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    <author email="craigmcc@apache.org">Craig R. McClanahan</author>
    <title>Overview</title>
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<section name="Overview">

<p>This manual contains reference information about all of the configuration
directives that can be included in a <code>conf/server.xml</code> file to
configure the behavior of the Tomcat 5 Servlet/JSP container.  It does not
attempt to describe which configuration directives should be used to perform
specific tasks - for that, see the various <em>HOW-TO</em> documents on the
main index page.</p>

<p>The configuration element descriptions are organized into the following
major categories:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Top Level Elements</strong> - <code>&lt;Server&gt;</code> is the
    root element of the entire configuration file, while
    <code>&lt;Service&gt;</code> represents a group of Connectors that is
    associated with an Engine.</li>
<li><strong>Connectors</strong> - Represent the interface between external
    clients sending requests to (and receiving responses from) a particular
    Service.</li>
<li><strong>Containers</strong> - Represent components whose function is to
    process incoming requests, and create the corresponding responses.
    An Engine handles all requests for a Service, a Host handles all requests
    for a particular virtual host, and a Context handles all requests for a
    specific web application.</li>
<li><strong>Nested Components</strong> - Represent elements that can be
    nested inside the element for a Container.  Some elements can be nested
    inside any Container, while others can only be nested inside a
    Context.</li>
</ul>

<p>For each element, the corresponding documentation follows this general
outline:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Introduction</strong> - Overall description of this particular
    component.  There will be a corresponding Java <em>interface</em> (in
    the <code>org.apache.catalina</code> pacakge) that is implemented by one
    or more standard implementations.</li>
<li><strong>Attributes</strong> - The set of attributes that are legal for
    this element.  Generally, this will be subdivided into <em>Common</em>
    attributes that are supported by all implementations of the corresponding
    Java interface, and <em>Standard Implementation</em> attributes that are
    specific to a particular Java class that implements this interface.
    The names of required attributes are <strong>bolded</strong>.</li>
<li><strong>Nested Components</strong> - Enumerates which of the <em>Nested
    Components</em> can be legally nested within this element.</li>
<li><strong>Special Features</strong> - Describes the configuration of a large
    variety of special features (specific to each element type) that are
    supported by the standard implementation of this interface.</li>
</ul>

</section>


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