We are having random problems with some of our application libraries when we
deploy them in their separate contexts. The question I have is what is the
default behavior for Tomcat to load class libraries into its CLASSPATH. Do
libraries from the $TOMCAT_HOME/lib directory get added to the CLASSPATH
before libraries for a particular web application (e.g.
webapps/someapp/WEB-INF/lib/*) or viceversa.
I have also seen problems where my web application can't find a particular
library when it is added to the "webapps/someapp/WEB-INF/lib" but it can
find it when it is added to the $TOMCAT_HOME/lib directory. This particular
problem occurred when I tried to use Oracle's jdbc drivers (i.e.
classes12.zip). I would get class not found errors when the classes12.zip
file was located in the WEB-INF/lib directory, but the errors went away when
I used the $TOMCAT_HOME/lib directory.
What is the recommended place for putting class libraries in the classpath
for Tomcat? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Brett
