Solutions for Maven Tomcat Plugin Issues

Solutions for Maven Tomcat Plugin Issues | Generated by AI

Home 2025.09

You got the key clue right in your own log:

[INFO] Skipping non-war project

Nothing started because the tomcat7-maven-plugin only runs webapps packaged as a WAR with the classic src/main/webapp layout. Your project is almost certainly packaged as a JAR right now, so the plugin just exits after the build.

There’s a second gotcha: you’re running Tomcat 11 (Jakarta jakarta.* APIs), but your dependencies are Spring 5.2.x (uses javax.*). That mismatch means even if Tomcat started, a plain deploy to Tomcat 11 would fail without a migration. Use Tomcat 9 (javax) for Spring 5, or upgrade the app to Spring 6/Jakarta for Tomcat 10/11.

Here are clean paths you can choose—pick one and it’ll work:

Path 1 — Keep Spring 5, run locally with Jetty plugin (fastest)

No WAR needed; good for hacking.

Add plugin:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.eclipse.jetty</groupId>
  <artifactId>jetty-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>9.4.54.v20240208</version>
</plugin>

Run:
```
mvn jetty:run -Djetty.port=8080
```

This uses javax.*, matching Spring 5.

Path 2 — Keep Spring 5, build a WAR, and use the Tomcat7 plugin

In pom.xml set WAR packaging:
```
<packaging>war</packaging>
```

Ensure webapp layout exists:

src/main/webapp/
src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml   # optional if you have a Servlet 3 initializer

(Optional) Add plugin config:

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
  <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>2.2</version>
  <configuration>
    <path>/</path>
    <port>8080</port>
  </configuration>
</plugin>

Run:

mvn tomcat7:run            # for exploded webapp
# or
mvn package && mvn tomcat7:run-war

Path 3 — Keep Spring 5, deploy to a standalone Tomcat 9

This matches javax.* without changing code.

brew install tomcat@9
/opt/homebrew/opt/tomcat@9/bin/catalina start

Build and drop your WAR into .../tomcat@9/libexec/webapps/.

Path 4 — Upgrade the app to Spring 6/Jakarta, stick with Tomcat 11

If you want modern Tomcat:

Upgrade to Spring Framework 6.x / Spring Boot 3.x.
Change imports from javax.* to jakarta.*.
Then Tomcat 10/11 is fine.

Why `mvn tomcat7:run` printed success but “nothing happened”

Maven phases completed successfully, but the plugin saw non-WAR packaging, so it didn’t start an embedded Tomcat. That’s exactly what “Skipping non-war project” means.

If you tell me which path you prefer, I’ll give you the exact pom.xml and minimal files for that setup (including a tiny controller and how to hit it at http://localhost:8080/hello).

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