Bug#300209: tomcat4: tomcat dies with "Parse error in default web.xml" after upgrade

[Christoph Martin]

Package: tomcat4
Version: 4.1.31-2
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable


I tried to update tomcat4 on different servers from 4.1.30 to 4.1.31. 
Now all my webapps are not running anymore. I get the following error 
and tomcat dies:

2005-03-18 11:52:46 ContextConfig[/hisqis/qisserver] Parse error in default web.xml
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.apache.commons.collections.ArrayStack.push(ArrayStack.java:158)
	at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.push(Digester.java:1628)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.defaultConfig(ContextConfig.java:488)

and

2005-03-18 11:52:46 ContextConfig[/hisqis/qisserver] Parse error in application web.xml
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.apache.commons.collections.ArrayStack.push(ArrayStack.java:158)
	at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.push(Digester.java:1628)
	at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.applicationConfig(ContextConfig.java:221)

This is totally independent of the contents of the web.xml file. I
even exchanged the files with the contents of
/usr/share/tomcat4/.debian/web.xml but to no avail.

Something seams to have changed between 4.1.30 and 4.1.31
totally. This makes the package unusable for most installations.

Christoph

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (99, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.27-2-686-smp
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages tomcat4 depends on:
ii  adduser                   3.47           Add and remove users and groups
ii  apache-utils              1.3.33-4       utility programs for webservers (t
ii  apache2-utils [apache-uti 2.0.53-5       utility programs for webservers
ii  j2re1.4 [java-virtual-mac 1.4.1.99.rc1-1 Blackdown Java(TM) 2 Runtime Envir
ii  j2sdk1.4 [java-compiler]  1.4.1.99.rc1-1 Blackdown Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard
ii  libtomcat4-java           4.1.31-2       Java Servlet engine -- core librar

-- no debconf information