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Re: FLOSS and servlets: recommendations




"MrDemeanour" <mrdemeanour@jackpot.uk.net> wrote in message [🔎] 44D613EB.4010707@jackpot.uk.net">news:[🔎] 44D613EB.4010707@jackpot.uk.net...
Andrew Vaughan wrote:

Debian stable is uh, stable.  Except for security bugs or other
serious bugs, it doesn't get updated.

I see. I've read  Kraft's "Debian System" book several times, but I
hadn't twigged that stable can't get packages added to it. So if I want
to run Tomcat on main, than I need a machine tht isn't running Sarge.
OK, thanks.


If you prefer tomcat4, why not just use the packages in contrib.
Everything in contrib is supposed to be free software.  It just has
build and/or runtime dependencies on non-free software.

That was a bit of a throwaway; if I have to be non-free at all, I may as
well go the whole hog, and run it on Windoze. I'm not up for compromises.

If you want to use debian's Tomcat5 packages, then a quick look at
the dependencies suggest that a mixed sarge/etch system is probably
ok iff you're prepared to run a Sun/IBM jre/jdk.

Yup. See above. If it's not free, then I don't really see the point of
struggling with it atg all.

You could also create an etch chroot and run Tomcat from there.

I know what chroot is supposed to do; but I'm no linux guru, and I don't
yet understand how I can use chroot to isolate etch from a system that
thinks it's Sarge. I'll have to look into that.


Well chroot is not an ideal solution. Chroots are great for running software. Except for the kernel version, and any deamons running in the sarge system, programs in an etch chroot thhink they are running on an etch system, and act like they are too. However, running servers or daemons in a chroot is a bit more complicated. Most of the information relating to doing that is about using a chroot jail to protect the system from potential security flaws in the daemon/server. There is less information for a case like this. Even more problematic would be getting tomcat to interface with the http server (probably apache).

It is possible, but it would be a bit of a pain. The easiest solutions would be to use a etch or sid system, or install a backport of Tomcat 5. If one does not yet exist, it would probably still be easier to make one than to setup the chroot correctly.



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