https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55675
Bug ID: 55675
Summary: Checking and handling invalid configuration option
values
Product: Tomcat 8
Version: trunk
Hardware: PC
Status: NEW
Severity: normal
Priority: P2
Component: Catalina
Assignee: dev@tomcat.apache.org
Reporter: racezh...@gmail.com
Hi all,
I was using Tomcat for a while, but found Tomcat sometimes does not handle
misconfiguration well, which causes unnecessary confusion.
Specifically, when users provide a wrong configuration option and Tomcat
produces a wrong result (or crashes), Tomcat should explicitly dump error
message pointing to the mis-configured option, rather than just dumping stack
traces, or simply restoring to the default behavior. At least, the invalid
configuration values should be logged.
Strictly speaking, this may not be a bug, but (I think) it is definitely worth
improving to give better user experience. I have found many places in Tomcat.
Here is a very simple case for illustration purpose (I have more complex
examples, which I can post if they are of general interest):
In McastService.java
public long getDropTime() {
String p = properties.getProperty("memberDropTime");
return new Long(p).longValue();
}
If a careless user uses "1o" (not 0) as the value of configuration option:
"memberDropTime", Tomcat will throw an exception when parsing this string.
Similar cases occur to me a few times; often, the effect of a misconfigured
option propagates through the program and causes some *delayed* problem, making
it even harder to localize the original misconfigured option.
I would suggest to add timely check immediate after reading a configuration
option value. For the above case, check whether p is a long value or not, and
also checking its permitted ranges. (yes, many places in Tomcat do this, but
still many places like the above case miss the checking). I would like Tomcat
to explicitly warn the user (or at least log) which option is misconfigured
rather than delaying the effect until the program crashes.
I found a couple of such places. and wondering whether Tomcat developers would
like to know them, and how do you think about such "mis-handling"?
Thanks
-Sai
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