Java.net.ConnectionException: Connection refused while building Ant

Question

I am trying to build from ant and the build is failing with the following error:

build.xml:106: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect

I do have the tomcat user name and password in my build properties. Is there anyone who faced the similar issue?

This is my build properties:

appserver.home=C:/tomcat
appserver.lib=${appserver.home}/lib

deploy.path=${appserver.home}/webapps

tomcat.manager.url=http://localhost:8080/manager
tomcat.manager.username = *****
tomcat.manager.password = *****

Here's how build.xml is written:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>

        <project name="app" basedir="D:/.../app" default="usage">
            <property file="build.properties"/>

            <property name="src.dir" value="D:/.../app/src"/>
            <property name="web.dir" value="D:/.../app/war"/>
            <property name="build.dir" value="${web.dir}/WEB-INF/classes"/>
            <property name="name" value="app"/>

    <path id="master-classpath">
        <fileset dir="${web.dir}/WEB-INF/lib">
            <include name="*.jar"/>
        </fileset>
        <!-- We need the servlet API classes: -->
        <!--  * for Tomcat 5/6 use servlet-api.jar -->
        <!--  * for other app servers - check the docs -->
        <fileset dir="${appserver.lib}">
            <include name="servlet*.jar"/>
        </fileset>
        <pathelement path="${build.dir}"/>
    </path>

    <target name="usage">
        <echo message=""/>
        <echo message="${name} build file"/>
        <echo message="-----------------------------------"/>
        <echo message=""/>
        <echo message="Available targets are:"/>
        <echo message=""/>
        <echo message="build     --> Build the application"/>
        <echo message="deploy    --> Deploy application as directory"/>
        <echo message="deploywar --> Deploy application as a WAR file"/>
        <echo message="install   --> Install application in Tomcat"/>
        <echo message="reload    --> Reload application in Tomcat"/>
        <echo message="start     --> Start Tomcat application"/>
        <echo message="stop      --> Stop Tomcat application"/>
        <echo message="list      --> List Tomcat applications"/>
        <echo message=""/>
    </target>

    <target name="build" description="Compile main source tree java files">
        <mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/>
        <javac destdir="${build.dir}" source="1.5" target="1.5" debug="true"
               deprecation="false" optimize="false" failonerror="true">
            <src path="${src.dir}"/>
            <classpath refid="master-classpath"/>
        </javac>
    </target>

    <target name="deploy" depends="build" description="Deploy application">
        <copy todir="${deploy.path}/${name}" preservelastmodified="true">
            <fileset dir="${web.dir}">
                <include name="**/*.*"/>
            </fileset>
        </copy>
    </target>

    <target name="deploywar" depends="build" description="Deploy application as a WAR file">
        <war destfile="${name}.war"
             webxml="${web.dir}/WEB-INF/web.xml">
            <fileset dir="${web.dir}">
                <include name="**/*.*"/>
            </fileset>
        </war>
        <copy todir="${deploy.path}" preservelastmodified="true">
            <fileset dir=".">
                <include name="*.war"/>
            </fileset>
        </copy>
    </target>

    <path id="catalina-ant-classpath">
        <!-- We need the Catalina jars for Tomcat -->
        <!--  * for other app servers - check the docs -->
        <fileset dir="${appserver.lib}">
            <include name="catalina-ant.jar"/>
        </fileset>
    </path>

    <taskdef name="install" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.InstallTask">
        <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
    </taskdef>
    <taskdef name="reload" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ReloadTask">
        <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
    </taskdef>
    <taskdef name="list" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.ListTask">
        <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
    </taskdef>
    <taskdef name="start" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.StartTask">
        <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
    </taskdef>
    <taskdef name="stop" classname="org.apache.catalina.ant.StopTask">
        <classpath refid="catalina-ant-classpath"/>
    </taskdef>

    <target name="install" description="Install application in Tomcat">
        <install url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
                 username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
                 password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
                 path="C:\tomcat"
                 war="C:\tomcat\webapps\app.war"/>
    </target>

    <target name="reload" description="Reload application in Tomcat">
        <reload url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
                 username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
                 password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
                 path="/${name}"/>
    </target>

    <target name="start" description="Start Tomcat application">
        <start url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
                 username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
                 password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
                 path="/${name}"/>
    </target>

    <target name="stop" description="Stop Tomcat application">
        <stop url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
                 username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
                 password="${tomcat.manager.password}"
                 path="/${name}"/>
    </target>

    <target name="list" description="List Tomcat applications">
        <list url="${tomcat.manager.url}"
                 username="${tomcat.manager.username}"
                 password="${tomcat.manager.password}"/>
    </target>

</project>

Answer 1

Start the tomcat manually where it is installed

Path of bat/sh : {tomcat--ver-}/bin/startup.

And then run the build.xml

Answer 2

I expect it is one of the following:

• The Tomcat service is not running.

• You haven't configured Tomcat to listen on localhost + port 8080.

If the problem was authorization, or that the management service was not enabled, you would expect to see a different failure mode.

---

It is also possible that the failure is happening in something else ... but you haven't shown us the section of the build.xml file (around line 106) that would allow us to eliminate that possibility.

Update - we can eliminate that now.