How does Tomcat locate the webapps directory?

Question

How does Tomcat locate webapps directory? Where is this location set? Is it a relative directory?

Answer 1

It can be changed in the $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml in the . See the Tomcat documentation, specifically the section in regards to the Host container:

Tomcat 6 Configuration

Tomcat 7 Configuration

The default is webapps relative to the $CATALINA_BASE. An absolute pathname can be used.

Hope that helps.