Can not put anything into /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/

Question

I was starting on JAVA web development today and encountered some problems, I installed my tomcat7 on my ubuntu machine. Now when I browse to //localhost:8080, I get the default welcome page saying:

This is the default Tomcat home page. It can be found on the local filesystem at: /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/ROOT/index.html

Tomcat7 veterans might be pleased to learn that this system instance of Tomcat is installed with CATALINA_HOME in /usr/share/tomcat7 and CATALINA_BASE in /var/lib/tomcat7, following the rules from /usr/share/doc/tomcat7-common/RUNNING.txt.gz.

But strangely when I try echo $CATALINA_HOME nothing shows up. Also I can not copy/create anything in the default /var/lib/tomcat7/ROOT though it's just a matter of providing few permissions but I was wondering whether it is the right way to do it?,

What I would like to do is create a separate directory in my home where I can put my web application and tomcat can read hem from there. Is there a way to do it? In apache I can do it by changing the document-root and directory but I don't know how to do it for tomcat

Answer 1

But strangely when I try echo $CATALINA_HOME nothing shows up.

This is because the packaged version sets CATALINA_HOME just prior to launching Tomcat, after reading it from a configuration file (typically somewhere in /etc).

Also I can not copy/create anything in the default /var/lib/tomcat7/ROOT though it's just a matter of providing few permissions but I was wondering whether it is the right way to do it?

The permissions problem has to do with you not being root (or the Tomcat user). Most packaged Tomcat installations (deb or RPM) tend to install with a specific user in mind, and copying stuff in as a different sometimes won't work.

/usr/share/tomcat7 is your CATALINA_HOME directory, and it has links to the other directories, such as /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps, /etc/tomcat7, etc. You shouldn't copy directly into a web application, you should package the web application into a WAR file and "deploy" it. The advantages are numerous.

What I would like to do is create a separate directory in my home where I can put my web application and tomcat can read hem from there. Is there a way to do it?

Yes, one is created when "deploying a web app". Look to the standard Tomcat7 documentation, and consider installing the "manager" web application if you like a non-command line interface. Now that you know what "installation" of a web app is called, it will likely be an easier task.

In apache I can do it by changing the document-root and directory but I don't know how to do it for tomcat

Tomcat has a different, slightly more restrictive set of requirements for a document-root. You need to learn it, and just come to terms with the idea that it's never going to be the same. Basically under the "webapps" directory, is a WAR file or a expanded directory that came from a WAR file. Editing in-place is not a good idea for Tomcat, as the CGI-equivalents are not read from disk each time they are ran, they are linked into the memory of Tomcat. This means that a change in the directory might not affect your web application, which is good enough reason to not bother changing the on-disk files for a deployed web application.

Modify the web application, repackage it, and update the deployment. It's really the "right" way to go with Tomcat.

Answer 2

Give permission 777 to the webroot folder

sudo chmod -R 777 Webroot

After moving to the tomcat folder