One simple reason: to run on port 80, Tomcat has to run as root. Java and JVM security model aside, most admins would avoid running anything on port 80 as root. I'm more of a sys-admin than a developer, so something like that is very important to me. If one of our developers told me to install Tomcat on port 80 and let it run as root, I would tell them to go fly a kite. Or, I would do it, and from that point on consider that machine untrusted and compromised. I would also put that developer's home phone, cell phone, and email first on the 24/7/365 alert call list. :) Maybe I am too paranoid (not necessarily a bad thing in a sys-admin), but I'd trust Apache on port 80 long before I would trust Tomcat on port 80, even if Apache is written in C.
There are many more reasons, not just PHP or CGI. If you need to use any of Apache's modules, for example, like mod_rewrite, or mod_proxy, or any of the others. The list of why you might want to use Apache+Tomcat instead of just Tomcat is actually pretty large. Load balancing and request handling are other reasons. I have 13 Tomcat instances running, with many more in the pipeline...they all can't bind to port 80. The end result is to just use what works best for you in your situation. Nobody else has your exact, identical solution in your exact, identical environment, so the only one who can decide what's right is you. If it's Tomcat stand-alone on port 80, go for it. If it isn't, that's cool, too. John > -----Original Message----- > From: Joe Tomcat [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 2:21 AM > To: Tomcat Users List > Subject: Tomcat standalone followup question > > > I know this comes up all the time, but here is a followup question: It > seems like one of the main reasons people advocate having Apache, and > not just Tomcat by itself, is if you have to use PHP or CGI stuff with > the server. If you are in a case where you know that you will never > ever have to use any of those things on the same server, and > if most of > your pages are dynamic, is there still any reason to use > Apache? One of > the main things I like about Tomcat is that it is pure Java > which means > it is much safer for handling untrusted user input than something > written in C, like Apache. > > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
