You can use the standard webapp configuration file located in webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml to map errors to specific URLs with the error-page element. This element creates a mapping between the error-code or exception-type to the location of a resource in the web application.

Error code example:

<error-page>
  <error-code>404</error-code>
  <location>/jspsnoop/ERROR/404</location>
</error-page>

Exception example:

<error-page>
  <exception-type>java.io.IOException</exception-type>
  <location>/jspsnoop/IOException</location>
</error-page>

The error page mappings created with the error-page element will redirect to a normal URL within the web application and will be handled as a normal request to that location and thus may be static content, a JSP or a filter and/or servlet. When handling a request generated by an error redirection, the following request attributes are set and are available to generate dynamic content:

You can use context IoC XML files to configure the default error page mappings with more flexibility than is available with web.xml, specifically with the support of error code ranges. Context files are normally located in ${jetty.base}/webapps/ (see DeployerManager for more details) and an example of more flexible error page mapping is below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE Configure PUBLIC "-//Mort Bay Consulting//DTD Configure//EN" "http://jetty.eclipse.org/configure.dtd">

<Configure class="org.eclipse.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext">
  <Set name="contextPath">/test</Set>
  <Set name="war">
    <SystemProperty name="jetty.base" default="."/>/webapps/test
  </Set>

  <!-- by Code -->
  <Get name="errorHandler">
    <Call name="addErrorPage">
      <Arg type="int">404</Arg>
      <Arg type="String">/jspsnoop/ERROR/404</Arg>
    </Call>
  </Get>

  <!-- by Exception -->
  <Get name="errorHandler">
    <Call name="addErrorPage">
      <Arg>
        <Call class="java.lang.Class" name="forName">
          <Arg type="String">java.io.IOException</Arg>
        </Call>
      </Arg>
      <Arg type="String">/jspsnoop/IOException</Arg>
    </Call>
  </Get>

  <!-- by Code Range -->
  <Get name="errorHandler">
    <Call name="addErrorPage">
      <Arg type="int">500</Arg>
      <Arg type="int">599</Arg>
      <Arg type="String">/dump/errorCodeRangeMapping</Arg>
    </Call>
  </Get>
</Configure>

If no error page mapping is defined, or if the error page resource itself has an error, then the error page will be generated by an instance of ErrorHandler configured either the Context or the Server. An ErrorHandler may extend the ErrorHandler class and may totally replace the handle method to generate an error page, or it can implement some or all of the following methods to partially modify the error pages:

void handle(String target, Request baseRequest, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException
void handleErrorPage(HttpServletRequest request, Writer writer, int code, String message) throws IOException
void writeErrorPage(HttpServletRequest request, Writer writer, int code, String message, boolean showStacks) throws IOException
void writeErrorPageHead(HttpServletRequest request, Writer writer, int code, String message) throws IOException
void writeErrorPageBody(HttpServletRequest request, Writer writer, int code, String message, boolean showStacks) throws IOException
void writeErrorPageMessage(HttpServletRequest request, Writer writer, int code, String message, String uri) throws IOException
void writeErrorPageStacks(HttpServletRequest request, Writer writer) throws IOException

An ErrorHandler instance may be set on a Context by calling the ContextHandler.setErrorHandler method. This can be done by embedded code or via context IoC XML. For example:

<Configure class="org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler">
  ...
  <Set name="errorHandler">
    <New class="com.acme.handler.MyErrorHandler"/>
  </Set>
  ...
</Configure>

An ErrorHandler instance may be set on the entire server by setting it as a dependent bean on the Server instance. This can be done by calling Server.addBean(Object) via embedded code or in jetty.xml IoC XML:

<Configure id="Server" class="org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server">
  ...
  <Call name="addBean">
    <Arg>
      <New class="com.acme.handler.MyErrorHandler"/>
    </Arg>
  </Call>
  ...
</Configure>

It is possible to get a page not found when a request is made to the server for a resource that is outside of any registered contexts. As an example, you have a domain name pointing to your public server IP, yet no context is registered with Jetty to serve pages for that domain. As a consequence, the server, by default, gives a listing of all contexts running on the server.

One of the quickest ways to avoid this behavior is to create a catch all context. Create a "root" web app mapped to the "/" URI, and use the index.html redirect to whatever place with a header directive.