DefaultServlet doesn't dispatch to welcome files that are servlets rather than static resources

See http://docs.codehaus.org/display/JETTY/Welcome+files+not+working
I did not see anything in the servlet-api that a welcome-file should map to a servlet-path.
It denotes that the welcome-file need to be an existing file.

<welcome-path> could be proposed for servlet-3.x though.

Cheers

I checked the spec before I opened the issue. Servlet 3.0 pr says in section 10.10 4th paragraph:

The Web server must
append each welcome file in the order specified in the deployment descriptor to the
partial request and check whether a static resource or servlet in the WAR is mapped
to that request URI.

note the "or servlet" which makes it really clear that without any extra configuration if you have a servlet mapping for the welcome "file" location it should get used.

The same text appears in servlet 2.4 fr in section 9.10.

BTW tomcat does not have this problem.

This is one of the most stupid things they added in the sevlet spec!

The problem with "matching" servlets is that if you set your welcome files to be:

index.jsp
index.html

So if there is no index.jsp file, but an index.html file, then the first will always match the *.jsp pattern
of the JSP servlet and will be dispatched to the JSP servlet, which will then 404 error because there
is no index.jsp. Thus the index.html will not be served as it correctly should be.

I've been fighting this for years now... so I guess I'm going to have to give up and let welcome FILES
be activated even when there is no FILE!

Argh the insanity of it all.

I think we should add an option to the default servlet to support sane welcome files vs insane welcome
things that could be files but might not be.

Yep. It will always map to index.jsp, you will always get 404. (jsp is preconfigured by default in webdefault.xml)
And this will cause issues for people who expect an index of the files (dirAllowed is true by default) but getting a 404 page instead.

Cheers

Here's a patch that looks up servlet mappings, but only if enabled in the default servlet, and only if there are no matching static files. It will behave the same as before, by default, but will switch to the new behavior if you make welcomeServlets true.

As David said, the servlet specification has mandated this behavior since 2.4, so it is not a new requirement.

This behavior is required in many applications: the application needs to serve the home page with a servlet, but it wants to use the default mechanism for serving static resources under the same domain. If the user maps the servlet to "/" then it becomes the default servlet and the static resources will not be served by default any longer. This is exactly the case in my application, which is how I stumbled upon this bug report.

The specification says "...whether a static resource or servlet in the WAR is mapped to that request URI..." The default mapping for *.jsp is not in the WAR, and neither is the default list of welcome files. Jetty needs to search for welcome-files using the specification mechanism first, and then fall back to the defaults from webdefaults.xml. In other words, Jetty doesn't need to search for servlets that match the welcome-file entries from webdefaults.xml since those defaults are an implementation detail of "If no matching welcome file is found in the manner described, the container may handle the request in a manner it finds suitable."

Athena, the main problem with your patch is that it causes non-compliant behavior to be the default. The defaults should always comply with the specification. But, it looks to me that changing the default setting of welcomeServlets to true leads to the unwanted and non-compliant behavior described by David and Greg. So, a more complex solution is needed.

In the meantime, the easiest way to work aronud this is to make a jsp (e.g. index.jsp) that forwards and/or redirects to the servlet, and make that index.jsp the first welcome-file.

Assigning to Greg for a comment.

I've raised this again with the servlet EG and there is general agreement that the wording is bad.

It appears that other containers implement the following approach: scan the entire welcome list for matching files
and only if no matching files are file then scan the list looking for matching servlet mappings.

So I think we should follow suite.

Athena, can you do a patch for this behaviour for jetty 6 and jetty 7

Athena, the patch is good, but can you add an init parameter to turn off matching to servlets without a matching file.

Currently with this patch if index.jsp is in the welcome file list, we never get a directory listing because there is always a JSP servlet.

Done for Jetty 6. Still needs porting to Jetty 7 https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=274251

Changes were ported to jetty7 in rev 240.

Thanks, David. I forgot to update this bug when I resolved the other one

David,

I can see the motivation for your proposed solution, but it looks a bit hacky to me.

Greg, can you please comment?

regards
Jan

David,

Jetty-6 has always required that the welcome FILE exists before triggering. With the addition of the welcomeServlets flag, we can now match welcome servlets even if the file does not exist.

I think having the flag apply to servlets as a whole makes a lot more sense rather than to suffix matching or to a specific *.jsp pattern. It means the flag is a switch between traditional Jetty behaviour and the vagueness of the servlet spec behaviour.

I really think the only debate should be what is the default value for this flag. My preference is for jetty-6, the default is welcomeServlets=false, but for jetty-7 onwards we change to welcomeServlets=true as the default?

Actually there is a definite bug with this.

The servlet matching should be done on the complete path in context and not just the welcome fragment.

r5522 fixes the servlet matching problem, adds a test harness and optimized so that:
+ servlet handler was only looked up once
+ servlet entries are scoped with path in context
+ servlet entries are checked that they are not the default servlet
+ only a single iteration through the welcome files - so path add done only once per pattern
+ the path in context is returned, so the caller does not need to add the context path again.