Tomcat Error: ...is quoted with " which must be escaped when used within the value

From Apache Tomcat 5.5.27 onwards, it seems that Tomcat is picky about double quoted expressions:

ERROR [http-80-Processor22] - Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
org.apache.jasper.JasperException: /forum/index.jsp(73,36) Attribute value request.getRequestURI()+"?"+request.getQueryString() is quoted with " which must be escaped when used within the value
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.DefaultErrorHandler.jspError(DefaultErrorHandler.java:40)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.ErrorDispatcher.dispatch(ErrorDispatcher.java:407)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.ErrorDispatcher.jspError(ErrorDispatcher.java:198)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseQuoted(Parser.java:307)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseAttributeValue(Parser.java:250)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseAttribute(Parser.java:211)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseAttributes(Parser.java:149)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseParam(Parser.java:875)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseBody(Parser.java:1829)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseOptionalBody(Parser.java:1081)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseInclude(Parser.java:909)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseStandardAction(Parser.java:1232)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parseElements(Parser.java:1588)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.parse(Parser.java:132)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParserController.doParse(ParserController.java:212)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParserController.parse(ParserController.java:101)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.generateJava(Compiler.java:156)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:296)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:277)
at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:265)
at org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:564)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:302)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:329)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:265)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:269)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
at com.cj.trim.trimFilter.doFilter(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:215)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
at gr.knowledge.util.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:121)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:215)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:188)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:172)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:117)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:108)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:174)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:875)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:665)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:528)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:81)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:689)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

See the relevant https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=45015

It seems that, you can either edit your jsp code to be more compliant or get rid of the error by editing catalina.properties and putting this extra line:

org.apache.jasper.compiler.Parser.STRICT_QUOTE_ESCAPING=false

This actually tells Tomcat to be more relaxed about JSP compliance regarding double quoted expressions.

See also http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/config/systemprops.html

javax.mail.MessagingException: 501 Syntax: HELO hostname

If your java mailer returns

javax.mail.MessagingException: 501 Syntax: HELO hostname

upon sending an email, most probably you have to set a hostname to the machine running java (not the SMTP server per se)

Run "hostname javaservername " and / or edit /etc/sysconfig/network to note the server name.

context XML file deleted when path is not readable

If your Tomcat application has a docbase which is a network place (being it a Windows share or a NFS Linux share) and temporarily the connection between the two machines is lost, chances are that the context.xml of your app as it is deployed in \conf\Catalina\localhost will be automatically removed.


In order to avoid this, edit your server.xml file and set autoDeploy="false" in the Host tag.

See https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=40050

slow login in OpenSSH

if you ever systematically experience slow initial connection (login) in an OpenSSH server using eg WinSCP, try edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config disabling reverse DNS lookups:

UseDNS no

In my case (CentOS 5.2 server, WinSCP/Putty client), this solved the problem, and the connections run REALLY fast now