War file not loading - Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class

Question

Hello;
I've got a war file for an app that I've been building for the past several weeks. I created a new version and uploaded it to the server and received a 404 error when trying to call a servlet in the war. The catalina.out file had the following message:
WebappClassLoader: validateJarFile(/usr/local/apache/tomcat/webapps/optintelligence/WEB-INF/lib/j2ee.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class
I've not changed my libraries at all and I don't see any conflict with another appliacation. The war file works on my local windows machine but has this error on a RedHat server. Both are running tomcat 4.x
I would appreciate any information on this problem.
Thanks;
Marshall

Answer 1

You might still get the warning when you start Tomcat:
WebappClassLoader: validateJarFile(/usr/local/apache/tomcat/webapps/optintelligence/WEB-INF/lib/j2ee.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class
That's because you have the j2ee.jar as part of the web application. The servlet specficiation forbids a web application trying to override core java, j2ee classes. Thererfore Tomcat prints the warning message that the particular jar could not be loaded as it is trying to override a core java-j2ee class.
If you remove the j2ee.jar from the web app WEB-INF/lib folder, the warning will disappear.