Tomcat or Apache Tomcat is an open source servlet container that has been developed by the Apache Software Foundation or ASF. It provides a pure Java HTTP web server environment for Java code to run, and includes tools for management and configuration. It can also be configured with the help of editing XML configuration files.

The recent Tomcat 5.x comes with a variety of features – the most important being the ability to implement the JSP 2.0 and Servlet 2.4 specifications; and assisting in reduced garbage collection, scalability and an improved performance. Additionally, it not only supplements faster JSP parsing but also provides native Windows and Unix wrappers for platform integration.

After installing dependencies like the Apache Ant build Tool and the Java Development Kit, experienced users can install and build Tomcat manually from source code.

Instructions to start Tomcat on Linux

Following steps can be looked forward to, in this regard.

Step 1: Before you go ahead with the step by step procedure to start Tomcat on Linux, you would require a computer with Linux operating system, and a Tomcat installation.

Step 2: Once you have the requirements, you would need to open a terminal.

Step 3: When you have opened a terminal, you need to proceed to access the directory where tomcat is located. However, if you are not aware of the location of tomcat, you can find it by typing the following command:

sudo find / -name *tomcat*

This command would return a list of files that are named as tomcat. One of the files in the list would be what you are looking for; that is, the directory location.

Step 4: After you are in the top level directory of Tomcat, you need to move to the bin directory. First of all, to make sure that there is a bin directory, type a ‘ls’ command. If there isn’t a bin directory, you are obviously in the wrong place and you would then need to type ‘cd bin’.

Step 5: After you get into Tomcat’s bin directory, simply type ‘./startup.sh’ (without the inverted commas). This command would execute the particular script that starts Tomcat.

Step 6: If you get an error for JRE_HOME or JAVA_HOME not being defined, then you are required to add the JAVA_HOME variable to your environment, by typing:

Export JAVA_HOME=/home/seeding/app/jre 1.5/

Although the directory would be obviously different on your system, it would be the top level directory of your Java installation.

Step 7: In case you receive the error in Step 5, type in ‘./startup.sh’ after Step 6 is completed. Tomcat would start without encountering any problems.

Step 8: You need to confirm that the following lines are displayed on screen:

Using CATALINA_BASE: /home/seedling/app/tomcat6

Using CATALINA_HOME: /home/seedling/app/tomcat6

Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /home/seedling/app/tomcat6/temp

Using JRE_HOME: /home/seedling/app/jre1.5/

This would ensure that Tomcat has started successfully.

Though it may seem to be a complicated procedure at first, closely following the step by step instructions would make sure that Tomcat starts on Linux without any problem whatsoever.