Tomcat appears to be running faithfully by the evidence of its JSP examples.

I have Netbeans 4.1 which also uses Tomcat 5.5.7 as its testbed.

I start a new project on Netbeans that uses the JSP examples (from its repetoire of example JSP projects) and I build and run it with equal results.

Then I FTP that build TomcatJSPExample.war to the webapps directory, where Tomcat automatically constructs a TomcatJSPExample folder.

When I visit this folder with a browser, the html pages appear, exactly like those already in the tomcat distribution.

However, when I choose ANY JSP to execute, Tomcat throws an exception:
org.apache.jasper.JasperException: Unable to compile class for JSP
org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:565)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:296)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:245)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
root cause

java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/work/Catalina/localhost/TomcatJSPExample/org/apache/jsp/jsp2/el/implicit_002dobjects_jsp.java
java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:179)
java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:70)
org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.generateJava(Compiler.java:131)
org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:286)
org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:267)
org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:255)
org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:556)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:296)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:245)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)

When I visit /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/work/Catalina/localhost/TomcatJSPExample/
there is only one entry:
tldCache.ser
in contrast to where in the Netbeans /work/Catalina...
There are compiled class files (in a larger directory tree) for those pages I had visited in the Netbeans run project session.

Tomcat seems to even resist a simple Hello World JSP deployment with the same exception cast (with an obviously different filename).

check your classpath...

if on linux...
echo $CLASSPATH..

and it should have the following paths (taking for granted CATALINA_HOME=/somepath/to/jakarta)
#> export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH;$CATALINA_HOME/server/lib:$CATALINA_HOME/common/lib:$CATALINA_HOME/shared/lib


offcourse restart the tomcat...
and preserve the above in .bash_profile ...

Thanx,

But careful maintenance of pathings, stored in /etc/profiles.local (per SuSe) such as:
JAVA_HOME=/opt/j2sdk1.4.2_07
export JAVA_HOME
CATALINA_HOME=/opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7
export CATALINA_HOME
CLASSPATH=/opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/server/lib:/opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/common/lib:/opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/shared/lib
export CLASSPATH
PATH=$PATH:/opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/bin
export PATH

does not seem to resolve the original error. Even though this profile seems to be tied to my account as root, I cannot find useful documentation for its application in a dedicated server that establishes these environmental settins from boot. Needless to say, when they are established at my SSH logon, nothing improves from the original complaint.

Another oddity is that variable expansions, like when I invoke
linux:/opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/bin # ./shutdown.sh

another exception is cast:

Using CATALINA_BASE: /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7
Using CATALINA_HOME: /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/temp
Using JRE_HOME: /opt/j2sdk1.4.2_07
Jun 1, 2005 4:51:35 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina stopServer
SEVERE: Catalina.stop:
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:305)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:171)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:158)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:452)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:402)
at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:309)
at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:124)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.stopServer(Catalina.java:394)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.stopServer(Bootstrap.java:320)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:411)

The error you are reporting could be that the tomcat is not starting properly...
post the output from catalina.out, when you try to start the server. Also check the status after some time if tomcat is running...

Thanx,

The file dump is quite copious. 83KB of class loading announcements (not reported here) from a 0 byte file at reboot through:

Jun 1, 2005 10:40:44 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol init
INFO: Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:45 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 6687 ms
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:46 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService start
INFO: Starting service Catalina
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:46 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/5.5.7
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:53 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ContextListener: contextInitialized()
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:53 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: SessionListener: contextInitialized()
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:54 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: org.apache.webapp.balancer.BalancerFilter: init(): ruleChain: [org.apache.webapp.balancer.RuleChain: [org.apache.webapp.balancer.rules.URLStringMatchRule: Target string: News / Redirect URL: http://www.cnn.com], [org.apache.webapp.balancer.rules.RequestParameterRule: Target param name: paramName / Target param value: paramValue / Redirect URL: http://www.yahoo.com], [org.apache.webapp.balancer.rules.AcceptEverythingRule: Redirect URL: http://jakarta.apache.org]]
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:55 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ContextListener: contextInitialized()
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:55 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: SessionListener: contextInitialized()
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:55 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: ContextListener: contextInitialized()
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:55 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
INFO: SessionListener: contextInitialized()
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:56 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol start
INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:57 PM org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket init
INFO: JK2: ajp13 listening on /0.0.0.0:8009
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:57 PM org.apache.jk.server.JkMain start
INFO: Jk running ID=0 time=0/310 config=null
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:57 PM org.apache.catalina.storeconfig.StoreLoader load
INFO: Find registry server-registry.xml at classpath resource
...
Jun 1, 2005 10:40:57 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 12553 ms

Following some several minutes, and an attempt to execute the Netbeans TomcatJSPExample.war sample:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/work/Catalina/localhost/TomcatJSPExample/org/apache/jsp/jsp2/tagfiles/hello_jsp.java
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
and blah, blah, blah as before...
[Loaded org.apache.jasper.compiler.Localizer]
Jun 1, 2005 10:42:50 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.7/work/Catalina/localhost/TomcatJSPExample/org/apache/jsp/jsp2/tagfiles/hello_jsp.java
at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
and blah, blah, blah as before...

**** I would point out again, that Tomcat is faithfully executing its sample JSPs that are part of its distribution ****

No doubt this is a very simple problem....