The *.java files in /opt/tomcat/work/Standalone/localhost/admin should belong to user tomcat group tomcat and not root/root. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Precondition: tomcat not installed emerge -u tomcat su su tomcat nano -w "$CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml" add <role rolename="admin"/> <user username="admin" password="pwd" roles="admin"/> save $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh open browser on URL http://localhost:8080 click on the link "Tomcat Administration" on the left <possibly you see a login page here or the exception below will be thrown now> enter "admin" and "pwd" <exception will be thrown> Actual Results: org.apache.jasper.JasperException: Unable to compile class for JSP at org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:478) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:190) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:551) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2415) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:172) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:223) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:594) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:392) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:565) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:619) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536) root cause java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/tomcat/work/Standalone/localhost/admin/login_jsp.java (Permission denied) at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method) at java.io.FileOutputStream.(FileOutputStream.java:176) at java.io.FileOutputStream.(FileOutputStream.java:70) at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.generateJava(Compiler.java:216) at org.apache.jasper.compiler.Compiler.compile(Compiler.java:369) at org.apache.jasper.JspCompilationContext.compile(JspCompilationContext.java:473) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:190) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295) at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:551) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2415) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:172) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995) at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:223) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:594) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:392) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:565) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:619) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536) Expected Results: The application should have been started
Actually its even worse. The directory /opt/tomcat/work/Standalone/localhost and all its children should be assigned to tomcat/tomcat.
*** Bug 37523 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
All the directories under /opt/tomcat are correctly owned by tomcat:tomcat. You started tomcat manually by using the startup.sh script. This starts tomcat as root and creates the temporary work directories as the root user. You probably restarted tomcat after editing the tomcat-users.xml file using the init script which runs tomcat as the tomcat user. At this point it won't be able to access the work folder anymore since the directories are already owned by root.
Fixed in 5.0.18 and 4.1.24