Re: Request.getParameter(String s) doesn't parse parameters

On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 11:17 AM Mark Thomas <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 07/01/2026 19:45, Nelson Page via users wrote:
> > Hi all -
> >
> > First time mailing on this list, please let me know what I can improve.
> >
> > I've run into a case where
> > org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.getParameter("some_parameter")
> > no longer results in the parameters getting parsed.
> >
> > We're on tomcat 9.0.107, using HTTP/2, the `content-length` header is
> > not being set, the `content-type` header is set to
> > `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`, and the HTTP method is `POST`.
> >
> > So I think what happens is in
> > https://github.com/apache/tomcat/blob/9.0.x/java/org/apache/catalina/connector/Request.java#L3094
> > the `len` variable is set to -1, and we fall out in the `if` statement
> > below it.
> >
> > Is this expected behavior?
>
> No.
>
> I'd need to write a test case to confirm the behaviour but that looks
> like a bug.
>
> HTTP/2 requests are not required to provide a content-length since the
> HTTP/2 framing defines where the body (if any) ends.
>
> The fix is probably changing "...else if chunked..." to "...else if
> chunked or HTTP/2..."
>
> We should be able to fix this for the January releases (they are a
> little behind the usual schedule as we need to get some Tomcat Native
> releases completed first).
>
> If you (or anyone else) wanted to help this along any of the following
> would help. Ideally, we'd have all of these in this order but any help
> with any of them would be useful.
>
> 1. A bug for this in Bugzilla (Tomcat version isn't that important).
>
> 2. A test case attached to the BZ issue in the form of a patch to the
> Tomcat unit tests that demonstrates the issue. There should be examples
> of all the parts required in the existing tests cases. This should
> mostly be copy/paste. A GitHub PR also works.
>
> 3. A patch (or pull request) that fixes the issue and causes the test
> case in 2 to pass.

It's not a regression though:
https://github.com/apache/tomcat/commit/19aada70628d49cf8ff1b0230cd87ec289d5c592
added POST support for chunked, but it previously always required a >
0 content length (since it's a much simpler and more efficient
scenario).

So I disagree with the statement that it "no longer results in the
parameters getting parsed" since this was never implemented.

Rémy