Q:

difference between /** and /* in Spring

probably it's a very stupid question, but I couldn't find anything on the internet.
What the difference between writing <mvc:mapping path="/**"/> and <mvc:mapping path="/*"/> in Spring?

A:

It is documented here: 

http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/html/mvc.html#mvc-ann-requestmapping-pattern-comparison

Basically the Spring supports "Ant style globbing".  Thus path="/*" matches any URL in the "/" directory1, and path="/**" matches any URL in the entire directory tree.
The document primarily talks about request mappings specified using annotations, but wirings specified using XML have the same meaning.

1 - I am using the term "directory" loosely here.  Strictly speaking these are not directories at all.  But you know what I mean ... 

