Spring MVC DispatcherServlet mapping / vs /*

Question

<servlet> <servlet-name>springmvcdemo</servlet-name> <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class> <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>springmvcdemo</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping>

vs

<servlet> <servlet-name>springmvcdemo</servlet-name> <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class> <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>springmvcdemo</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping>

I know there are duplicated questions but i'm still confused. My understanding is that when using /* , every request will go through this servlet (It means all .jsp, .html,etc will end up in this ). / will make this servlet the default servlet ( if there are exact URL installed..., return ) But it seem to me that when using / every request all still go through The DispatcherServlet no matter what. I can't open any .jsp file directly. Can someone explain to me more about this?

in both of your example, the web.xml configuration is the same — fmodos
– fmodos, Commented May 22, 2014 at 18:47

Shailendra · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-22 19:44:48Z

As per the Servlet specification, mapping for "/" means default servlet meaning if there is no explicit servlet matching the request, then this default servlet would be serving the request. For e.g., there is a servlet named "default" defined in Tomcat server common configuration web.xml which is inherited by all applications. This servlet serves the static contents like css,images etc which are typically not mapped in applications web.xml. Similarly there is a special Servlet which handles requests for jsp files ( all request ending with *.jsp as naturally these will be needed to be compiled to Servlets which would then process the request). So if you override the default servlet to be any other servlet in the application web.xml, then all requests not handled by any other servlet goes to this servlet and if this Servlet is not capable to serving request, it will not work.

If you declare Spring dispatcher servlet as the default Servlet, then you will not be able to serve static contents from container provided Servlet. Instead there is a special handler provided which can load static resources from configurable path pattern from directory / classpath. You need to use <mvc:resources/> tag for this feature. However if you still want to use container provided Servlet for serving resource you would need to use <mvc:default-servlet-handler/> in the spring configuration. You can read more about this approach and its prons/cons here - section 15.12.4

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