Very sporatic problem of OLD value request.getQueryString()

[Barnet Wagman]

I've run into a /very/ sporatic problem and was wondering if anyone has 
had a similar problem (Tomcat 5.0.19).

I have a servlet that reads the query string from HttpServletRequest 
(ie. HttpServletRequest.getQueryString()).  Occasionally it seems to get 
an old version.  This only occurs at the beginning of a new session and 
only happens once per session.  After the first error, everything seems 
ok.  However, it does not occur at the beginning of every session.  Most 
of the time it doesn't happen.  Whether or not Tomcat has just been 
restarted does not seem to matter.

I've tested this servlet with the same version of Tomcat on two systems, 
a SuSE 9.1 system with Java build 1.4.2-b2 and a Redhat 9.0 system 
(which has slower hardware) with Java build 1.4.2_02-b03.  The error 
only occurs on the Redhat system.  I am /not/ suggesting that the 
problem has anything to do with Redhat (that seems extraordinarily 
unlikely) or the different Java builds (which also seems extraordinarily 
unlikely).

If you've had a similar experience or any thoughts about what might be 
going on, please let me know.

Thanks,
bw
PS I have session serialization turned off.