Eww Eww even better idea. Add on mod_rewrite and you solution could be as simple as adding the symlinks like Mike was talking about.
<VirtualHost <IP Address>:80> ServerName www.tomcat.mydomain.com ServerAlias *.tomcat.mydomain.com DocumentRoot /www/tomcat.mydomain.com/html DirectoryIndex index.html RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %(http_host) . RewriteCond %(http_host) !^www.tomcat.mydomain.com [NC] RewriteCond %(http_host) ^([^.]+)\.tomcat.mydomain.com [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.tomcat.mydomain.com/%1/ [R=301,L,QSA] JkMount /* <worker name> </VirtualHost> Now if you go to jdoe.tomcat.mydomain.com it will go to the url: http://www.tomcat.mydomain.com/jdoe which now could be your symlinked directories and you wouldnt have to change your config at all after that. Just add and delete symlinks. Chris Berthold IT Systems Analyst Commercial Refrigerator Door Company 941 . 371 . 8110 x 205 -----Original Message----- From: Chris Berthold [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 1:08 PM To: 'Tomcat Users List'; '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: User WEb Applications If on mod_jk in his case: JkMount /* <worker name> would cover all applications regardless of how many apps he had on there. And in the case of virtual host names you could do a set of wild card hosts to simplify the process in apache. In DNS you would have *.tomcat.mydomain.com point to the address of the server. In apache you would set the config up like so: <VirtualHost <IP Address>:80> ServerName www.tomcat.mydomain.com ServerAlias *.tomcat.mydomain.com DocumentRoot /www/tomcat.mydomain.com/html DirectoryIndex index.html JkMount /* <worker name> </VirtualHost> That would forward all the names from apache to tomcat and then you only have to deal with tomcat from that point forward. So in tomcat you would set up a different host for each lab student, instead of machine, if you have multiple classes. For instance: jdoe.tomcat.mydomain.com your server.xml would look something along the lines of what was shown below for lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com but instead lab01host001 would be each name or whatever scheme you would want to go with. Chris Berthold IT Systems Analyst Commercial Refrigerator Door Company 941 . 371 . 8110 x 205 -----Original Message----- From: Mike Sabroff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 12:47 PM To: Tomcat Users List Subject: Re: User WEb Applications You might try writing some script they can use that will create a symlink in the webapps directory to their home directory: #!/bin/csh # do whatever needed to write to directory and read or prompt for user directory # maybe some other logging or setup ??? cd /usr/local/tomcat/webapps #create symlink to userdir ln -s /home/user/dirname dirname #wait for tomcat to load sleep 10 exit Then tomcat will load this as a webapp providing ofcourse that the directory structure the link is pointing to is a true webapp (containing WEB-INF, WEB-INF/lib, WEB-INF/classes) directories Ofcourse, if you are using apache on port 80, and using jk, you will have to write a script to add the jk-mount as well Mike Sabroff Web Services Developer [EMAIL PROTECTED] 920-568-8379 Darryl Miles wrote: > Robert Frank wrote: >> I'm trying to set up the standalone server such that users can >> install and deply webapplications in their home directory (this >> is for a lab). > > Heh... Container stability during development for a single user is > hard enough than to have to worry about what your other lab students > are doing at the same time. > > The general get-out when you first find a problem that isn't an > obvious programming error is to restart the container and re-test the > situation. > > Maybe you'd be better off teaching students how to use Eclipse and > manage their own Tomcat instance from within it. But to use Eclipse > you'd need PCs of half decent spec with a little more RAM on board. > > > > Sorry I don't have an answer to your request, and whatever I do say > has more bearing on TC 5.5.x than 5.0.x. But my understanding is that > there is a single deployment directory folder per virtual hostname. > > So if you wanted to give each student/computer their own workspace > maybe you could setup DNS to point lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com to > the same IP address. > > Then setup <Host> directives in conf/server.xml like: > > <Host name="lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com" > appBase="/opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/webapps" > > workDir="/opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/work" > unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true" > xmlValidation="false" xmlNamespaceAware="false"> > </Host> > > > > To setup each lab users workspace use: > > mkdir /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat > mkdir /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/work > mkdir /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/webapps > > # chown the "work" folder to the same user the TC JVM instance runs as: > chown jakarta.jakarta > /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/work > chmod 775 /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/work > > # chown the "webapps" folder to the same user as the student that is > allowed to deploy, but also give the TB JVM instalce group permission > to write too. > chown student0123.jakarta > /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/webapps > chmod 775 /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/webapps > > > > # deploy your webapp and access as: > http://lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/ > cp ROOT.war > /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/webapps/ROOT.war > > # or under a context and access as: > http://lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/student0123/ > cp student0123.war > /opt/website/lab01host001.tomcat.mydomain.com/tomcat/webapps/student0123.war > > > # You may wish to create inside your WAR the file META-INF/context.xml > for any context specific parameters. See TC documentation. > > > You'd still need to give the students the ability to shutdown and > restart the container themselves, it really is a necessary requirement > to successfully develop with TC. More so if you are a student and > don't understand anything to begin with and need to learn from making > as many mistakes as possible. > > > > HTH > > Darryl > > >> Following the instructions of the documentation (for 5.0), >> I found the topic 'User Web Applications' in the host container >> documentation. The doc states: >> >> 'If a user home directory has been set up for a user named >> craigmcc, then its contents will be visible from a client browser >> by making a request to a URL like:' >> >> which is the behaviour I get. I.e., it will only list the contents of >> the directories and return files if selected. The doc then goes on: >> >> 'Successful use of this feature requires recognition of the >> following considerations: >> Each user web application will be deployed with characteristics >> established by any DefaultContext element you have configured >> for this Host.' >> >> Which tells me that user applications are *deployed* - but how? >> No matter what applictaion I put into the user's webapp directory >> (given as attribute to the Listener tag), it is never deployed, but if I >> put it into the webapp of the tomcat home, then it will be deployed. >> >> The logs state: >> >> catalina.out: >> >> 4-May-06 11:50:37 AM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig >> applicationConfig() >> INFO: Missing application web.xml, using defaults only >> StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/~unilogon] >> >> >> Okay, so where should this web.xml be put? Into the same directory >> given in the directoryName attribute of the Listener tag? >> >> >> and localhost_log.2006-05-04.txt: >> >> 2006-05-04 11:50:34 UserConfig[localhost]: UserConfig: Processing START >> 2006-05-04 11:50:34 UserConfig[localhost]: Deploying user web >> applications >> 2006-05-04 11:50:36 UserConfig[localhost]: Deploying web application >> for user unilogon >> >> which make me think all's ok, but it isn't. >> >> What am I missing? >> >> many thanks in advance, Robert >> >> >> Departement Informatik FGB tel +41 (0)61 267 14 66 >> Universit?t Basel fax. +41 (0)61 267 14 61 >> Robert Frank >> Klingelbergstrasse 50 [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> CH-4056 Basel >> Switzerland >> http://www.informatik.unibas.ch/personen/frank_r.html >> >> >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> . >> > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]