #9 from Martin bestandig <sk...@gmail.com> ---
Dellet
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