How are JSP files handled in Tomcat?

The processing of JSP files in Tomcat is primarily achieved through the JSP engine. JSP files are compiled into Servlets by Tomcat’s JSP engine, which are then loaded and executed by Tomcat when requested by the client, ultimately generating dynamic HTML pages to be returned to the client.

The specific steps of the process are as follows:

1. When a client requests a JSP page, Tomcat will hand over the page to the JSP engine for processing.
2. The JSP engine compiles the JSP pages into a Servlet class and stores it in the working directory of Tomcat (by default, the “work” directory under the Tomcat installation directory).
3. When a request is received, Tomcat will load the Servlet class and execute the code within it to generate dynamic HTML pages.
4. Finally, Tomcat will send the generated HTML page back to the client.

It is important to note that when handling JSP files, Tomcat separates the static and dynamic content. The static content is returned to the client as is, while the dynamic content is compiled by the JSP engine to generate dynamic HTML pages.