How come Glassfish does not fail to start but Tomcat does if scope is not provided?

Question

I have a very simple Java web application with 2 jsp files ( index and test ). The deployment descriptor should give some clue:

<web-app... usual stuff here...>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>BeerServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>com.tugay.example.BeerServlet</servlet-class>

    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>BeerServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/tugay</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

This project was created by maven -webapp archetype and there is only one dependency in the pom:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>javax</groupId>
        <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
        <version>6.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

I have 2 run configurations in IntelliJ, one for Tomcat 7.0 and one for Glassfish 3.1.2.2

When pom is as above, the app deploys to both servers fine. But when I remove:

<scope>provided</scope>

the deployment fails in Tomcat, but is still successful in Glassfish. Why is this?

This is from the Tomcat log file:

SEVERE: Error configuring application listener of class org.apache.catalina.deploy.ApplicationListener@49f8d077 java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1714) at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass(WebappClassLoader.java:1559) at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClass(DefaultInstanceManager.java:527) at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.loadClassMaybePrivileged(DefaultInstanceManager.java:509) at org.apache.catalina.core.DefaultInstanceManager.newInstance(DefaultInstanceManager.java:137) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4854) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5434) at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.manageApp(HostConfig.java:1551) 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:597) at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:301) at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:836) at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:762) at org.apache.catalina.mbeans.MBeanFactory.createStandardContext(MBeanFactory.java:622) at org.apache.catalina.mbeans.MBeanFactory.createStandardContext(MBeanFactory.java:569) 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:597) at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:301) at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:836) at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:762) at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.doOperation(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1454) at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.access$300(RMIConnectionImpl.java:74) at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl$PrivilegedOperation.run(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1295) at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.doPrivilegedOperation(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1387) at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.invoke(RMIConnectionImpl.java:818) 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:597) at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:303) at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:159) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:155) at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:535) at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run0(TCPTransport.java:790) at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:649) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:895) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:918) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662) Oct 20, 2013 1:03:08 AM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart SEVERE: Skipped installing application listeners due to previous error(s)

Manuel Rony Gomes Manuel Rony Gomes · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-20T04:53:03

<scope>provided</scope> is used in maven to tell that this library (javaee-api) will be provided by server. When you omit , default is <scope>compile</scope> means required jars are available during compilation and packaged with WAR file in lib folder. javaee-api package contain javax.servlet, javax.servlet.http .. etc, which is also provided by Tomcat. So when you omit scope, jars are packed in WAR file but this jars are also provided by tomcat so there is jar conflict. Glassfish is able to resolve this issue.

How come Glassfish does not fail to start but Tomcat does if scope is not provided?

1 Answers