In 4.1.30, In PageContextImpl, I see this code (should I post this on the dev list instead)
525 if (t instanceof IOException) throw (IOException)t; 526 if (t instanceof ServletException) throw (ServletException)t; 527 if (t instanceof RuntimeException) throw (RuntimeException)t; 528 if (t instanceof JspException) { 529 Throwable rootCause = ((JspException)t).getRootCause(); 530 if (rootCause != null) { 531 throw new ServletException(t.getMessage(), rootCause); 532 } else { 533 throw new ServletException(t); 534 } 535 } 536 throw new ServletException(t); 537 } 538 } Notice on line 533, the root cause is correctly chained. Unfortunately, when the exceptions print out, "t" is not printed and I don't know what really happened. This is quite annoying. It takes 27 steps to build tomcat 4.1.30 so I wasn't quite interested in investigating further. If it took 3, I would probably be posting a fix because I would know more by now. thanks for any help here, The full exception chain is shown below. It is obvious there is an exception missing from this stack trace from looking at the code of JspServletWrapper and PageContextImpl dean org.apache.jasper.JasperException: Cannot find message resources under key org.apache.struts.action.MESSAGE at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:254) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2422) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:163) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:199) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:828) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:700) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:584) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:683) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534) root cause(well, tomcat claims it is, but there really is one more exception that caused this one)javax.servlet.ServletException: Cannot find message resources under key org.apache.struts.action.MESSAGE at org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.handlePageException(PageContextImpl.java:533) at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspService(index_jsp.java:95) at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:137) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:210) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2422) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:163) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:199) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:828) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:700) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:584) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:683) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)