Directories and Files

Throughout the docs, you’ll notice there are numerous references to

$CATALINA_HOME This represents the root of your Tomcat installation. When we say, “This information can be found in your $CATALINA_HOME/README.txt file” we mean to look at the README.txt file at the root of your Tomcat install. Optionally, Tomcat may be configured for multiple instances by defining $CATALINA_BASE for each instance. If multiple instances are not configured, $CATALINA_BASE is the same as $CATALINA_HOME.

These are some of the key tomcat directories:

• /bin – Startup, shutdown, and other scripts. The *.sh files (for Unix systems) are functional duplicates of the*.bat files (for Windows systems). Since the Win32 command-line lacks certain functionality, there are some additional files in here.
• /conf – Configuration files and related DTDs. The most important file in here is server.xml. It is the main configuration file for the container.
• /logs – Log files are here by default.
• /webapps – This is where your webapps go.