What is the Tomcat installation directory?

Question

Based here I'm trying to setup Tomcat Server, I have successfully installed it and tested it. Then I stopped it as recommended in the tutorial. I'm setting up "New Server Runtime Environment" as you can see under Tomcat Installation Directory is a windows directory, anyone knows the Ubuntu directory equivalent for this? Thanks.

Apparently I don't have the rep here to answer, but for me on Ubuntu 18 it is in /opt/tomcat/apache-tomcat-8.5.50 — demongolem, Apr 07 '20 at 14:59

score 121 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 21 '16 at 19:37

121

There are three important directories for Tomcat:

/etc/tomcat{X} for configuration
/usr/share/tomcat{X} for runtime, called CATALINA_HOME
/usr/share/tomcat{X}-root for webapps

The alternative path to Tomcat, called CATALINA_BASE, is /var/lib/tomcat{X}

The temp folder for Tomcat is /tmp/tomcat{X}-tomcat{X}-tmp

All the above paths work for Tomcat 6, 7, and 8. Replace {X} with the appropriate Tomcat major version number, e.g. /etc/tomcat8.

edited Dec 21 '16 at 19:37

Ash

3

answered Jun 03 '12 at 05:14

Oto 'tapik' Buchta

1,431

1

Still applies to tomcat 8 – DataMania May 07 '15 at 01:11
1

What's the difference in the first two paths? They seem identical to me! – gsamaras Dec 13 '15 at 00:11
1

@gsamaras I believe the second path should be /usr/share/tomcat{X}, as this contains the runtime files (bin and lib). I'll propose an edit. – Justin Emery Jun 15 '16 at 10:53
How come this doesn't appear in the Tomcat documentation?! – pHneutre Jul 29 '19 at 10:34
@pHCito because tomcat does not do the installation it is ubuntu – tibi Oct 19 '19 at 04:18
I have tomcat running on my ubuntu 18 vm (hitting localhost 8080 proves that), but I can't find tomcat at any of the above locations. Where else might it be? – demongolem Apr 07 '20 at 14:49
Strangely though, the designated home-directory for the tomcat user appears to be /var/lib/tomcat - which does not exist. Shouldn't they have made it to be /var/lib/tomcat{X}? – cueedee Dec 20 '23 at 11:53

score 62 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 12 '15 at 20:30

After installing Tomcat with apt-get on Ubuntu 12.04, Tomcat creates and uses these directories:

/etc/tomcat6/

/etc/tomcat6/
├── Catalina
│   └── localhost
│       ├── ROOT.xml
│       └── solr.xml -> ../../../solr/solr-tomcat.xml
├── catalina.properties
├── context.xml
├── logging.properties
├── policy.d
│   ├── 01system.policy
│   ├── 02debian.policy
│   ├── 03catalina.policy
│   ├── 04webapps.policy
│   ├── 05solr.policy -> /etc/solr/tomcat.policy
│   └── 50local.policy
├── server.xml
├── tomcat-users.xml
└── web.xml

/usr/share/tomcat6

/usr/share/tomcat6
├── bin
│   ├── bootstrap.jar
│   ├── catalina.sh
│   ├── catalina-tasks.xml
│   ├── digest.sh
│   ├── setclasspath.sh
│   ├── shutdown.sh
│   ├── startup.sh
│   ├── tomcat-juli.jar -> ../../java/tomcat-juli.jar
│   ├── tool-wrapper.sh
│   └── version.sh
├── defaults.md5sum
├── defaults.template
└── lib
    ├── annotations-api.jar -> ../../java/annotations-api-6.0.35.jar
    ├── catalina-ant.jar -> ../../java/catalina-ant-6.0.35.jar
    ├── catalina-ha.jar -> ../../java/catalina-ha-6.0.35.jar
    ├── catalina.jar -> ../../java/catalina-6.0.35.jar
    ├── catalina-tribes.jar -> ../../java/catalina-tribes-6.0.35.jar
    ├── commons-dbcp.jar -> ../../java/commons-dbcp.jar
    ├── commons-pool.jar -> ../../java/commons-pool.jar
    ├── el-api.jar -> ../../java/el-api-2.1.jar
    ├── jasper-el.jar -> ../../java/jasper-el-6.0.35.jar
    ├── jasper.jar -> ../../java/jasper-6.0.35.jar
    ├── jasper-jdt.jar -> ../../java/ecj.jar
    ├── jsp-api.jar -> ../../java/jsp-api-2.1.jar
    ├── servlet-api.jar -> ../../java/servlet-api-2.5.jar
    ├── tomcat-coyote.jar -> ../../java/tomcat-coyote-6.0.35.jar
    ├── tomcat-i18n-es.jar -> ../../java/tomcat-i18n-es-6.0.35.jar
    ├── tomcat-i18n-fr.jar -> ../../java/tomcat-i18n-fr-6.0.35.jar
    └── tomcat-i18n-ja.jar -> ../../java/tomcat-i18n-ja-6.0.35.jar

/usr/share/tomcat6-root/

/usr/share/tomcat6-root/
└── default_root
    ├── index.html
    └── META-INF
        └── context.xml

/usr/share/doc/tomcat6

/usr/share/doc/tomcat6
├── changelog.Debian.gz -> ../libtomcat6-java/changelog.Debian.gz
├── copyright
└── README.Debian.gz -> ../tomcat6-common/README.Debian.gz

/var/cache/tomcat6

/var/cache/tomcat6
├── Catalina
│   └── localhost
│       ├── _
│       └── solr
│           └── org
│               └── apache
│                   └── jsp
│                       ├── admin
│                       │   ├── form_jsp.class
│                       │   ├── form_jsp.java
│                       │   ├── get_002dproperties_jsp.class
│                       │   ├── get_002dproperties_jsp.java
│                       │   ├── index_jsp.class
│                       │   ├── index_jsp.java
│                       │   ├── schema_jsp.class
│                       │   ├── schema_jsp.java
│                       │   ├── stats_jsp.class
│                       │   ├── stats_jsp.java
│                       │   ├── threaddump_jsp.class
│                       │   └── threaddump_jsp.java
│                       ├── index_jsp.class
│                       └── index_jsp.java
└── catalina.policy

/var/lib/tomcat6

/var/lib/tomcat6
├── common
│   └── classes
├── conf -> /etc/tomcat6
├── logs -> ../../log/tomcat6
├── server
│   └── classes
├── shared
│   └── classes
├── webapps
│   └── ROOT
│       ├── index.html
│       └── META-INF
│           └── context.xml
└── work -> ../../cache/tomcat6

/var/log/tomcat6

/var/log/tomcat6
├── catalina.2013-06-28.log
├── catalina.2013-06-30.log
├── catalina.out
├── catalina.out.1.gz
└── localhost.2013-06-28.log

/etc/default

/etc/default
├── tomcat7

Which one of all these folders is the right one to put web-apps in? — Tomáš Zato, Oct 01 '15 at 08:18
I wonder why it creates so many directories in different places — Dojo, Jan 28 '17 at 11:59
What is the purpose of this directory? /etc/tomcat6/ ├── Catalina — Mubasher, Nov 16 '23 at 18:20

score 11 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 08 '15 at 06:03

If you install Tomcat 7 using apt:

sudo apt-get install tomcat7

Then the webapps are located in /var/lib/tomcat7

$ tree  /var/lib/tomcat7 -L 2
/var/lib/tomcat7
├── common
│   └── classes
├── conf -> /etc/tomcat7
├── logs -> ../../log/tomcat7
├── server
│   └── classes
├── shared
│   └── classes
├── webapps
│   └── ROOT
└── work -> ../../cache/tomcat7

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 30 '14 at 19:51

5

for tomcat 7, if you are working with Intellij IDE:

Tomcat Home: /usr/share/tomcat7

Tomcat base directory: /var/lib/tomcat7

answered Nov 30 '14 at 19:51

Yar

171

1

Thanks a lot for this. This is directory is what Intellji Ultimate Editon has been asking for last 3 couple of days. One problem though: I am getting "permission denied" statement when I run the programming. It says,
"Error running 'Unnamed': Error copying configuration files from /var/lib/tomcat9/conf to /home/pranav/.IntelliJIdea2019.2/system/tomcat/Unnamed_Project101/conf: /var/lib/tomcat9/conf/server.xml (Permission denied) "
– Aug 02 '19 at 04:45

score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 12:48

4

This is the default Tomcat home page, that can be found on the local file system at:

/var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/ROOT/index.html

edited Feb 20 '14 at 12:48

v2r

9,547

answered Feb 20 '14 at 12:17

ashish

41
1

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 07 '14 at 21:12

4

I installed tomcat7 via apt-get, but its directory was not unlike tomcat6.

It was located in /usr/share/tomcat7

answered Mar 07 '14 at 21:12

Niko

1,095
1
9
15

dennyac · Answer 7 · 2014-03-14T07:49:25.453

I have followed the Vogella tutorial to set up the Tomcat server, and I ran into the same issue. If you had installed tomcat7 using the instructions mentioned in the tutorial, just mention the below path in the Tomcat installation directory field, when setting up the server runtime environment in eclipse

/usr/share/tomcat7

When I proceeded with the above path, I faced another issue (Could not load the Tomcat server configuration), for which I executed the below commands in terminal and restarted Eclipse. (Source)

cd /usr/share/tomcat7
sudo ln -s /var/lib/tomcat7/conf conf
sudo ln -s /etc/tomcat7/policy.d/03catalina.policy conf/catalina.policy
sudo ln -s /var/log/tomcat7 logs
sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/share/tomcat7/conf

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered May 12 '12 at 07:32

2

Assuming your are installing Tomcat 6, it will be at:

/usr/share/tomcat6

answered May 12 '12 at 07:32

Boj

208

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 03 '16 at 18:43

Simple, use linux find tool, (you might need to find as sudo user)

sudo find / -name tomcat7
/etc/logrotate.d/tomcat7
/etc/default/tomcat7
/etc/tomcat7
/etc/init.d/tomcat7
/etc/cron.daily/tomcat7
/usr/share/doc-base/tomcat7
/usr/share/tomcat7
/usr/share/doc/tomcat7
/var/lib/doc-base/documents/tomcat7
/var/lib/tomcat7
/var/cache/tomcat7
/var/log/tomcat7

I always forget where's the webapps is while deploying the war, this is my command,

sudo find / -name webapps
/var/lib/tomcat7/webapps
/home/prayagupd/.mozilla/firefox/kmsa14n9.default/webapps

Apparently, it not the second one.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 01 '15 at 20:18

These are some of the key tomcat directories:

/bin - Startup, shutdown, and other scripts. The *.sh files (for Unix systems) are functional duplicates of the *.bat files (for Windows systems). Since the Win32 command-line lacks certain functionality, there are some additional files in here.
/conf - Configuration files and related DTDs. The most important file in here is server.xml. It is the main configuration file for the container.
/logs - Log files are here by default.
/webapps - This is where your webapps go.

You may check where there are by the following commands:

dpkg -L tomcat7
dpkg -L tomcat7-common

Change tomcat7 to your appropriate package name. By default for Tomcat7 it's usually /usr/share/tomcat7.

What is the Tomcat installation directory?

10 Answers10

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