This manual contains reference information about all of the configuration
directives that can be included in a conf/server.xml file to
configure the behavior of the Tomcat 7 Servlet/JSP container. It does not
attempt to describe which configuration directives should be used to perform
specific tasks - for that, see the various HOW-TO documents on the
main index page.
Tomcat configuration files are formatted as schemaless XML; elements and
attributes are case-sensitive. Apache Ant-style variable substitution
is supported; a system property with the name propname may be
used in a configuration file using the syntax ${propname}. All
system properties are available including those set using the -D
syntax, those automatically made available by the JVM and those configured in
the $CATALINA_BASE/conf/catalina.properties file.
The configuration element descriptions are organized into the following
major categories:
- Top Level Elements -
<Server> is the
root element of the entire configuration file, while
<Service> represents a group of Connectors that is
associated with an Engine.
- Connectors - Represent the interface between external
clients sending requests to (and receiving responses from) a particular
Service.
- Containers - Represent components whose function is to
process incoming requests, and create the corresponding responses.
An Engine handles all requests for a Service, a Host handles all requests
for a particular virtual host, and a Context handles all requests for a
specific web application.
- Nested Components - Represent elements that can be
nested inside the element for a Container. Some elements can be nested
inside any Container, while others can only be nested inside a
Context.
For each element, the corresponding documentation follows this general
outline:
- Introduction - Overall description of this particular
component. There will be a corresponding Java interface (in
the
org.apache.catalina package) that is implemented by one
or more standard implementations.
- Attributes - The set of attributes that are legal for
this element. Generally, this will be subdivided into Common
attributes that are supported by all implementations of the corresponding
Java interface, and Standard Implementation attributes that are
specific to a particular Java class that implements this interface.
The names of required attributes are bolded.
- Nested Components - Enumerates which of the Nested
Components can be legally nested within this element.
- Special Features - Describes the configuration of a large
variety of special features (specific to each element type) that are
supported by the standard implementation of this interface.
