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From: Kathryn Barrett <kathrynb@oreilly.com>
Subject: "Tomcat: The Definitive Guide" Released by O'Reilly
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 22:18:01 GMT

Just Published Definitive Guide Makes Tomcat Purr
O'Reilly Releases "Tomcat: The Definitive Guide"

Sebastopol, CA--Jakarta Tomcat's growing popularity is hard to argue.
It is the most widely used Java servlet and JSP platform in the world.
In addition to being the reference implementation of Sun's servlet and
JSP specifications, it has a place in hundreds of thousands of web
sites, from home-brewed static HTML sites to million-user, dynamic
e-commerce sites. But because Tomcat is as complex as it is complete,
mastery of Tomcat is harder to come by than Tomcat itself.

"Even though Tomcat 4 is an immaculate implementation of a Java Servlet
container and web server, and even though it's simpler to use than most
others, it is still a complex and sophisticated mixture of theories and
technologies that just aren't easy to understand," says Jason Brittain,
coauthor of the just-released "Tomcat: The Definitive Guide" (O'Reilly,
US $39.95).

Brittain and his coauthor, Ian Darwin, have four years of hands-on
experience using Tomcat and contributing to the Tomcat project since
before its long anticipated open source release in 1999. "Our goal was
for 'Tomcat: The Definitive Guide' to make using Tomcat as easy, quick,
and painless as possible, and to be more informative, concise, and
demystifying than any other book on the subject," says Brittain.
According to Jason Hunter, member of the servlet and JSP expert group,
they succeeded. "This is the book on Tomcat that I've wanted to see
written," says Hunter. "It's truly the definitive guide."

"Tomcat: The Definitive Guide" covers all major platforms, including
Windows, Solaris, Linux, and Mac OS X. It explains, step-by-step, how
to install, configure, and run Tomcat--including automatic startup and
shutdown, and every configuration option that Tomcat features. It
provides details on how to set up Tomcat to do exactly what you need it
to do, quickly and easily, in an environment that best suits your
needs. "Tomcat: The Definitive Guide" also explores often needed but
seldom documented features of Tomcat. It describes how to use various
Realm implementations to authenticate users against flat files,
databases, and directory systems. It shows you how to scale up to a
higher traffic volume and how to tune Tomcat for better performance.

But Brittain and Darwin's new book moves beyond the Tomcat program
itself to cover the complex interactions between httpd (Apache's
popular web server) and Tomcat, and how to connect the two properly.
It's the only book that details using the mod_jk2 connector to load
balance Tomcat, and the only book to clarify advanced clustering using
httpd and Tomcat, including the new Tomcat session replicator.

Security issues like setting up Tomcat to work with X.509 certificates,
running Tomcat within a chroot jail (including a complete C program to
automate the process), avoiding numerous types of malicious attacks,
and filtering out bad data from your web applications are included.

Anyone developing, administering, or using Tomcat will find a place on
their desk for this invaluable guide. In addition, servlet and JSP
developers will find that "Tomcat: The Definitive Guide" is laced with
useful tips, in-depth discussions of the server.xml and web.xml files,
Tomcat's Valve interface and a number of sample implementations, and
straightforward advice on debugging and writing applications to support
clustering.

"I think of this book as a guide to the best features and best
practices as they apply to the best servlet container in the industry,"
says Brittain.


Additional Resources:

Chapter 6, "Tomcat Security," is available free online at:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/tomcat/chapter/index.html

For more information about the book, including Table of Contents,
index, author bios, and samples, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/tomcat/

For a cover graphic in JPEG format, go to:
ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/graphics/book_covers/hi-res/0596003188.jpg

Tomcat: The Definitive Guide
Jason Brittain and Ian F. Darwin
ISBN 0-596-00318-8, 303 pages, $39.95 US, $61.95 CA, 28.50 UK
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com

About O'Reilly
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leading-edge computer technologies. The company's books, conferences,
and web sites bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators.
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