Since IBM's Java compiler Jikes is performing better than Tomcat's own JSP compiler Jasper, it's recommended to install Jikes instead.
Download the sources of Jikes from IBM's Research website:
| http://jikes.sourceforge.net/ | 
Extract and compile Jikes:
| ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/jikes make make check make install | 
Check support for the -encoding option:
| /usr/local/jikes/bin/jikes -help | 
To have Jikes output its error messages in a Jasper compatible way, add this $CATALINA_OPTS environment variable to /etc/rc.d/init.d/tomcat:
| export CATALINA_OPTS="-Dbuild.compiler.emacs=true" | 
|  | If you get an error message saying Jikes can not use UTF8 encoding, add the following option as well: 
 | 
Make Jikes your JSP compiler for Tomcat by adding to /usr/local/tomcat/conf/web.xml:
| 
  
  <init-param>
      <param-name>compiler</param-name>
      <param-value>jikes</param-value>
  </init-param>
  
   | 
Since entering the full path to Jikes in /usr/local/tomcat/conf/web.xml doesn't seem to work (version 4.1.27), make the jikes program available in your path:
| ln -s /usr/local/jikes/bin/jikes /usr/local/bin/jikes |