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# Tomcat and directories
- URL: https://helpmonks.com/blog/tomcat-and-directories/
- Published: 2009-11-11T00:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-04T01:58:23.000Z
- Description: I run into a nasty issue the other day with “alike” directories in my web application. That is, I had a copy of a “WEB-INF” directory called “WEB-INF–“. Whil
- Author: Nitai
- Tags: email marketing

I run into a nasty issue the other day with “alike” directories in my web application.

That is, I had a copy of a “WEB-INF” directory called “WEB-INF–“. While my web application did not bother with copy of the WEB-INF directory, Tomcat threw all kinds of errors in the catalina.out log file. Also, I had some issues with Tomcat restarting and strange Java error messages, like:

Java.lang.NullPointerException  
com.nary.util.Localization.convertCharSetToCharEncoding(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.engine.cfEngine.getDefaultEncoding(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.engine.cfFormData.(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.engine.cfFormData.(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.engine.variableStore.(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.engine.cfSession.(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.engine.cfEngine.service(Unknown Source)  
com.naryx.tagfusion.cfm.cfServlet.service(Unknown Source)  
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)  

After browsing the log files, I saw that Tomcat tried to read the directory and threw a bunch of critical errors while reading those copied directories. I guess, Tomcat got totally confused and tried to overload libraries.

Lesson learned; Never have any copy of the WEB-INF folder within the web application again.