symlinking tomcat 8 directory resources - resources

Question

I would like to symlink JSP directories under Tomcat 8.
It worked as well in Tomcat 7 on this way:
<Context allowLinking="true">
but seems the Tomcat 8 dropped this feature, and it started to use the Resources
( http://tomcat.apache.org/migration-8.html#Web_application_resources ).
My example usage:
ROOT/jspdirectory -->linksto--> /var/tmp/realplaceofjspfiles/
A bad configuration:
ROOT/META-INF/context.xml:
<Context>
<Resources allowLinking="true">
<PreResources className="org.apache.catalina.webresources.DirResourceSet" base="/var/tmp/realplaceofjspfiles" internalPath="jspdirectory"/>
</Resources>
</Context>
It dropped for me this exception:
07-Mar-2014 04:09:12.113 WARNING [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule.begin [SetPropertiesRule]{Context/Resources/PreResources} Setting property 'internalPath' to 'jspdirectory' did not find a matching
property.
07-Mar-2014 04:09:12.114 SEVERE [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal ContainerBase.addChild: start:
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:726)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:702)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:697)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1134)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDirectory.run(HostConfig.java:1780)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [org.apache.catalina.webresources.StandardRoot#4756d5a0]
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.resourcesStart(StandardContext.java:4841)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:4966)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
... 10 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.lang.String.startsWith(String.java:1392)
at java.lang.String.startsWith(String.java:1421)
at org.apache.catalina.webresources.DirResourceSet.list(DirResourceSet.java:115)
at org.apache.catalina.webresources.StandardRoot.list(StandardRoot.java:129)
at org.apache.catalina.webresources.StandardRoot.listResources(StandardRoot.java:313)
at org.apache.catalina.webresources.StandardRoot.processWebInfLib(StandardRoot.java:523)
at org.apache.catalina.webresources.StandardRoot.startInternal(StandardRoot.java:643)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
... 13 more
07-Mar-2014 04:09:12.115 SEVERE [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory Error deploying web application directory /PATH/apache-tomcat-8.0.3/webapps/ROOT
java.lang.IllegalStateException: ContainerBase.addChild: start: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:702)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:697)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:1134)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDirectory.run(HostConfig.java:1780)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
I seen the "internalPath" here:
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/config/resources.html

Answer 1

To enable Tomcat to access symbolic links do the following:
$CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml
Tomcat 7:
<Context allowLinking="true">
...
Tomcat 8:
<Context>
<Resources allowLinking="true" />
...
DO NOT DO THIS ON WINDOWS (or any other case-insensitive filesystem),
as it will disable case sensitivity checks, allowing JSP source code
disclosure, among other security problems.
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/config/resources.html

Answer 2

It seems you need a separate "webAppMount" property.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context path="/">
<Resources>
<PreResources
className="org.apache.catalina.webresources.DirResourceSet"
base="/FilePath/.../Resources"
webAppMount="/resources"
internalPath="/"/>
</Resources>
</Context>
This worked for me. It is in my web-app's META-INF/context.xml