web.xml - Difference between / and /* in servlet mapping url pattern - Stack Overflow

web.xml - Difference between / and /* in servlet mapping url pattern - Stack Overflow

/* The /* on a servlet overrides all other servlets, including all servlets provided by the servletcontainer such as the default servlet and the JSP servlet. Whatever request you fire, it will end up in that servlet. This is thus a bad URL pattern for servlets. Usually, you'd like to use /* on a Filter only. It is able to let the request continue to any of the servlets listening on a more specific URL pattern by calling FilterChain#doFilter(). / The / doesn't override any other servlet. It only replaces the servletcontainer's builtin default servlet for all requests which doesn't match any other registered servlet. This is normally only invoked on static resources (CSS/JS/image/etc) and directory listings. The servletcontainer's builtin default servlet is also capable of dealing with HTTP cache requests, media (audio/video) streaming and file download resumes. Usually,

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