[Will Glass-Husain]

– System Setup ——————————-
Operating System and version: Win XP
Eclipse version: 3.0.0
Eclipse build id: 200406251208
Fresh Eclipse install (y/n): n
If not, was it upgraded to its current version using the update manager? y
Other installed external plugins: Subclipse, Maven,MavenIDE
Number of plugins in the <eclipse>/plugins directory that begin with org.eclipse.pde.*: 8
MyEclipse version: 3.7.2
Eclipse JDK version: 1.4.2_04
Application Server JDK version: 1.4.2_04
Are there any exceptions in the Eclipse log file? no

– Message Body ——————————-

Hi,
I just installed MyEclipse with the update manager. I’m trying to start Tomcat 5.0.27. (home directory: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.0) When I start Tomcat I get two popup windows in Eclipse. The first reads “Java Virtual Machine / Could not find the main class. Program will exit.” The second reads “A configuration error occurred during startup. Please verify the preference field with the prompt: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Files\Apache”.

Interestingly, I tried it with Tomcat 4.1.29, and it worked fine.

I noticed several other similar (unresolved) posts in the forum related to this. Just to note, my JDK path is to the root of the SDK, not the JRE.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Riyad Kalla]

Try and reinstall Tomcat to C:\Tomcat5, sometimes on Windows Java has a problem resolving paths with the spaces in it without quotes or escape chars… this seems to be exactly whats happening from this error:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Files\Apache”.

Its very tricky to pin down… we came across one user that was running Win XP Pro, English Locale, JDK 1.4.2_04, Eclipse 3… all the newest stuff, nothing weird… and for some reason spaces in his paths totally screwed up execution of Tomcat for him… where as most of our other users are on much more complicated setups and it works fine…

[Scott Anderson]

I just installed MyEclipse with the update manager.

MyEclipse 3.7.2 or .200? Either case, it’s not available via the update manager, only by our installers. Is Tomcat installed on the default drive (C:)? or elsewhere? Also, from the looks of the error message it doesn’t look like Tomcat likes the spaces in the path. Is your Tomcat 4 install in a directory containing spaces? Can you try copying Tomcat 5 to a non-spaced directory path and trying to start it there?

[Will Glass-Husain]

I’ll try that, thanks. If you track down the bug, please post a note, though as this way I’m going to have to keep two Tomcat 5 installs on my machine.

Yes, it’s MyEclipse 3.7.200. My mistake; I downloaded the beta and installed it with the installer.

[Scott Anderson]

I can’t tell if it’s a bug of our or within Tomcat because you didn’t answer all my quesitons to help isolate it.

[Will Glass-Husain]

Ok, I figured it out.

The problem was that my path to Tomcat 5 ended with a slash. This was because I’d originally copied it from the Windows file explorer.

DIDN’T WORK (original path)
C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.0\

DID WORK
c:\tomcat5
C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.0

With the slash on the end, I get the error when starting Tomcat 5 as detailed above. The confusing thing was that I’d assumed the path was entered correctly as I was able to successfully deploy to Tomcat 5.

(Scott, I think you’ll find your questions answered above.)

So, I’m fine for the moment, but I suggest that the software be patched to correctly handle either case above.
This issue might also apply to several other postings in the message board. Typically, those posters worked around the issue
by switching app servers. I’m suspecting they simply entered the path in the right format.

Thanks,

WILL

[Scott Anderson]

WILL,

Thanks for the followup and explaination and follow up. I’m sure it will prove quite helpful to others where it looks like an issue with spaces in the path. We appreciate it.

[Author]

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