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Q1
Q1
Why does tomcat 5 create context configuration files?

Tomcat 5, Tomcat 6:

...


Unlike

...

tomcat

...

4.x,

...

tomcat

...

5.x

...

creates

...

context

...

configuration

...

files

...

for

...

you

...

in

...

its

...

 conf/

...

[Engine

...

name

...

]/

...

[Host

...

name

...

]

...

 directory.

...

This

...

is

...

part

...

of

...

the

...

change

...

in

...

tomcat's

...

configuration

...

mechanism

...

from

...

version

...

4.x

...

to

...

make

...

overall

...

configuration

...

more

...

robust,

...

flexible,

...

and

...

enterprise-friendly.

...

Note,

...

however,

...

that

...

this

...

has

...

changed

...

the

...

recommended

...

deployment

...

practices

...

for

...

web

...

applications.

...

These

...

context

...

configuration

...

files

...

are

...

created

...

by

...

tomcat,

...

but

...

not

...

removed

...

by

...

tomcat,

...

because

...

the

...

user

...

may

...

have

...

changed

...

them

...

or

...

other

...

files

...

in

...

the

...

conf

...

directory.

...

The

...

suggested

...

practice

...

for

...

tomcat

...

5

...

is

...

to

...

place

...

context

...

configuration

...

files

...

as

...

 META-INF/context.xml

...

 in

...

your

...

webapp,

...

and

...

use

...

Tomcat's

...

Manager

...

webapp

...

to

...

deploy/undeploy

...

your

...

applications.

...

More

...

details

...

can

...

be

...

found

...

here:

...

 MARC

...

Archive

...


Tomcat 7:

In Tomcat 7 the default behaviour has been changed to do not auto-create those context configuration files.

...

The

...

recommended

...

practice

...

of

...

using

...

 META-INF/context.xml

...

 files

...

is

...

still

...

the

...

same.

...

Those

...

files

...

are

...

discovered

...

and

...

processed

...

in

...

the

...

same

...

way.

...

The

...

difference

...

is

...

that

...

they

...

are

...

not

...

copied

...

to

...

the

...

 conf/

...

[Engine

...

name

...

]/

...

[Host

...

name

...

]

...

directory.


This is convenient, as you do not need to care of those copied files when undeploying your application, and you do not need to care whether the conf directory is writeable. This change in behaviour is documented in the Migration Guide.

...

Starting with Tomcat 6.0.25 there is a tool in the Manager webapp to help diagnose such misbehaving applications. See FAQ/Memory and MemoryLeakProtection.