Remy, On 1/9/13 10:04 AM, Remy Maucherat wrote: > Hi, > > I ported a valve providing mod_rewrite functionality (most of it) for > Tomcat "8", and committed it in the sandbox. This could be easily placed > in the main repository, where it would provide an additional item in the > "new features" department for this major release. > > I have a documentation page for it that could be included. The basics is > that it uses a rewrite.properties that has the same contents as the > configuration for mod_rewrite. The rewrite.properties is placed in the > host config folder if the valve is declared in a Host, or in WEB-INF in > the webapp if declared in a Context. > > The main differences with mod_rewrite are: > - (the big one) no proxy flag > - no SSL attributes > - less file related flags available > - allows virtual host rewriting using a host flag (it replaces the host > header instead of the URL and maps again) > Point 2 and 3 are probably relatively easy to fix, while obviously a > proxy is a more involving endeavor. > > There are rewrite solutions out there already, but this one does not use > complex tricks (because it can simply start over request processing > instead of doing more complex request dispatching, which also impacts > the Servlet state), and is mod_rewrite compatible. > > Comments ? Is it nice or useless ?
I haven't looked at the code but my first reaction was "why not use url-rewrite?" When you say that it can re-start request processing, you mean that you can essentially perform internal rewrites/forwards/etc. without having to use the request dispatcher? Certainly reducing stack size is not a bad idea and should improve performance. The fact that it is mostly compatible with mod_rewrite configuration syntax is definitely a plus, though url-rewrite 4 can read mod_rewrite-style configuration files, too. Finally, there is the spec-versus-implementation issue. It's great that Tomcat could provide this kind of capability, but since it is out-of-spec we might be doing a disservice to our users. I know I'm always irritated when someone posts to the users' list that they are switching from JBoss/Sun/Jetty/Whatever and Tomcat doesn't mirror some out-of-spec capability and they are all mad about it. That's what I like about url-rewrite: you make it a part of your webapp and it should work everywhere. In general, I'm -0 on the idea mostly given the existence of a well-supported alternate tool (url-rewrite) and the risks of vendor lock-in (even when the vendor is the ASF ;). -chris
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