I have feeling that servlet specification 2.6 should include methods to unload servlet.
But why would a servlet author want to unload a servlet themselves when the entire life cycle is maintained by the container? Wouldn't this leave the container a bit puzzled about what to do with requests coming to that servlet?
From other side probably destroy needs to be renamed to something more clue giving, like onPreUnload().
Note the use of the @PreDestroy annotation now available in
Java EE 5 which replaces the need for an explicit destroy() method (although that's still in the interface contract). You could therefore have a method:
Charles Lyons (SCJP 1.4, April 2003; SCJP 5, Dec 2006; SCWCD 1.4b, April 2004)
Author of OCEJWCD Study Companion for Oracle Exam 1Z0-899 (ISBN 0955160340 / Amazon Amazon UK )