Directives are instructions that are processed by the JSP engine, when the page is compiled to a servlet. Directives are used to set page-level instructions, insert data from external files, and specify custom tag libraries. Directives are defined between < %@ and % >.
The different types of directives are shown below:
Include directive: it is used to include a file and merges the content of the file with the current page.
Page directive: it is used to define specific attributes in the JSP page, like error page and buffer.
Taglib: it is used to declare a custom tag library which is used in the page.