Setting Up Tomcat For Remote Debugging

Tomcat can be configured to allow a program such as eclipse to connect remotely using JPDA and see debugging information.

To configure tomcat to allow remote debugging, start tomcat using the catalina startup script instead of the normal startup script as in (tomcat must be stopped before you can change over):
WIN:

set JPDA_ADDRESS=8000
set JPDA_TRANSPORT=dt_socket
(your_tomcat_home)/bin/catalina.bat jpda start

UNIX:

export JPDA_ADDRESS=8000
export JPDA_TRANSPORT=dt_socket
(your_tomcat_home)/bin/catalina.sh jpda start

If you're concerned about opening up the known port for debugging, you can change the port on which JPDA listens by setting the JPDA_ADDRESS environment variable to something else (like 38000).

We recommend adding this stuff to your startup script so that you are always running tomcat in debug mode.

1. Open the startup script in (your_tomcat_home)/bin (WIN: startup.bat, UNIX: startup.sh)
2. Add the following lines at the first blank line in the file (around line 8)
   WIN:

   set JPDA_ADDRESS=8000
   set JPDA_TRANSPORT=dt_socket
   

   UNIX:

   export JPDA_ADDRESS=8000
   export JPDA_TRANSPORT=dt_socket
   

3. Change the execute line at the end to include jpda start
   WIN:

   call "%EXECUTABLE%" jpda start %CMD_LINE_ARGS%
   

   UNIX:

   exec "$PRGDIR"/"$EXECUTABLE" jpda start "$@"
   

4. Run the startup script when starting tomcat to run tomcat in debug mode

Once you have tomcat configured and started, you can connect to your running tomcat instance using a number of debugging tools. For example, Eclipse has a debugging view that can help you work with tomcat via remote control.

Here are instructions on setting up Eclipse to debug tomcat remotely.

:doStart
shift
if not "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" goto noTitle
set _EXECJAVA=start "Tomcat" %_RUNJAVA%
goto gotTitle
:noTitle
set _EXECJAVA=start %_RUNJAVA%

:doStart
shift
if not "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" goto noTitle
set _EXECJAVA= %_RUNJAVA%
goto gotTitle
:noTitle
set _EXECJAVA= %_RUNJAVA%