Tomcat does not recognize JAVA_HOME
I've installed Ubuntu 14.04 Server, extracted JDK1.8u5 and Tomcat7, and added the following to .profile (I also tried adding it to .bashrc with similar [non-] results):
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/java/jdk1.8.0_05
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
when I run echo $JAVA_HOME
I get the expected result of /opt/java/jdk1.8.0_05
. I can also run java -version
and get the correct response from Java. so far so good.
so now I try to startup Tomcat (tried also catalina.sh), and I get the following:
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /opt/tomcat7/apache-tomcat-7.0.53/bin/startup.sh
Neither the JAVA_HOME nor the JRE_HOME environment variable is defined
At least one of these environment variable is needed to run this program
but... I just tried echo $JAVA_HOME
and it worked?
There is a help text in catalina.sh
. I will quote it here:
# Do not set the variables in this script. Instead put them into a script
# setenv.sh in CATALINA_BASE/bin to keep your customizations separate.
#
# JAVA_HOME Must point at your Java Development Kit installation.
# Required to run the with the "debug" argument.
# Ensure that any user defined CLASSPATH variables are not used on startup,
# but allow them to be specified in setenv.sh, in rare case when it is needed.
CLASSPATH=
if [ -r "$CATALINA_BASE/bin/setenv.sh" ]; then
. "$CATALINA_BASE/bin/setenv.sh"
elif [ -r "$CATALINA_HOME/bin/setenv.sh" ]; then
. "$CATALINA_HOME/bin/setenv.sh"
fi
When you starting tomcat
using catalina.sh
, it searching for file setenv.sh
and sourcing it. It is searching in CATALINA_HOME
or CATALINA_BASE
.
So the better way to set JAVA_HOME
for the tomcat
is:
- Create a script named
setenv.sh
in the folderCATALINA_BASE/bin
, if it does not exist already. -
Add this line to
setenv.sh
export JAVA_HOME=/opt/java/jdk1.8.0_05
Make it executable.
Why you should use this solution:
Setting environment variable in script is safer. Always try to set variables as locally as possible. Try do not use /etc/environment
, /etc/profile
and others if you really do not need Global Environment Variable
. Setting JAVA_HOME
in setenv.sh
gives you ability to use different tomcats with different applications that need different version of java
, but running by one user. Other user environment would not be affected by you.
Since you have set the environment variable for your own user and not for the superuser, you have two options:
-
You will have to export the variable using
-E
option as follows:sudo -E /opt/tomcat7/apache-tomcat-7.0.53/bin/startup.sh
Note that this will export all environment variables while running the command. This is not preferred since the normal users environment is spilled out when you run the command as root. This is not desirable.
-
Export the variable in
root's.bashrc
/etc/enviroment
file. Open a terminal and type:sudo nano /etc/environment
and enter your administrative password, and add the following lines to the end of the file:
JAVA_HOME=/opt/java/jdk1.8.0_05 PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
and then
source /etc/environment
or restart your machine and then retry the command you were using.
Update:
This answer provided hints as two why step 2 wouldn't work, sudo
would reset the environment and provide a secure path, so all global variables are reset. A workaround would be to use
sudo su
and then execute command which uses the set environment variables.