Apache Tomcat 8

Tomcat Setup

Table of Contents

Introduction

There are several ways to set up Tomcat for running on different platforms. The main documentation for this is a file called RUNNING.txt. We encourage you to refer to that file if the information below does not answer some of your questions.

Windows

Installing Tomcat on Windows can be done easily using the Windows installer. Its interface and functionality is similar to other wizard based installers, with only a few items of interest.

• Installation as a service: Tomcat will be installed as a Windows service no matter what setting is selected. Using the checkbox on the component page sets the service as «auto» startup, so that Tomcat is automatically started when Windows starts. For optimal security, the service should be run as a separate user, with reduced permissions (see the Windows Services administration tool and its documentation).
• Java location: The installer will provide a default JRE to use to run the service. The installer uses the registry to determine the base path of a Java 7 or later JRE, including the JRE installed as part of the full JDK. When running on a 64-bit operating system, the installer will first look for a 64-bit JRE and only look for a 32-bit JRE if a 64-bit JRE is not found. If a JRE cannot be found when running on a 64-bit operating system, the installer will look for a 64-bit JDK. Finally, if a JRE or JDK has not been found, the installer will try to use the JAVA_HOME environment variable. It is not mandatory to use the default JRE detected by the installer. Any installed Java 7 or later JRE (32-bit or 64-bit) may be used.
• Tray icon: When Tomcat is run as a service, there will not be any tray icon present when Tomcat is running. Note that when choosing to run Tomcat at the end of installation, the tray icon will be used even if Tomcat was installed as a service.
• Defaults: The defaults used by the installer may be overridden by use of the /C= command line argument. The configuration file uses the format name=value with each pair on a separate line. The names of the available configuration options are:
  • JavaHome
  • TomcatPortShutdown
  • TomcatPortHttp
  • TomcatMenuEntriesEnable
  • TomcatShortcutAllUsers
  • TomcatServiceDefaultName
  • TomcatServiceName
  • TomcatServiceFileName
  • TomcatServiceManagerFileName
  • TomcatAdminEnable
  • TomcatAdminUsername
  • TomcatAdminPassword
  • TomcatAdminRoles

  By using /C=. along with /S and /D= it is possible to perform fully configured unattended installs of Apache Tomcat.

• Refer to the Windows Service How-To for information on how to manage Tomcat as a Windows service.

The installer will create shortcuts allowing starting and configuring Tomcat. It is important to note that the Tomcat administration web application can only be used when Tomcat is running.

Unix daemon

Tomcat can be run as a daemon using the jsvc tool from the commons-daemon project. Source tarballs for jsvc are included with the Tomcat binaries, and need to be compiled. Building jsvc requires a C ANSI compiler (such as GCC), GNU Autoconf, and a JDK.

Before running the script, the JAVA_HOME environment variable should be set to the base path of the JDK. Alternately, when calling the ./configure script, the path of the JDK may be specified using the —with-java parameter, such as ./configure —with-java=/usr/java .

Using the following commands should result in a compiled jsvc binary, located in the $CATALINA_HOME/bin folder. This assumes that GNU TAR is used, and that CATALINA_HOME is an environment variable pointing to the base path of the Tomcat installation.

Please note that you should use the GNU make (gmake) instead of the native BSD make on FreeBSD systems.

Tomcat can then be run as a daemon using the following commands.

When running on Java 9 you will need to additionally specify the following when starting jsvc to avoid warnings on shutdown.

You may also need to specify -jvm server if the JVM defaults to using a server VM rather than a client VM. This has been observed on OSX.

jsvc has other useful parameters, such as -user which causes it to switch to another user after the daemon initialization is complete. This allows, for example, running Tomcat as a non privileged user while still being able to use privileged ports. Note that if you use this option and start Tomcat as root, you’ll need to disable the org.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener check that prevents Tomcat starting when running as root.

jsvc —help will return the full jsvc usage information. In particular, the -debug option is useful to debug issues running jsvc.

Apache Tomcat 8

Windows service HOW-TO

Table of Contents

Tomcat service application

Tomcat8 is a service application for running Tomcat 8 as a Windows service.

Tomcat monitor application

Tomcat8w is a GUI application for monitoring and configuring Tomcat services.

The available command line options are:

//ES//	Edit service configuration	This is the default operation. It is called if the no option is provided but the executable is renamed to servicenameW.exe
//MS//	Monitor service	Put the icon in the system tray

Command line arguments

Each command line directive is in the form of //XX//ServiceName

The available command line options are:

//TS//	Run the service as console application	This is the default operation. It is called if the no option is provided. The ServiceName is the name of the executable without exe suffix, meaning Tomcat8
//RS//	Run the service	Called only from ServiceManager
//SS//	Stop the service
//US//	Update service parameters
//IS//	Install service
//DS//	Delete service	Stops the service if running

Command line parameters

Each command line parameter is prefixed with —. If the command line parameter is prefixed with ++ then it’s value will be appended to the existing option. If the environment variable with the same name as command line parameter but prefixed with PR_ exists it will take precedence. For example:

is equivalent to providing

as command line parameter.

ParameterName	Default	Description
—Description	Service name description (maximum 1024 characters)
—DisplayName	ServiceName	Service display name
—Install	procrun.exe //RS//ServiceName	Install image
—Startup	manual	Service startup mode can be either auto or manual
—DependsOn	List of services that this service depend on. Dependent services are separated using either # or ; characters
—Environment	List of environment variables that will be provided to the service in the form key=value. They are separated using either # or ; characters. If you need to use either the # or ; character within a value then the entire value must be enclosed inside single quotes.
—User	User account used for running executable. It is used only for StartMode java or exe and enables running applications as service under account without LogonAsService privilege.
—Password	Password for user account set by —User parameter
—JavaHome	JAVA_HOME	Set a different JAVA_HOME than defined by JAVA_HOME environment variable
—Jvm	auto	Use either auto (i.e. find the JVM from the Windows registry) or specify the full path to the jvm.dll. You can use the environment variable expansion here.
—JvmOptions	-Xrs	List of options in the form of -D or -X that will be passed to the JVM. The options are separated using either # or ; characters. If you need to embed either # or ; characters, put them inside single quotes. (Not used in exe mode.)
—JvmOptions9	List of options in the form of -D or -X that will be passed to the JVM when running on Java 9 or later. The options are separated using either # or ; characters. If you need to embed either # or ; characters, put them inside single quotes. (Not used in exe mode.)
—Classpath	Set the Java classpath. (Not used in exe mode.)
—JvmMs	Initial memory pool size in MB. (Not used in exe mode.)
—JvmMx	Maximum memory pool size in MB. (Not used in exe mode.)
—JvmSs	Thread stack size in KB. (Not used in exe mode.)
—StartMode	One of jvm, Java or exe. The modes are: jvm — start Java in-process. Depends on jvm.dll, see —Jvm. Java — same as exe, but automatically uses the default Java executable, i.e. %JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe. Make sure JAVA_HOME is set correctly, or use —JavaHome to provide the correct location. If neither is set, procrun will try to find the default JDK (not JRE) from the Windows registry. exe — run the image as a separate process
—StartImage	Executable that will be run. Only applies to exe mode.
—StartPath	Working path for the start image executable.
—StartClass	Main	Class that contains the startup method. Applies to the jvm and Java modes. (Not used in exe mode.)
—StartMethod	main	Method name if differs then main
—StartParams	List of parameters that will be passed to either StartImage or StartClass. Parameters are separated using either # or ; character.
—StopMode	One of jvm, Java or exe. See —StartMode for further details.
—StopImage	Executable that will be run on Stop service signal. Only applies to exe mode.
—StopPath	Working path for the stop image executable. Does not apply to jvm mode.
—StopClass	Main	Class that will be used on Stop service signal. Applies to the jvm and Java modes.
—StopMethod	main	Method name if differs then main
—StopParams	List of parameters that will be passed to either StopImage or StopClass. Parameters are separated using either # or ; character.
—StopTimeout	No Timeout	Defines the timeout in seconds that procrun waits for service to exit gracefully.
—LogPath	%SystemRoot%\System32\LogFiles\Apache	Defines the path for logging. Creates the directory if necessary.
—LogPrefix	commons-daemon	Defines the service log filename prefix. The log file is created in the LogPath directory with .YEAR-MONTH-DAY.log suffix
—LogLevel	Info	Defines the logging level and can be either Error, Info, Warn or Debug. (Case insensitive).
—StdOutput	Redirected stdout filename. If named auto then file is created inside LogPath with the name service-stdout.YEAR-MONTH-DAY.log.
—StdError	Redirected stderr filename. If named auto then file is created inside LogPath with the name service-stderr.YEAR-MONTH-DAY.log.
—PidFile	Defines the file name for storing the running process id. Actual file is created in the LogPath directory

Installing services

The safest way to manually install the service is to use the provided service.bat script. Administrator privileges are required to run this script. If necessary, you can use the /user switch to specify a user to use for the installation of the service.

NOTE: On Windows Vista or any later operating system with User Account Control (UAC) enabled you will be asked for additional privileges when ‘Tomcat8.exe’ is launched by the script.
If you want to pass additional options to service installer as PR_* environment variables, you have to either configure them globally in OS, or launch the program that sets them with elevated privileges (e.g. right-click on cmd.exe and select «Run as administrator»; on Windows 8 (or later) or Windows Server 2012 (or later), you can open an elevated command prompt for the current directory from the Explorer by clicking on the «File» menu bar). See issue 56143 for details.

There is a 2nd optional parameter that lets you specify the name of the service, as displayed in Windows services.

If using tomcat8.exe, you need to use the //IS// parameter.

Apache Tomcat ®

Content

Apache Tomcat

The Apache Tomcat ® software is an open source implementation of the Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages, Java Expression Language and Java WebSocket technologies. The Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages, Java Expression Language and Java WebSocket specifications are developed under the Java Community Process.

The Apache Tomcat software is developed in an open and participatory environment and released under the Apache License version 2. The Apache Tomcat project is intended to be a collaboration of the best-of-breed developers from around the world. We invite you to participate in this open development project. To learn more about getting involved, click here.

Apache Tomcat software powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations. Some of these users and their stories are listed on the PoweredBy wiki page.

Apache Tomcat, Tomcat, Apache, the Apache feather, and the Apache Tomcat project logo are trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation.

2021-04-06 Tomcat 10.0.5 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 10.0.5 of Apache Tomcat. This release is targeted at Jakarta EE 9.

Applications that run on Tomcat 9 and earlier will not run on Tomcat 10 without changes. Java EE applications designed for Tomcat 9 and earlier may be placed in the $CATALINA_BASE/webapps-javaee directory and Tomcat will automatically convert them to Jakarta EE and copy them to the webapps directory. This conversion is performed using the Apache Tomcat migration tool for Jakarta EE tool which is also available as a separate download for off-line use.

The notable changes in this release are:

• Fix a regression in 10.0.4 that meant that an error during an asynchronous read broke all future asynchronous reads associated with the same request instance.
• Prevent concurrent calls to ServletInputStream.isReady() corrupting the input buffer.
• Update the packaged version of Tomcat Native to 1.2.27 to pick up binaries built with OpenSSL 1.1.1k.

Full details of these changes, and all the other changes, are available in the Tomcat 10 changelog.

2021-04-06 Tomcat 9.0.45 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 9.0.45 of Apache Tomcat. The notable changes compared to 9.0.44 include:

• Fix a regression in 9.0.44 that meant that an error during an asynchronous read broke all future asynchronous reads associated with the same request instance.
• Prevent concurrent calls to ServletInputStream.isReady() corrupting the input buffer.
• Update the packaged version of Tomcat Native to 1.2.27 to pick up binaries built with OpenSSL 1.1.1k.

Full details of these changes, and all the other changes, are available in the Tomcat 9 changelog.

2020-04-06 Tomcat 8.5.65 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 8.5.65 of Apache Tomcat. The notable changes compared to 8.5.64 include:

• Fix a regression in 8.5.64 that meant that an error during an asynchronous read broke all future asynchronous reads associated with the same request instance.
• Prevent concurrent calls to ServletInputStream.isReady() corrupting the input buffer.
• Update the packaged version of Tomcat Native to 1.2.27 to pick up binaries built with OpenSSL 1.1.1k.

Full details of these changes, and all the other changes, are available in the Tomcat 8.5 changelog.

2021-04-06 Tomcat Native 1.2.28 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 1.2.28 of Tomcat Native. The notable changes since 1.2.27 include:

• Correct a regression in the fix for 65181 that prevented an error message from being displayed if an invalid key file was provided and no OpenSSL Engine was configured.

2021-02-18 Tomcat Migration Tool for Jakarta EE 0.2.0 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of 0.2.0 of the Apache Tomcat Migration Tool for Jakarta EE. This release contains a number of bug fixes and improvements compared to version 0.1.0.

The notable changes in this release are:

• Various fixes to the packages that are and are not converted
• A new option to process zip archives in memory to support zip files that use options that are incompatible with a streaming approach
• A new option to exclude files from transformation

Full details of these changes, and all the other changes, are available in the changelog.

2021-02-05 Tomcat 7.0.108 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 7.0.108 of Apache Tomcat. This release contains a number of bug fixes and improvements compared to version 7.0.107.

• Fix a potential file descriptor leak when WebSocket connections are attempted and fail. Patch provided by Maurizio Adami.

Full details of these changes, and all the other changes, are available in the Tomcat 7 changelog.

Note: End of life date for Apache Tomcat 7.0.x is announced. Read more.

2020-03-06 Tomcat Connectors 1.2.48 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 1.2.48 of Apache Tomcat Connectors. This version fixes a number of bugs found in previous releases.

2015-03-17 Apache Standard Taglib 1.2.5 Released

The Apache Tomcat Project is proud to announce the release of version 1.2.5 of the Standard Taglib. This tag library provides Apache’s implementation of the JSTL 1.2 specification.

Version 1.2.5 is a minor bug fix release reverting a change made in 1.2.1 where modified the HTTP method during POST operations, and fixing an issues that resulted in an AccessControlException during startup unless permission was granted to read the accessExternalEntity property.

Please see the Taglibs section for more details.

2013-11-11 Tomcat Maven Plugin 2.2 Released

The Apache Tomcat team is pleased to announce the release of Tomcat Maven Plugin 2.2. Changelog available here.

The Apache Tomcat Maven Plugin provides goals to manipulate WAR projects within the Apache Tomcat servlet container.

The binaries are available from Maven repositories. You should specify the version in your project’s plugin configuration: