Adding an external directory to Tomcat classpath

See also question: Can I create a custom classpath on a per application basis in Tomcat

Tomcat 7 Context hold Loader element. According to docs deployment descriptor (what in <Context> tag) can be placed in:

  • $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml - bad - require server restarts in order to reread config
  • $CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml - bad - shared across all applications
  • $CATALINA_BASE/work/$APP.war:/META-INF/context.xml - bad - require repackaging in order to change config
  • $CATALINA_BASE/work/[enginename]/[hostname]/$APP/META-INF/context.xml - nice, but see last option!!
  • $CATALINA_BASE/webapps/$APP/META-INF/context.xml - nice, but see last option!!
  • $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/$APP.xml - best - completely out of application and automatically scanned for changes!!!

Here my config which demonstrate how to use development version of project files out of $CATALINA_BASE hierarchy (note that I place this file into src/test/resources dir and intruct Maven to preprocess ${basedir} placeholders through pom.xml <filtering>true</filtering> so after build in new environment I copy it to $CATALINA_BASE/conf/Catalina/localhost/$APP.xml):

<Context docBase="${basedir}/src/main/webapp"
         reloadable="true">
    <!-- http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-7.0-doc/config/context.html -->
    <Resources className="org.apache.naming.resources.VirtualDirContext"
               extraResourcePaths="/WEB-INF/classes=${basedir}/target/classes,/WEB-INF/lib=${basedir}/target/${project.build.finalName}/WEB-INF/lib"/>
    <Loader className="org.apache.catalina.loader.VirtualWebappLoader"
            virtualClasspath="${basedir}/target/classes;${basedir}/target/${project.build.finalName}/WEB-INF/lib"/>
    <JarScanner scanAllDirectories="true"/>

    <!-- Use development version of JS/CSS files. -->
    <Parameter name="min" value="dev"/>
    <Environment name="app.devel.ldap" value="USER" type="java.lang.String" override="true"/>
    <Environment name="app.devel.permitAll" value="true" type="java.lang.String" override="true"/>
</Context>

UPDATE Tomcat 8 change syntax for <Resources> and <Loader> elements, corresponding part now look like:

<Resources>
    <PostResources className="org.apache.catalina.webresources.DirResourceSet"
                   webAppMount="/WEB-INF/classes" base="${basedir}/target/classes" />
    <PostResources className="org.apache.catalina.webresources.DirResourceSet"
                   webAppMount="/WEB-INF/lib" base="${basedir}/target/${project.build.finalName}/WEB-INF/lib" />
</Resources>

Just specify it in shared.loader or common.loader property of /conf/catalina.properties.


What I suggest you do is add a META-INF directory with a MANIFEST.MF file in .war file.

Please note that according to servlet spec, it must be a .war file and not .war directory for the META-INF/MANIFEST.MF to be read by container.

Edit the MANIFEST.MF Class-Path property to C:\app_config\java_app:

See Using JAR Files: The Basics (Understanding the Manifest)

Enjoy.


In Tomcat 6, the CLASSPATH in your environment is ignored. In setclasspath.bat you'll see

set CLASSPATH=%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar

then in catalina.bat, it's used like so

%_EXECJAVA% %JAVA_OPTS% %CATALINA_OPTS% %DEBUG_OPTS% 
-Djava.endorsed.dirs="%JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS%" -classpath "%CLASSPATH%" 
-Dcatalina.base="%CATALINA_BASE%" -Dcatalina.home="%CATALINA_HOME%" 
-Djava.io.tmpdir="%CATALINA_TMPDIR%" %MAINCLASS% %CMD_LINE_ARGS% %ACTION%

I don't see any other vars that are included, so I think you're stuck with editing setclasspath.bat and changing how CLASSPATH is built. For Tomcat 6.0.20, this change was on like 74 of setclasspath.bat

set CLASSPATH=C:\app_config\java_app;%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar

Tags:

Tomcat

Classpath

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