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How to avoid matching paths that don't have a slash with servlet-mappings?

I'm trying to set up a servlet so that any requests for /foo/* will go to my Foo servlet, except for requests in the form of /foo/bar/*, which go to the Bar one. However, I want /foo/bar to go to the Foo servlet, not the Bar one. Is there a way to do this with just url-patterns in web.xml?
My mappings:
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Bar</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/foo/bar/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Foo</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/foo/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
I've tried removing the asterisks and trying a few other patterns, but the only way I can see to do this is to have a specific mapping for /foo/bar, though it seems like there should be a better way.

If you are using servlet specification v2.5 or above then you could provide multiple url-pattern elements for the same servlet-mapping like:
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Foo</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/foo/*</url-pattern>
<url-pattern>/foo/bar</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

url-pattern /* serves jsp files and static assets as seperate requests

I have a simple servlet which renders different content based on different geo locations
for example:
example.com/us
example.com/de
example.com/uk
example.com/..
so actually the servlet should supports all geo locations as url-pattern. So thats why I defined the rule below in my web.xml file:
<servlet-mapping>
servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
this is how the servlet look like:
public class MyServlet extends HttpServlet{
String showPage = "/pages/show.jsp";
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response){
System.out.println("servlet initiated... ~> "+request.getRequestURI());
...
request.getRequestDispatcher(showPage).forward(request, response);
}
}
As soon as I try to forward the page, the servlet starts again and again; it tries to also handle the request /page/show.jsp.
So I get such an ouput when I try to access example.com/us:
servlet initiated... ~> /us
servlet initiated... ~> /page/show.jsp
Exception...
servlet initiated... ~> /page/show.jsp
Exception...
servlet initiated... ~> /page/show.jsp
...
It throws an exception because my servlet is not expecting such a url-pattern /page/show.jsp but it triggers because I have define /* url-pattern in my web.xml file.
Any idea? how can I skip or exclude the unwanted requests like the one above? Thanks.

I could not find a specific reference but I believe that "/*" root url pattern conflicts with the default mapping in the the global web.xml which could be contributing to your problem.
<servlet>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>debug</param-name>
<param-value>0</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>listings</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<!-- The mapping for the default servlet -->
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
try adding explicit jsp servlet tag and servlet mapping to avoid processing the jsp through the default mapping which is created with the "/" root url pattern. I'm not sure that this will solve your problem.
<servlet>
<servlet-name>showpage</servlet-name>
<jsp-file>/pages/show.jsp</jsp-file>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>showpage</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/show</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
Another more explicit solution would be to create a url pattern that differentiates all of the country geo requests.
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/geo/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
So example.com/geo/us etc will map explicitly
I attempted the same global setting and had a similar problem where it recursively attempted the request and threw an exception over and over until I stopped the Tomcat server. The problem was resolved when used more specific url pattern.

Bart answer gave me the clue. Actually there are many ways to handle this, one is to use Filters and the other one is to define all the static routes in web.xml and instead of the /* I have used /.
So to resolve the issue I change the url-pattern as below:
<!-- static assets -->
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.css</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<!-- my servlet -->
<servlet-mapping>
servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
You also don't need to define the pattern for org.apache.catalina.servlets.DefaultServlet its already there by default.
So After above changes everything works fine.

When resolving pages/show.jsp the container will match on the longest path first then look at the file extension (.jsp) afterwards. So pages/show.jsp matches /* and therefore the container loads the Servlet again and doesn't initiate the JSP engine servlet.
Are all your jsps in a pages directory? Maybe you can add that mapping to your web.xml
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/pages/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Per the servlet specification (2.5 here, but it should be the smae for newer version) :
The container will try to find an exact match of the path of the request to the
path of the servlet. A successful match selects the servlet.
The container will recursively try to match the longest path-prefix. This is done
by stepping down the path tree a directory at a time, using the ’/’ character as
a path separator. The longest match determines the servlet selected.
If the last segment in the URL path contains an extension (e.g. .jsp), the servlet
container will try to match a servlet that handles requests for the extension.
An extension is defined as the part of the last segment after the last ’.’ character.
If neither of the previous three rules result in a servlet match, the container will
attempt to serve content appropriate for the resource requested. If a "default"
servlet is defined for the application, it will be used.
(source : servlet-spec-2.5)
So for your case, it should be sufficient to add a more precise mapping (as said by Si Kelly) :
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/pages/show.jsp</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

JSF Custom Servlet Mapping To a File

below code is used to map urls with /photos pattern to a /photos.jsp,since <jsp-file> tag is not valid in jsf, so how can i do this kind of mapping with jsf?
i need this for two reasons :
1- hide my underlying structure at least from naked eyes
2-simplify urls
<servlet>
<servlet-name>photos</servlet-name>
<jsp-file>/photos.jsp</jsp-file>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>photos</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/photos</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
thank you

hide my underlying structure at least from naked eyes
Anything in the WEB-INF folder cannot be accessed outside from your server.
simplify urls
Insert the folllowing code your faces-config.xml it will redirect everything from /photo* to /photo.jsp.
<navigation-rule>
<from-view-id>/photo*</from-view-id>
<navigation-case>
<to-view-id>/photo.jsp</to-view-id>
</navigation-case>
</navigation-rule>

Urls are supposed to be mapped to a JSF controller component (servlet or filter), not to a jsp file as expressed in the question. Below describes that photos.jsp and urls under /photo are mapped to the custom servlet Photo.java :
<servlet>
<servlet-name>photos</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>package.Photos</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>photos</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/photos.jsp</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>photos</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/photos/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Servlet mapping direct JSP files rather than using a Servlet to manage the URL requests

I am redoing the URL mapping structure within my Java web application. I am trying to find the most efficient and proper way to map the servelets and resources to their proper URLs.
There are two strategies that I have been able to create, but I am not sure which is more efficient.
Mapping All urls to one Servlet which Handles the requests
In this case I have a Servlet named "URL", with the following servlet mapping:
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>url</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
The url Servlet is set up like such as an example and works fine:
String task = request.getRequestURI().substring(request.getContextPath().length());
if ("/home".equals(task)){
RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher("/jsp/home.jsp");
dispatcher.forward(request, response);
}
The problem I initially had with this that all the static resources such as JS, Images, etc... weren't served. I had the option to create separate directories for the static content as a solution, but off the top of my head I switched to mapping it all directly in the web.xml.
Mapping it all directly in the web.xml.
In this case the url patterns are directly mapped to the JSPs and Servlets like so:
<servlet>
<servlet-name>home</servlet-name>
<jsp-file>/jsp/Home.jsp</jsp-file>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>home</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/home</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
Example:
localhost:8080/home <- home.jsp
localhost:8080/about <- about.jsp
localhost:8080/login <- doLogin servlet
Are these bad? Which would be a more efficient and proper way to map the urls to their intended JSP files and Servlets?

I use a combination of both, I define all the static pages in web.xml and right at the end of the web.xml, I create a catch-all that will handle dynamic pages.
So home, about, login, etc are all static pages, define them in web.xml
Something like account/abc and blog/some-random-article is handled dynamically.
<servlet>
<servlet-name>NotFound</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.site.PageNotFoundServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>NotFound</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
If in your servlet code, if you don't know how to handle the url, in other words the url is something like /asdfadfasdf which you don't handle, throw a 404 back, if the url starts with /blog (from /blog/random-article), go to the blog page with the random-article as the content.

The case of "home.jsp" is not same here
RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher("/jsp/home.jsp")
and
<servlet>
<servlet-name>home</servlet-name>
<jsp-file>/jsp/**Home.jsp**</jsp-file>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>home</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/home</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

map url to controller

in my applicationContext.xml, i put this
<bean id="something" class="com.to.theController"/>
in com.to.theController
i have this method like
#Controller
public theController{
#RequestMapping(value="/api/add", method= RequestMethod.GET)
public String apiAddHandler(Model model){
model.addAttribute("api", new Api());
return "apiForm";
}
}
when jetty startup, i can see defining beans [something,...
but when i go to http://localhost:8080/api/add , i get 404 error. what did i miss out? i already debug apiAddHandler method, this method is not called when i call the URL

Make sure Spring is finding your annotations. You should see something like "INFO DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping:343 - Mapped URL path [/api/add] onto handler [com.example.ExampleController#6f3588ca]" in the logs.
Also, as mentioned already, you need to make sure that you have the correct url mapping in web.xml.
I'd use
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>dispatcher</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
to map all urls to the dispatcher servlet if using annotations.
If you want to serve some content outside of the dispatcher servlet add the folowing aswell
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>default</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.jpg</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Do you have a <servlet-mapping> element in your web.xml to map URLs that look like /api/add to DispatcherServlet?
If not, then it doesn't matter how Spring MVC maps URLs to controllers if the request never makes it to Spring MVC in the first place.

You need to do some setups.
In your web.xml you have add a mapping for DispatcherServlet.
Something like
<servlet>
<servlet-name>springapp</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>springapp</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*/api/add</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
You have to add annotation handler to the spring configuration
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.DefaultAnnotationHandlerMapping" />
<context:component-scan base-package="learn.web.controller" />
Where learn.web.controller is the package where you have the annoted components