I finally found some more explanation by myself by digging into Tomcat 8 source code. In the javadoc of the interface org.apache.catalina.WebResourceRoot everything is very clear (see below):
> Pre- and Post-Resources may define WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes in > order to make additional libraries and/or classes available to the web > application. This mechanism replaces and extends the following features >that > were present in earlier versions: > * Aliases - Replaced by Post-Resources with the addition of support for > single files as well as directories and JARs. > * VirtualWebappLoader - Replaced by Pre- and Post-Resources mapped to > WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes > * VirtualDirContext - Replaced by Pre- and Post-Resources > * External repositories - Replaced by Pre- and Post-Resources mapped to > WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes > * Resource JARs - Same feature but implemented using the same mechanism > as all the other additional resources. That's exactly the question I was asking! It should definitely be added in the documentation chapter bout Resource. Regards, Renaud ------------------- public interface WebResourceRoot extends Lifecycle Represents the complete set of resources for a web application. The resources for a web application comprise of multiple ResourceSets and when looking for a Resource, the ResourceSets are processed in the following order: 1. Pre - Resources defined by the <PreResource> element in the web application&aposs context.xml. Resources will be searched in the order they were specified. 2. Main - The main resources for the web application - i.e. the WAR or the directory containing the expanded WAR 3. JARs - Resource JARs as defined by the Servlet specification. JARs will be searched in the order they were added to the ResourceRoot. 4. Post - Resources defined by the <PostResource> element in the web application&aposs context.xml. Resources will be searched in the order they were specified. The following conventions should be noted: * Write operations (including delete) will only be applied to the main ResourceSet. The write operation will fail if the presence of a Resource in one of the other ResourceSets effectively makes the operation on the main ResourceSet a NO-OP. * A file in a ResourceSet will hide a directory of the same name (and all the contents of that directory) in a ResourceSet that is later in the search order. * Only the main ResourceSet may define a META-INF/context.xml since that file defines the Pre- and Post-Resources. * As per the Servlet specification, any META-INF or WEB-INF directories in a resource JAR will be ignored. * Pre- and Post-Resources may define WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes in order to make additional libraries and/or classes available to the web application. This mechanism replaces and extends the following features that were present in earlier versions: * Aliases - Replaced by Post-Resources with the addition of support for single files as well as directories and JARs. * VirtualWebappLoader - Replaced by Pre- and Post-Resources mapped to WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes * VirtualDirContext - Replaced by Pre- and Post-Resources * External repositories - Replaced by Pre- and Post-Resources mapped to WEB-INF/lib and WEB-INF/classes * Resource JARs - Same feature but implemented using the same mechanism as all the other additional resources. ------------------------ Renaud -----Message d'origine----- De : Mark Thomas [mailto:ma...@apache.org] Envoyé : mardi 11 février 2014 20:09 À : Tomcat Users List Objet : Re: How to replace VirtualWebappLoader in Tomcat 8 On 11/02/2014 17:31, Renaud Pelissier wrote: > Okay, I had it working finally by setting webAppMount to "/WEB-INF/classes" > for every classes directory. > So I understand the /WEB-INF/classes mount point is hard coded into the > default Loader? Is it different to use /WEB-INF/lib? /WEB-INF/classes is for classes /WEB-INF/lib is for JARs Mark --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org