Apache Tomcat

For administrators and web developers alike, there are some important bits of information you should familiarize yourself with before starting out. This document serves as a Brief introduction to some of the concepts and terminology behind the Tomcat container. As well, where to go when you need help. In the course of reading these documents, you`ll run across a number of terms; some specific to Tomcat, and others defined by the Servlet or JSP specifications. Context - In a Nutshell, a Context is a web application. Term2 - This is it. Term3 - This is it! Throughout the docs, you`ll notice there are numerous references to $CATALINA_HOME. This represents the root of your Tomcat installation. When we say, "This information can be found in your $CATALINA_HOME/README.txt file" we mean to look at the README.txt file at the root of your Tomcat install. Optionally, Tomcat may be configured for multiple instances by defining $CATALINA_BASE for each instance. If multiple instances are not configured, $CATALINA_BASE is the same as $CATALINA_HOME. These are some of the key tomcat directories: /bin - Startup, shutdown, and other scripts. The *.sh files (for Unix systems) are functional duplicates of the *.bat files (for Windows systems). Since the Win32 command-line lacks certain functionality, there are some additional files in here. /conf - Configuration files and related DTDs. The most important file in here is server.xml. It is the main configuration file for the container. /logs - Log files are here by Default. /webapps - This is where your webapps go.