URL rewriting ignored for "/whatever" context path; broken for "/" context path

[William Maurer]

Hi,
        I'm using Tomcat 3.2.1, and after searching the archives it appears URL
        rewriting is working OK. I must be doing something to mess
        things up. Thanks in advance for your help.

Bill

        My com.xxx.MyServlet servlet executes the following 3
        lines of code as the last step in processing each request in
        "doPost":

        1. String encodedNextURL = httpServletResponse.encodeURL(this.nextURL);
        2. RequestDispatcher rd = 
this.getServletContext().getRequestDispatcher(encodedNextURL);
        3. rd.forward(httpServletRequest, httpServletResponse);

        When my servlet's context path is "/whatever", then
        encodedNextURL is always the same as this.nextURL after line 1
        is executed. 
        
        Why?

        The following happens in HttpServletResponseFacade.java for
        this.nextURL=/ShoppingStep.jsp 

        toAbsolute(/ShoppingStep.jsp) returns
        http://localhost:8080/ShoppingStep.jsp 

        isEncodeable(http://localhost:8080/ShoppingStep.jsp) always
        returns false at lines 363-368 because
        !file.startsWith(contextPath) is true.

        Stopped at line 366 in HttpServletResponseFacade.java
        Thread-103[1] locals
        Method arguments:
        this = org.apache.tomcat.facade.HttpServletResponseFacade@80e6674
        location = http://localhost:8080/ShoppingStep.jsp
        Local variables:
        request = R( /whatever + /servlet/com.xxx.MyServlet + null)
        url = http://localhost:8080/ShoppingStep.jsp
        urlPort = 8080
        contextPath = /whatever
        file = /ShoppingStep.jsp

        String contextPath = request.getContext().getPath();
        if ((contextPath != null) && (contextPath.length() > 0)) {
            String file = url.getFile();
            if ((file == null) || !file.startsWith(contextPath))
                return (false);
        }

        encodedNextURL gets assigned /ShoppingStep.jsp
  
        When my servlet's context path is "/", then
        this.nextURL get's rewritten and
        encodedNextURL gets assigned
        /ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=2nrrjkjci1 but 

        
        Forwarding the URL (see line 3 above)
        "/ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=2nrrjkjci1" 
        results in a "The document contains no data" message being
        displayed by the browser. It appears the jsessionid is the
        problem per StaticInterceptor.java lines 199-212, because
        file is not a file or a directory as a result of jessionid
        hanging off the end of the path.  

Thread-102[1] locals
Method arguments:
  this = org.apache.tomcat.request.StaticInterceptor@80f0ddb
  req = R(  + /ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=lo3hbfjvp1 + null)
Local variables:
  pathInfo = /ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=lo3hbfjvp1
  ctx = Ctx(  )
  absPath = 
/home/maurer/ejpos/unix/local/jakarta-tomcat/webapps/ROOT/ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=lo3hbfjvp1
  requestURI = /ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=lo3hbfjvp1
  file = 
/home/maurer/ejpos/unix/local/jakarta-tomcat/webapps/ROOT/ShoppingStep.jsp;jsessionid=lo3hbfjvp1
  welcomeFile is not in scope
  redirectURI is not in scope



        File file=new File( absPath );

        if( file.isFile() ) {
            if( debug > 0 ) log( "Setting handler to file " + absPath);
            req.setNote( realFileNote, absPath );
            req.setWrapper(  ctx.getServletByName( "tomcat.fileHandler"));
            return 0;
        }

        if( ! file.isDirectory() ) {
            // we support only files and dirs
            if( debug > 0) log( "No file and no directory");
            return 0; // no handler is set - will end up as 404
        }