source level debugging

[liyingchang]

Hi I am getting myself familiar with the server now after spending 2 days building the latest from CVS and starting it up. I am just wondering how I should go about tracing through the code. I can't seem to start server/tomcat with -Xdebug ...etc.

any hint is appreciated.

[KevinH]

Well you could run tomcat in eclipse(ie start it running under the debugger).

[liyingchang]

you mean there is no way for me to start the server with remote debugging capability ? by no means I'd like to poke into propiatory secrets but is that how u guys debug by starting tomcat manually with some configuration to tell it where the zimbra stuff is at ? (as u can tell I am no tomcat expert)

[anand]

I don't run tomcat from inside eclipse, so I can't comment on that - others here do, and they may comment on that.

wrt being able to use -Xdebug in the tomcat/jvm command line, you can do this by using zmlocalconfig to change tocmat_java_options (make sure you preserve current values and reuse them - there is no append in zmlocalconfig).

Another thing to be aware of - if you are running production install, some JVM options are not allowed (for setuid/security reasons, -Xrun specifically being one of them; see source in ZimbraNative/src/launcher). Make sure you are using the "ZimbraServer/src/bin/tomcat" and not "tomcat.production" script to start/stop tomcat.

[liyingchang]

ok, thanks for the info, I did the following:

1. replaced ~zimbra/bin tomcat script with the "tomcat" script to make sure that I am not running the production script.
2. added -Xdebug and others (with zmlocalconfig):
tomcat_java_options = -client -XX:NewRatio=2 -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8000,server=y ,suspend=n

now the mailbox refuses to start, the status is always "stopped". did I miss something ?

[tim brennan]

Running it inside of eclipse is a huge help: you can change code on the fly (no restart), integrated debugging, etc.

Many of the devs here use the sysdeo tomcat plugin:
http://www.sysdeo.com/eclipse/tomcatplugin

My configuration looks like this....it might not all be necessary, but this is what is running on my box:

Windows/Preferences/Tomcat:
Tomcat version: 5.x
Tomcat home: \opt\zimbra\tomcat
Configuration file: \opt\zimbra\tomcat\conf\server.xml

Windows/Preferences/Tomcat/Advanced:
Tomcat base: \opt\zimbra\tomcat
Add Java Projects to classpath: ZimbraServer is checked

Windows/Preferences/Tomcat/JVM Settings:
add [ZimbraServerPath]\conf to the Classpath

Windows/Preferences/Tomcat/Source Path:
ZimbraServer is checked


Note that there is a problem with the build.xml "deploy" task and the eclipse plugin: if you use the deploy task (or reset-the-world which calls deploy) you will need to stop and restart your server b/c of an issue with the SessionCache class not being properly reinitialized.

[liyingchang]

Thanks for the info, that's a lot of help, I was able to "start" the tomcat until the following error. Now that I understand it's not related to Zimbra stuff at all and I should be browsing around and find answers somewhere, but just in case you have seen this before and know some answers so I can move forward faster, any input is appreciated.

1 INFO [main] [] Http11Protocol - Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-80
1711 INFO [main] [] Http11Protocol - Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-7071
1711 INFO [main] [] Catalina - Initialization processed in 4220 ms
1848 INFO [main] [] StandardService - Starting service Catalina
1867 INFO [main] [] StandardEngine - Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/5.5.7
2119 INFO [main] [] StandardHost - XML validation disabled
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Nativ e Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Native MethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(De legatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootst rap.java:271)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstr ap.java:409)
Caused by: javax.xml.parsers.FactoryConfigurationError: Provider org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl not found
at javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstan ce(DocumentBuilderFactory.java:104)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.util.DomUtil.readXml(Do mUtil.java:284)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.modules.MbeansDescripto rsDOMSource.execute(MbeansDescriptorsDOMSource.jav a:130)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.modules.MbeansDescripto rsDOMSource.loadDescriptors(MbeansDescriptorsDOMSo urce.java:120)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.load(Registry. java:819)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.loadDescriptor s(Registry.java:931)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.loadDescriptor s(Registry.java:909)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.findDescriptor (Registry.java:992)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.findManagedBea n(Registry.java:696)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.findManagedBea n(Registry.java:1047)
at org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry.registerCompon ent(Registry.java:859)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappLoader.init(Webap pLoader.java:573)
at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappLoader.start(Weba ppLoader.java:605)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(Sta ndardContext.java:3985)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(Conta inerBase.java:1011)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(Standa rdHost.java:718)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(Conta inerBase.java:1011)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(Stan dardEngine.java:440)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(Sta ndardService.java:450)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(Stan dardServer.java:683)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalin a.java:537)
... 6 more

[KevinH]

What's in the $TOMCAT/webapps dir?

[liyingchang]

total 14820
drwxr-xr-x 5 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 balancer
drwxr-xr-x 21 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 jsp-examples
drwxr-xr-x 4 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 ROOT
drwxrwxr-x 6 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:47 service
-rw-r--r-- 1 zimbra zimbra 6838878 Dec 20 12:22 service.war
drwxr-xr-x 4 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 servlets-examples
drwxr-xr-x 12 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 tomcat-docs
drwxr-xr-x 3 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 webdav
drwxrwxr-x 13 zimbra zimbra 4096 Dec 21 10:46 zimbra
drwxrwxrwx 14 root root 4096 Dec 21 10:49 zimbraAdmin
-rw-r--r-- 1 zimbra zimbra 3809809 Dec 20 12:55 zimbraAdmin.war
-rw-r--r-- 1 zimbra zimbra 4452789 Dec 20 12:56 zimbra.war


Thanks !!!

[KevinH]

Try to start tomcat with just the Zimbra apps(service, zimbra, zimbraAdmin). You'll have to stop tomcat to move/delete those other webapps, but not having them there will also speed up your start time.