Where to set java heap options (e.g. -Xmx) for Tomcat 6 under Ubuntu 9.04?

Posted by Chris on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Chris
Published on 2010-05-07T01:32:17Z Indexed on 2010/05/07 1:38 UTC
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I'm running Tomcat using the tomcat6 package from Ubuntu 9.04, which makes a daemon out of Tomcat using jsvc. I'd like to know the proper way to set Java heap options like -Xmx for Tomcat. I'd like to put the configuration wherever is most stylistically correct, and wherever is least likely to be overwritten by Ubuntu package updates.

The options I see right now:

  • Hard-code them somewhere in /etc/init.d/tomcat6.
  • Hard-code them somewhere in /usr/share/tomcat6/bin/catalina.sh.
  • Create a line in /usr/share/tomcat6/bin/startup.sh to set CATALINA_OPTS to have the desired flags, and then export CATALINA_OPTS as an environment variable. (This looks like it will get picked up by catalina.sh.)

The last option sounds like the best one, and it's advocated (without explanation of why) at http://serverfault.com/questions/121038/increasing-javas-heapspace-in-tomcat-startup-script. But I wanted to get a second opinion. Anyone want to confirm that there isn't a better way?

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