When you’re running a Tomcat server on your own machine for development purposes, it’s pretty easy to tie it to Eclipse. When that Tomcat instance (or, in my case, instances) are running as a service, without the benefit of the control panel, it gets a little harder. Especially if it’s not a traditional web application, but a desktop app with a supporting web back-end.
Here’s how to debug a Tomcat server with Eclipse when it’s running as a service. This example assumes that the server is at localhost, and that you’ll be debugging on port 5003 (your choice, so long as it’s available – and it can’t be the port that that Tomcat is already on).
Firstly, when you start your Tomcat service you need to pass a few additional options:
set JPDA_TRANSPORT=dt_socket set JPDA_ADDRESS=5003
Next, the line that actually launches the service needs to pass those options in the JvmOptions parameter:
--JvmOptions "-XDebug;-Xrunjdwp:transport=%JPDA_TRANSPORT%,address=%JPDA_ADDRESS%,server=y,suspend=n;-DJAVA_HOME=...
Important: no white-space in there.
Lastly, create the debug configuration in Eclipse: Run -> Debug Configurations, add a new Remote Tomcat Application.
- Connection Type: Standard (Socket Attach)
- Host: localhost
- Port: 5003
Et viola, start this debug configuration to attach to the server, then launch your application as normal.
