On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, chris brown wrote:
> A few questions about the downloads :
>
> 1./ Windows Installer version
> (I assume this is the .exe in the main download folder ; I would have
> expected it in the "bin" subfolder...). What does this file actually do? I
> imagine that it unzips the files and installs Tomcat as a service (using
> jk_nt_service) -- am I correct so far? Does it do anything else, such as
> modify "httpd.conf" for Apache or any other server setup files (for IIS or
> whatever)?
>
The ".exe" version is an all-in-one installer (for Windows only) that
installs and configures Tomcat for you (including optionally setting it up
to run as an NT service). The "bin" directory will contain mod_webapp
binaries for various platforms.
> 2./ mod_webapp
> - Where's the Windows binary?! The only version I see is for Linux (at
> present).
Pier just got done adding binaries for Mac OSX and Solaris 8 Sparc, and is
working on Solaris 8 Intel and HP/UX 10.20. We need someone with an
appropriate C compiler to build for Windows ... volunteers?
> - Is this connecter "stable" code?
It's a *lot* better than before, but still beta code. There are some
known issues mentioned in the release notes.
> - Is it only for Apache 2.0, or can it be used with 1.3.20, etc.?
In fact, it's only for Apache 1.3.
> - Is there any documentation for mod_webapp (I don't know how to use it...)?
The Linux .so file has just been repackaged with documentation (also
included with the other versions).
> - What's the difference between mod_webapp and mod_jk anyway?!
Technically, they are completely different on the inside. From the user
perspective, mod_webapp was designed to understand what a "web
application" (in the servlet spec's definition) is -- hence the name
:-) Unlike mod_jk, where you have to configure everything twice (or hope
that the auto-generated config files take care of everything for you),
adding a web app to Apache's httpd.conf file boils down to one statement:
WebAppDeploy examples warpConnection /examples/
and the connector will configure itself from the web.xml file for the
"/examples" web app (included with Tomcat).
In this version, the connector still hands over all requests for this web
app to Tomcat (including static files). When final release happens, it
will automatically figure out which requests can be served by Apache
(basically, all static files that are not subject to filtering or a
security constraint) and pass to Tomcat only the required ones.
Since mod_jk is much more mature than mod_webapp at the moment, it has
several other features that mod_webapp does not yet possess (like load
balancing). These features will be added in later versions of mod_webapp.
>
> 3./ NT service
> I currently use JavaService, available from
> http://www.alexandriasc.com/software/JavaService/index.html, to run Tomcat
> 3.2.3 as a service. Is this still possible with Tomcat 4.0, or do I need to
> use jk_nt_service ?
>
If you use the Windows installer, you get this option automatically.
> Thanks,
> Chris B.
>
Craig McClanahan
