如果tomcat的web.xml中没有欢迎文件列表怎么办？

Question

Generally, welcome file lists are used to show first page of application. What if, in my web.xml i don't have welcome file lists. In this case, which file will be shown as home page of my application? I just have few filters in web.xml?

Answer 1

Just a HTTP 404 error page will be shown, which can be either the servletcontainer's default one or the one which you definied as <error-page> for <error-code>404</error-code> in web.xml .

Or, if the servletcontainer is configured to show directory listings by default, then it will be shown instead. In Tomcat, it's configureable as listings init param of the default servlet in /conf/web.xml .

Or, if you have a (poorly designed?) servlet or filter which is been mapped on /* or / and does not do its job properly, then you will see its response body instead.

If you experiment a bit and try it yourself, then you'll see it yourself as well. Here's a screen of Tomcat's default HTTP 404 error page:

And here's a screen of Tomcat's default directory listing:

Answer 2

This answer might be specific to Tomcat 7 Server.

If you do not define Welcome Pages, Tomcat 7 looks for the following files in the following order and serves the first one it finds:

index.html, index.htm, index.jsp

So if none of the above files are present, a HTTP Status 404 error is thrown.