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A classloader for Apache Tomcat 8 which loads the jars of WEB-INF lib in alphabetical order.

Prior to version 8, Apache Tomcat loaded the jars of the WEB-INF lib directory in alphabetical order. Starting with version 8, the order is not predictable anymore and can lead to erratic behaviors, especially when deploying applications in a clustered environment.

This classloader delegates all its operation to the original Tomcat classloader with the only difference that it loads the jars in alphabetical order, guaranteeing a reproducible deployment.

The code is very simple and should be (hopefully!) bug free.

This classloader should be compatible with Apache Tomcat 8.0.x and 8.5.x.

You need to put the jar in Tomcat's lib directory.

Then, you need to add a src/main/webapp/META-INF/context.xml (supposing you use Maven but you get the idea) to your project:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Context>
	<Loader loaderClass="fr.openwide.tomcat.catalina.loader.WebappOrderedClassLoader" />
	<Resources className="fr.openwide.tomcat.catalina.loader.OrderedStandardRoot"/>
</Context>

That's all!

This project is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0.