Java – How to specify “Context path” on Tomcat 8 inside META-INF/context.xml in java war file

javatomcattomcat8war

How can I deploy mywebapp-1.0.0.war to $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps directory with context path /mywebapp using context.xml inside the war file on Tomcat 8?

I'm getting back to work with Tomcat after long time since version 5. I'm used to create META-INF/context.xml inside my war file: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Context path="/mywebapp">
  ...
</Context>

Maven creates a war file with this name: mywebapp-1.0.0.war

But when I deploy the war file to $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps directory the context path will be http://localhost:8080/mywebapp-1.0.0 instead of http://localhost:8080/mywebapp/.

Also I see that $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/Catalina/localhost is empty, instead of having the xml file copied from the war file deployed.

I also added to $TOMCAT_HOME/conf/server.xml the deployXML="true" 

 <Host name="localhost"  appBase="webapps"
        unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true" 
        deployXML="true">

Best Answer

It is not possible to put a war inside the webapp directory and set the path attribute in META-INF/context.xml file at the same time. Tomcat 8 documentation, clearly says about this attribute:

This attribute must only be used when statically defining a Context in server.xml. In all other circumstances, the path will be inferred from the filenames used for either the .xml context file or the docBase.

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