package javax.servlet.http does not exist

Question

I have the jre7 and jdk1.7.0 installed along with the Tomcat 7.0 but it shows this error. servlet.http is not the only one that "does not exist", there are also other (servlet.) components.

Can anybody help me with this?

UPDATE: This error occurs when I try the follow command: javac -classpath servlet-api.jar WebTest.java

Check your class path. How to check it depends on what IDE you are using. Probably the Tomcat libraries are not included. — , Oct 05 '11 at 18:34
You don't say where or how the error occurs, so helping will be... tricky. — Dave Newton, Oct 05 '11 at 18:34
This is a real issue for folks new to java. Marking the question down is simply trolling. — ctpenrose, Apr 12 '12 at 04:47

score 34 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 09 '15 at 05:08

If you are working with maven project, then add following dependency to your pom.xml

<dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

19

If you're using the command console to compile the servlet, then you should include Tomcat's /lib/servlet-api.jar in the compile classpath.

javac -cp .:/path/to/tomcat/lib/servlet-api.jar com/example/MyServlet.java

^{(use ; instead of : as path separator in Windows)}

If you're using an IDE, then you should integrate Tomcat in the IDE and reference it as target runtime in the project. If you're using Eclipse as IDE, see also this for more detail: How do I import the javax.servlet API in my Eclipse project?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Oct 05 '11 at 18:38

BalusC

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I get this error when I run that command: javac: no source files Usage: javac use -help for a list of possible options -bash: /usr/local/apache-tomcat-8.0.28/lib/servlet-api.jar: Permission denied – covfefe Nov 17 '15 at 04:11
1

Never mind, just fixed it. This is why (copied from another stack overflow post): The CLASSPATH separator is : on Unix systems and ; on Windows. So replace the semicolon with colon in the command above if on a Mac. – covfefe Nov 17 '15 at 04:15

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '11 at 18:35

18

Your CLASSPATH variable does not point to the directory containing the javax classes. The CLASSPATH variable specifies where the java compiler should look for java class file resources. If it does not know to look in the javax directory, then it will never find the file(s) you are after.

answered Oct 05 '11 at 18:35

ashutosh raina

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where is the javax directory? – Andrew Oct 05 '11 at 18:36
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C:\Program Files\Tomcat-3.2.3\lib\servlet.jar – ashutosh raina Oct 05 '11 at 18:38
Assume that you have tomcat location like: c:\tomcat at the command promt type: set classpath=c:\tomcat\lib\servlet.jar – ashutosh raina Oct 05 '11 at 18:40
just extra advice any 3rd party library u might use will need to go into WEB-INF\lib and then ,restart tomcat – ashutosh raina Oct 05 '11 at 18:42
@ashutoshraina Message from the future: since roughly tomcat 5-6, it is called `servlet-api.jar` . – peterh Aug 02 '17 at 16:27

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 05 '11 at 18:37

5

On *nix, try:

javac -cp $CLASSPATH:$CATALINA_HOME/lib/servlet-api.jar Filename.java

Or on Windows, try:

javac -cp %CLASSPATH%;%CATALINA_HOME%\lib\servlet-api.jar Filename.java

answered Oct 05 '11 at 18:37

roartechs

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I also found on a 2018 vintage Linux box that servlet-api.jar file had a prefix in its name, so it was: tomcat-servlet-3.0-api.jar – Justin Jan 20 '21 at 17:38

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 21 '13 at 18:55

If you are using Ant and trying to build then you need to :

Specify tomcat location by <property name="tomcat-home" value="C:\xampp\tomcat" />
Add tomcat libs to your already defined path for jars by

<path id="libs"> <fileset includes="*.jar" dir="${WEB-INF}/lib" /> <fileset includes="*.jar" dir="${tomcat-home}/bin" /> <fileset includes="*.jar" dir="${tomcat-home}/lib" /> </path>

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 07 '17 at 03:50

This error occurs when you compile a java program using classes that support the Servlet API. The compiler searches for the library (included in a .jar file) by using the CLASSPATH. You can specify this when you compile using -classpath or -cp options as noted in other responses, but you should set up your environment to define the classpath as needed.

Set the CLASSPATH environment variable to reference the location of servlet-api.jar, which depends on your setup (OS, how you installed, etc.)

Assuming you're using Tomcat and have installed it in one of 20 possible ways, the APIs used by servlets will be installed on your system, relative to wherever Tomcat is installed. For historical reasons, Tomcat is also known as "Catalina", so you can use the command "catalina" to run certain commands, and alone, it will report, amongst other things the CATALINA_BASE. For example on my Mac using Tomcat installed using homebrew it's

Using CATALINA_BASE:   /usr/local/Cellar/tomcat/8.5.9/libexec

The location of the Tomcat servlet libraries is under this in the lib directory. Set CATALINA_BASE, then set CLASSPATH using the base as a start, for example for Linux or OSX you might set this in .profile, or .bash_profile like so:

export CATALINA_BASE=/usr/local/Cellar/tomcat/8.5.9/libexec
export CLASSPATH=$CATALINA_BASE/lib/servlet-api.jar:$CLASSPATH

Exit the terminal/shell and come back in to run the profile. You should be able to see that the variable is set by using the echo command, e.g.

echo $CLASSPATH

or in Windows

echo %CLASSPATH%

If it displays the full path to the jar `javac WebTest.java' compile your class.

Other answers are correct -- set up your IDE (Eclipse, IntelliJ) to know about Tomcat or build with Maven and you'll save pain.

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 10 '18 at 16:00

The solution that work for is were add the next dependency to my pom.xml file.

<dependency>
        <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
        <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
        <version>3.0.1</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 26 '19 at 04:36

2

If you use elcipse with tomcat server, you can open setting properties by right click project -> choose Properties (or Alt+Enter), continue do same below picture. It will resolve your problem.

answered Jun 26 '19 at 04:36

Hoang

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score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 14 '21 at 07:01

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Try:

javac -cp .;"C:\Users\User Name\Tomcat\apache-tomcat-7.0.108\lib\servlet-api.jar" HelloServlet.java

using windows if there are spaces in your class path.

edited Feb 14 '21 at 07:01

Seth B

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answered Feb 14 '21 at 01:24

Malvin Nyahwai

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Nov 05 '13 at 04:53

0

You must add the classpath for compile. In tomcat

classpath="C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\lib\servlet-api.jar".

So the command is

javac -classpath "c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 6.0\lib\servlet-api.jar" yourfile.java .

edited Nov 05 '13 at 04:53

Harry

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answered Nov 05 '13 at 04:25

SwR

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered May 24 '19 at 09:45

Got this error on linux because of weird file permissions in tomcat distro. Some files an directories are not readable for other users. I use separate CATALINA_HOME and CATALINA_BASE, so my tomcat is owned by root and is runned by restricted user.

Fixing it like that:

( cd /usr/local/share/tomcat9/ && for file in `find ./ -type d ! -perm -o=r`; do echo "$file"; chmod o+rx "$file"; done && for file in `find ./ ! -perm -o=r`; do echo "$file"; chmod o+r "$file"; done )
for file in `find /usr/local/share/tomcat9/ ! -perm -o=x -name '*.sh'`; do echo "$file"; chmod o+x "$file"; done

score -8 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 21 '13 at 13:46

-8

All you gotta do is download the servlet-api.jar package. load the package and reset the reset the virtual machine

answered Mar 21 '13 at 13:46

Code Chef

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package javax.servlet.http does not exist

12 Answers12