If Context attribute name is not set, Cataline won't start and crashes with: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:294) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:432) Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException at java.util.Hashtable.put(Unknown Source) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.resourcesStart(StandardContext.java:3801) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:3985) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1013) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:718) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1013) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:442) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:450) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:709) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:551) ... 6 more I'm not sure whether this check should be in StandardContext.java resourcesStart() or whether the check should happen before resourcesStart() is called.
Created attachment 18698 [details] Better error message for this situation
That should have been Context attribute "path". A patch that provides a better error message is attached.
Good suggestion, I've committed your fix to SVN. Thanks for reporting this.