Why can't I shutdown tomcat 7 embedded from maven plugin?

Question

I'm using tomcat7-maven-plugin 2.2 to run a webapp from command line (I'm on Windows 8.1, Java 1.7.0_51 and Maven 3.2.1).

This is the configuration (pretty straightforward, I guess):

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
    <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.2</version>

    <configuration>
        <address>localhost</address>
        <port>8080</port>
        <path>/</path>
        <uriEncoding>UTF-8</uriEncoding>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

I run Maven with mvn tomcat7:run and it starts correctly, the server starts up, the webapp loads, and I can interact with it.
The command prompt in which I run Maven is busy showing Tomcat output (this looks fine to me):

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] Using the builder org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder with a thread count of 1
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building <project-name-here> 0.3
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] >>> tomcat7-maven-plugin:2.2:run (default-cli) @ <project-name-here> >>>
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-resources-plugin:2.6:resources (default-resources) @ <project-name-here> ---
[INFO] Using 'UTF-8' encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] Copying 25 resources
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-compiler-plugin:3.1:compile (default-compile) @ <project-name-here> ---
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO]
[INFO] <<< tomcat7-maven-plugin:2.2:run (default-cli) @ <project-name-here> <<<
[INFO]
[INFO] --- tomcat7-maven-plugin:2.2:run (default-cli) @ <project-name-here> ---
[INFO] Running war on http://localhost:8080/
[INFO] Using existing Tomcat server configuration at c:\workspace\<project-name-here>\target\tomcat
[INFO] create webapp with contextPath:
apr 01, 2014 10:39:50 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init
Informazioni: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-127.0.0.1-8080"]
apr 01, 2014 10:39:50 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService startInternal
Informazioni: Starting service Tomcat
apr 01, 2014 10:39:50 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
Informazioni: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.47
apr 01, 2014 10:39:52 AM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
Informazioni: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-127.0.0.1-8080"]

Then, I want to shutdown the server: I run mvn tomcat7:shutdown from a separate command prompt, but all I get is this:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] Using the builder org.apache.maven.lifecycle.internal.builder.singlethreaded.SingleThreadedBuilder with a thread count of 1
[INFO]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building <project-name-here> 0.3
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- tomcat7-maven-plugin:2.2:shutdown (default-cli) @ <project-name-here> ---
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1.083 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2014-04-01T10:39:59+01:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 9M/154M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
"cmd" non è riconosciuto come comando interno o esterno,
 un programma eseguibile o un file batch.

That last line reads:

"cmd" is not a recognized internal or external command, an executable or a batch file.

I can stop Tomcat from the first command prompt hitting Ctrl+C, but since I need to pass all this others, I'd like to offer them a script to start the webapp and a script to stop it.

What's wrong? Is it a plugin error? Is it a configuration error on my side?

---

EDIT

If I add <fork>true</fork> to the POM, the server crashes with this error:

[...]
Informazioni: Starting service Tomcat
apr 03, 2014 2:05:29 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine startInternal
Informazioni: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/7.0.47
apr 03, 2014 2:05:31 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
Informazioni: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-127.0.0.1-8080"]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 5.711 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2014-04-03T14:05:31+01:00
[INFO] Final Memory: 26M/368M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: IllegalAccessException for stop method in class org.apache.tomcat.maven.plugin.tomcat7.run.ExtendedTomcat
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
        at org.apache.tomcat.maven.common.run.EmbeddedRegistry.shutdownAll(EmbeddedRegistry.java:110)
        at org.apache.tomcat.maven.common.run.EmbeddedRegistry$1.run(EmbeddedRegistry.java:69)
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to stop component [StandardServer[-1]]
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.stop(LifecycleBase.java:236)
        at org.apache.catalina.startup.Tomcat.stop(Tomcat.java:351)
        ... 6 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to stop component [StandardService[Tomcat]]
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.stop(LifecycleBase.java:236)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.stopInternal(StandardServer.java:753)
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.stop(LifecycleBase.java:232)
        ... 7 more
Caused by: org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to stop component [StandardEngine[Tomcat]]
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.stop(LifecycleBase.java:236)
        at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.stopInternal(StandardService.java:502)
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.stop(LifecycleBase.java:232)
        ... 9 more
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/catalina/core/ContainerBase$StopChild
        at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.stopInternal(ContainerBase.java:1173)
        at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.stop(LifecycleBase.java:232)
        ... 11 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase$StopChild
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.strategy.SelfFirstStrategy.loadClass(SelfFirstStrategy.java:50)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.unsynchronizedLoadClass(ClassRealm.java:259)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:235)
        at org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.realm.ClassRealm.loadClass(ClassRealm.java:227)
        ... 13 more

Answer 1

As far as I know you need to use Ctrl + c after starting Tomcat server with mvn tomcat7:run to shut it down as it's attached to the current Maven run.

The shutdown goal is used to be called after e.g. performing some tests (integration tests) to finish all the job in a clean way.

Answer 2

have a look at the fork option http://tomcat.apache.org/maven-plugin-2.2/tomcat7-maven-plugin/run-mojo.html#fork

So with this option you are able to start embeded tomcat run some tests then shutdown.

HTH