Adding An External Directory To Tomcat Classpath
Answer : Just specify it in shared.loader or common.loader property of /conf/catalina.properties . See also question: Can I create a custom classpath on a per application basis in Tomcat Tomcat 7 Context hold Loader element. According to docs deployment descriptor (what in <Context> tag) can be placed in: $CATALINA_BASE/conf/server.xml - bad - require server restarts in order to reread config $CATALINA_BASE/conf/context.xml - bad - shared across all applications $CATALINA_BASE/work/$APP.war:/META-INF/context.xml - bad - require repackaging in order to change config $CATALINA_BASE/work/[enginename]/[hostname]/$APP/META-INF/context.xml - nice , but see last option!! $CATALINA_BASE/webapps/$APP/META-INF/context.xml - nice , but see last option!! $CATALINA_BASE/conf/[enginename]/[hostname]/$APP.xml - best - completely out of application and automatically scanned for changes!!! Here my config which demonstrate how to use development version of project files ...