The Apache Tomcat 5.5 Servlet/JSP Container

Project Status

This document attempts to convey the current status of Tomcat development in "big picture" terms. This is not the place to check if an individual bug report has been addressed or when an individual feature will be available.

This page is updated roughly once per every couple of Tomcat minor releases, so for day-to-day status you should check the tomcat-user and tomcat-dev mailing lists. You can always inquire there as to the availability or status of a specific feature or component.

Tomcat 5.0.27 was released on June 17th, 2004. At that time, the TOMCAT_5_0 branch was tagged in CVS, and work on Tomcat 5.5 began. We have now had several Tomcat 5.5 releases, including a couple of stable ones. Accordingly, Tomcat 5.5 is now the focus on work. Tomcat 5.0 is in maintenance mode and its releases will become less and less frequent.

Tomcat 5.5 has several major goals. They are discussed in the tomcat-dev mailing list's "5.next" thread: MARC. The status of some of these items is detailed below. Once 5.5 releases are available, please refer to the Changelog accompanying each release for detailed changes, enhancements, and fixes.

Tomcat 4.1.x is no longer actively developed. It is maintained to address only showstopper, security, and Servlet Specification compliance issues. Maintenance for Tomcat 4.1.x will likely cease once a stable release or two of Tomcat 5.5 are out. Users of Tomcat 4.1.x are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the latest stable Tomcat 5.0 release.

Tomcat 4.0.x is relatively old, and not actively maintained or supported. It is strongly recommended that users of these releases upgrade to the latest stable Tomcat 5.0 release or at least the latest stable Tomcat 4.1 release.

Tomcat 3.3.x is in roughly the same maintenance mode as Tomcat 4.1.x.

Tomcat 3.2 and earlier are in roughly the same support state as Tomcat 4.0.x. Users should upgrade to Tomcat 3.3.x or the latest stable Tomcat 5.0.x.

The columns in this report contain the following information:

• Priority - A sense of how important it is to address this issue in the short term.
• Action Item - Concise description of the action item to be completed. Where relevant, Java package names of the primary classes involved are listed in [square brackets]
• Volunteers - Login of those developers who have volunteered to assist in the design, implementation, testing, and documentation of this action item's changes to Tomcat.

Developers can nominate themselves to work on particular action items by asking a Committer to add their name address to those items. The developers working on each item should discuss and agree upon the approach to be used for implementing the item's changes to the project source code and documentation, prior to completing those changes. Such discussions should take place on the tomcat-dev mailing list so that everyone can stay apprised of what is going on, or chime in if they want to contribute ideas and suggestions.

Priority	Action Item	Volunteers
High	Refactor ClassLoaders for Tomcat 5.5 to allow container plugins.	costin
Medium	Enhance Cluster functionality for Tomcat 5.5.	fhanik
Medium	Continue fixing bugs and updating docs.	everyone

The list of the bugs which are in an unresolved state for Tomcat 5 can be seen here. Aspiring volunteers and others are strongly encouraged to attempt to comment and help resolve these issues.