Realm name in tomcat (web.xml)

Question

What is the realm-name in the tomcat.

 
     BASIC 
      


        

Answer 1

Realm name is not the user name. It is the authentication realm, 'typically a description of the computer or system being accessed" - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication. This should be name that makes sense for the resource you are protecting.

Answer 2

The value <realm-name> element is used to calculate the digested value of a cleartext password, as described here http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/realm-howto.html#Digested_Passwords

If <realm-name> element is not specified in web.xml, the default value of "Authentication required" is used.