Background
Tomcat defines, for internal use, a WAR URL similar to JAR URLs except it uses "*/" rather than "!/" to allow URLs for JARs nested in WARs without confusing the JREs handling of JAR URLs.
The use of "*" causes problems in some environments so we are considering alternatives.
Whatever is used needs to be valid in a URL. The relevant ABNF from RFC 3986 is:
absolute-path = 1*( "/" segment )
pchar = unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / ":" / "@"
unreserved = ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" / "~"
sub-delims = "!" / "$" / "&" / "'" / "(" / ")"
/ "*" / "+" / "," / ";" / "="
Single character options
Exclude "*" as that is the option we are trying to replace.
Exclude "!" as it is used in JAR URLs.
Exclude "+" as it is used to encode space.
Exclude ";" as it is used to delimit path parameters and for file versions in VMS.
Exclude ALPHA, DIGIT, ".", "-", "_" as they are frequently used in file names.
The remaining options are:
":" / "@" / "~" / "$" / "&" / "'" / "(" / ")" / "," / "="Multiple character options
Use ".war/"
Alternatives
Make the single character configurable.