Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages™

11.5. The buffer Attribute

The buffer attribute specifies the size of the buffer used by the out variable, which is of type JspWriter (a subclass of PrintWriter). Use of this attribute takes one of two forms:

<%@ page buffer="sizekb" %>
<%@ page buffer="none" %>

Servers can use a larger buffer than you specify, but not a smaller one. For example, <%@ page buffer="32kb" %> means the document content should be buffered and not sent to the client until at least 32 kilobytes have been accumulated or the page is completed. The default buffer size is server specific, but must be at least 8 kilobytes. Be cautious about turning off buffering; doing so requires JSP entries that set headers or status codes to appear at the top of the file, before any ...