Kerpau!

This article describes how to install Apache Tomcat 5.5.20 Stand-alone on Debian Linux (Sarge) and run it as as a non-root user.

Install the Sun JDK

Download the self-extracting binary file for J2SE(TM) Development Kit 5.0 Update 9 from the following location to root’s home directory.

wget http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/install-linux.html

Make the file executable…

chmod +x jdk-1_5_0_09-linux-i586.bin

Change to your install directory…

cd /usr/lib

And execute the file…

~/jdk-1_5_0_09-linux-i586.bin

Accept the license agreement…

You will now have a directory named jdk1.5.0_09 in /usr/lib

Link it to /usr/lib/jdk for ease of use in future configuration tasks

ln -s jdk1.5.0_09 jdk

Add the java directory to the path…

vi /etc/profile

Add the following after the export PATH line…

export JAVA_HOME=”/usr/lib/jdk”
export JDK_HOME=”${JAVA_HOME}”
export PATH=”${JAVA_HOME}/bin:${PATH}”

Update your environment…

source /etc/profile

Test your install…

java -version

You should see something like…

java version “1.5.0_09″
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_09-b01)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_09-b01, mixed mode, sharing)

Congratulations! JDK is now up and running!

Setup the Environment for Running as a Non-root User

Create a group…

groupadd tomcat

Create the user and enter a suitable password…

useradd -g tomcat tomcat

passwd tomcat

Install Apache Tomcat

Download Tomcat

wget http://apache.mirrors.tds.net/tomcat/tomcat-5/v5.5.20/bin/apache-tomcat-5.5.20.tar.gz

Unpack it…

tar xzvf apache-tomcat-5.5.20.tar.gz

move it to /usr/lib…

mv apache-tomcat-5.5.20 /usr/lib

Change the owner to tomcat…

chown -R tomcat:tomcat /usr/lib/apache-tomcat-5.5.20

Create a link for simplicity…

ln -s apache-tomcat-5.5.20 tomcat

Set the CATALINA_HOME environment variable…

vi /etc/profile

And add the following line after the “export PATH” line…

export CATALINA_HOME=”/usr/lib/tomcat”

And then update the environment…

source /etc/profile

Change server.xml so that tomcat listens on port 80

vi conf/server.xml

Change

Connector port=”8080″

To read

Connector port=”80″

Test the install as root…

cd /usr/lib/tomcat/bin
./startup/sh

You should see something like

Using CATALINA_BASE: /usr/lib/tomcat
Using CATALINA_HOME: /usr/lib/tomcat
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/lib/tomcat/temp
Using JRE_HOME: /usr/lib/jdk

Open a Web browser and go to http://server to verify that the Apache default install page appears
If that looks good, stop tomcat

./shutdown.sh

Congratulations! Apache Tomcat is now up and running!

Complete the Non-root Configuration

Install autoconf in preparation for building jsvc…

apt-get install autoconf

Compile jsvc

cd $CATALINA_HOME/bin
tar xvfz jsvc.tar.gz
cd jsvc-src
autoconf
./configure
make
cp jsvc ..
cd ..
copy /usr/lib/tomcat/bin/jsvc-src/native/Tomcat5.sh /etc/init.d/tomcat

Edit Tomcat5.sh to look like this…

#!/bin/sh

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jdk
CATALINA_HOME=/usr/lib/tomcat
DAEMON_HOME=/usr/lib/tomcat/bin
TOMCAT_USER=tomcat

# for multi instances adapt those lines.
TMP_DIR=/var/tmp
PID_FILE=/var/run/jsvc.pid
CATALINA_BASE=/usr/lib/tomcat

CATALINA_OPTS=”"
CLASSPATH=\
$JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar:\
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/commons-daemon.jar:\
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/bootstrap.jar

case “$1″ in
start)
#
# Start Tomcat
#
$DAEMON_HOME/jsvc \
-user $TOMCAT_USER \
-home $JAVA_HOME \
-Dcatalina.home=$CATALINA_HOME \
-Dcatalina.base=$CATALINA_BASE \
-Djava.io.tmpdir=$TMP_DIR \
-wait 10 \
-pidfile $PID_FILE \
-outfile $CATALINA_HOME/logs/catalina.out \
-errfile ‘&1′ \
$CATALINA_OPTS \
-cp $CLASSPATH \
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
#
# To get a verbose JVM
#-verbose \
# To get a debug of jsvc.
#-debug \
exit $?
;;

stop)
#
# Stop Tomcat
#
$DAEMON_HOME/jsvc \
-stop \
-pidfile $PID_FILE \
org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
exit $?
;;

*)
echo “Usage tomcat.sh start/stop”
exit 1;;
esac

Configure init scripts…

update-rc.d tomcat defaults

And start up the service…

/etc/init.d/tomcat start

That should do it. Enjoy!