Tomcat - additional classpath

Question

We have set up Tomcat 6 with

• [TOMCAT_HOME]/lib - here is the standard tomcat release
• [TOMCAT_BASE]/lib - here we like to add non standard additional jar file

However somehow I don't manage to get [TOMCAT_BASE]/lib jar files to be picked up by Tomcat. It appears that all my jar files out side tomcat are ignored.

Before starting Tomcat I set the CLASSPATH=[TOMCAT_BASE]\lib

-------- Edit

JAVA_ENDORSED_DIRS can be used for adding an additional folder with jar files to be loaded by Tomcat

Answer 1

Based on the documentation here, setting the CLASSPATH will be ignored by the tomcat init script. Additionally, there's really no way to trick Tomcat into looking elsewhere, unless you want to add it to one of the other directories mentioned on the aforementione dpage.

As usually with Java web applications, the question is: why? If you're using a third-party app, and you want to override a jar--well, you might as well just rebuild the ear If you're using your own app, then rebuilding the app (say, if you want one library for dev and another for prod) is the "Java way."

Answer 2

1. Add it to $TOMCAT/lib
2. Add it to $TOMCAT/webapps/YOURAPP/WEB-INF/lib
3. Edit $TOMCAT/bin/catalina.sh (.bat) to code a new path

That's about it on how you're going to make it happen. On #2, if you're building your own warball and it's auto-unpacking then add it there, not on the direct filesystem.