[Fwd: Re: [JIRA-user] tomcat strange errors with jira : /var/tomcat4/files1275369073 (Permission denied)]

["Jerome Lacoste @ BBC" <la...@altern.org>]

Hi all,

I've had a strange problem with Tomcat 4, during use of a freshly 
deployed WAR file (Jira application).

Environment:  Tomcat version 4.1.24, SUN SDK 1.4.1_02, Mandrake 9.1 for 
Intel processor
Tomcat was installed thanks to the rpm found on the jakarta web site 
(built by the jpackage team if my understanding is correct).

Trying to access the first page of the Jira application, tomcat was 
showing a NullPointerException error.
Looking at the catalina logs, this NPE was caused by a 
FileNotFoundException due to permission problems: during initialization 
of the application, tomcat was trying to create temporary files in 
/var/tomcat4/, where the permissions initially were:

    rwxr-xr-x root root

Files seem to be created by ant task to compile some of the dynamic pages
E.g. of contents:
 > cat /var/tomcat4/file*
/var/tomcat4/work/Standalone/localhost/jira/views/setup_jsp.java

I solved the problem by making the directory writable by tomcat, i.e. 
changing permisions as follow:

    rwxrwxr-x root tomcat

[Full details sent to Jira user mailing list attached to this mail - 
logs available upon request]

Can anybody comment on this workaround? Are those expected permissions 
for that directory or is there a bug somewhere?

Cheers,

Jerome