Jetty (web server)

Jetty (web server)
Name	Jetty
Developer	Eclipse Foundation
Initial release	1995
Programming language	Java
Operating system	Cross-platform
License	Eclipse Public License

Jetty (web server) is an open-source HTTP server and servlet container written in Java, developed under the stewardship of the Eclipse Foundation and widely used for embedded and standalone deployments. It serves as a core component in cloud platforms, application servers, and frameworks, integrating with technologies from Apache to Spring and underpinning infrastructure in organizations such as Eclipse, IBM, and Twitter. Jetty's lightweight footprint and modular design make it suitable for containerized environments like Kubernetes and OpenShift as well as traditional application stacks involving Tomcat, WildFly, and GlassFish.

Introduction

Jetty implements the Java Servlet specification and HTTP/1.1 plus HTTP/2 protocols and often complements projects such as Apache HTTP Server, Nginx, Spring Framework, and Hibernate. It provides support for standards embraced by organizations like Oracle, IBM, and Google and interoperates with tools from Docker, Red Hat, and Microsoft Azure. Jetty is frequently chosen in ecosystems that include Eclipse projects, Jenkins, Atlassian products, and Netflix OSS components.

History and Development

Jetty originated in 1995 and evolved through stewardship by developers associated with projects such as Eclipse, Apache Software Foundation, and the broader Java Community Process alongside specifications from Sun Microsystems and later Oracle. Over time it has intersected with milestones involving Java versions (JDK 1.4, Java SE 6, Java Platform Module System), and developments in web standards driven by the IETF and W3C. Major contributors have collaborated with corporate entities including IBM, Google, Facebook, and Twitter while adopting practices from the Apache HTTP Server community and integrating with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub, and GitLab.

Architecture and Design

Jetty's architecture emphasizes modularity and embeddability, enabling integration with frameworks such as Spring, OSGi, and Eclipse Equinox as well as application servers like Tomcat and JBoss. Its core components implement servlet, filter, and handler chains comparable to designs used by Apache Tomcat and Undertow, and it provides connectors for NIO, NIO2, and ALPN for TLS negotiation used by Let's Encrypt, OpenSSL, and BoringSSL. The design accommodates cloud-native platforms such as Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure while aligning with container technologies from Docker and Podman.

Features and Modules

Jetty offers features including asynchronous request handling, WebSocket support, HTTP/2, TLS/SSL, JMX management, and session clustering interoperable with Ehcache and Hazelcast. Its module system allows optional components for OSGi integration, JSP support, JSTL, and authentication realms compatible with LDAP, OAuth, and SAML providers used by Okta, Ping Identity, and Keycloak. Extensions enable metrics and observability with Prometheus, Grafana, Micrometer, and Zipkin while tracing can hook into OpenTracing and OpenTelemetry ecosystems.

Deployment and Use Cases

Jetty is widely embedded in products and projects such as Eclipse IDE components, Apache Maven plugins, Atlassian Crowd, Jenkins agents, and IoT gateways from Eclipse IoT. It is used in microservice platforms alongside Spring Boot, Dropwizard, Micronaut, and Quarkus, and it serves RESTful APIs consumed by front-end stacks like React, Angular, and Vue.js or mobile backends for Android and iOS. Enterprises deploy Jetty in scenarios involving load balancers such as HAProxy and F5, service meshes like Istio and Linkerd, and orchestration on OpenShift, Rancher, or VMware Tanzu.

Performance and Security

Jetty's performance characteristics have been benchmarked against servers including Nginx, Apache HTTP Server, Tomcat, and Undertow; its lightweight threading model and non-blocking I/O support are comparable to patterns used by Netty and Vert.x. Security features include TLS configuration, cipher suite control, HTTP/2 push mitigation, and integration with security tooling from OWASP, Snyk, and Nessus. Jetty participates in secure coding practices influenced by standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and threat models used by CIS and MITRE ATT&CK.

Community and Licensing

Jetty is developed under the Eclipse Public License with contributions coordinated through the Eclipse Foundation and collaborative platforms such as GitHub and Gerrit. The community includes corporate users like Red Hat, IBM, Google, and Amazon as well as open-source projects including Apache, Eclipse, and Spring contributors; governance and contributions follow practices similar to Apache Software Foundation projects and other foundation-backed initiatives. Documentation, issue tracking, and roadmaps are maintained alongside developer discussions in mailing lists and forums comparable to those used by Kubernetes, Linux Foundation, and PostgreSQL communities.

Category:Web servers