It would be nice and very helpful to have a xml schema (or old DTD) reference included in the tomcat-users.xml file. Tomcat 6.0.14 comes with a default empty tomcat-users.xml file and have no xml schema reference set for this xml file. So you have to read documentation, look into older releases and so on to find out what fields required/allowed to create a valid tomcat-users.xml file. Especially for a new installation of the tomcat 6.0.14 the manager application will not work without a tomcat-users.xml file which has entries for the manager role and a user for this role.
Created attachment 23766 [details] Added a DTD import header in tomcat-users.xml
Created attachment 23767 [details] A proposed tomcat-users DTD
Here is a patch for the tomcat-users.xml file that adds the DTD import header, and the corresponding DTD file.
Bugs aren't closed until a patch has been applied to a release branch.
(In reply to comment #4) > Bugs aren't closed until a patch has been applied to a release branch. Sorry, that was my first patch submission ever (but not the last I hope). Are there any guidelines available I could read for the patch submission process ?
No problem. http://www.apache.org/dev/contributors.html is probably the best we have. If you have any questions just ask on the dev list.
Created attachment 23902 [details] Enhances & replaces the previous tomcat-users patch. Both lines relating to the (obsolete) role tags have been deleted, and now both tomcat-users_1.xml and tomcat-users_2.xml files are impacted too
Created attachment 23903 [details] A proposed tomcat-users DTD. Replaces the previously submitted one. Apache licence header added.
Created attachment 23904 [details] Corrected the manager webapp's 401 page, where tomcat-users.xml 's role tag was still mentioned.
This has been fixed in 8.0.x for 8.0.15 onwards. The schema can be found in svn here: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/tomcat/trunk/conf/tomcat-users.xsd?view=annotate I do not intend to propose this fix for back-port to 7.0.x or 6.0.x.
Five years on and I changed my mind. I've added this to 7.0.x for 7.0.95 onwards.