Version: 9.3.29.v20201019 |

Chapter 19. Jetty Runner
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## Chapter 19. Jetty Runner

This chapter explains how to use the `jetty-runner` to run your webapps without needing an installation of Jetty.

## Use Jetty without an installed distribution

The idea of the `jetty-runner` is extremely simple – run a webapp directly from the command line using a single jar file and as much default configuration as possible. Of course, if your webapp is not so straightforward, the `jetty-runner` has command line options which allow you to customize the execution environment.

### Preparation

You will need the `jetty-runner` jar:

1. Get the `jetty-runner` jar available at maven central.

### Deploying a simple context

Let’s assume we have a very simple webapp that does not need any resources from its environment, nor any configuration apart from the defaults. Starting it is as simple as performing the following:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar simple.war

This will start Jetty on port 8080, and deploy the webapp to `/`.

Your webapp does not have to be packed into a war, you can deploy a webapp that is a directory instead in the same way:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar simple

In fact, the webapp does not have to be a war or even a directory, it can simply be a Jetty context xml file that describes your webapp:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar simple-context.xml

> ### Note

> When using a context xml file, the application being deployed is not even required to be a fully-fledged webapp. It can simply be a Jetty context.

### Deploying multiple contexts

If you have more than one webapp that must be deployed, simply provide them all on the command line. You can control the context paths for them using the `--path` parameter. Here’s an example of deploying 2 wars (although either or both of them could be unpacked directories instead):

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --path /one my1.war --path /two my2.war

If you have context xml files that describe your webapps, you can fully configure your webapps in them and hence you don’t need to use the command line switches. Just provide the list of context files like so:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar my-first-context.xml my-second-context.xml my-third-context.xml

> ### Note

> Switched used on the command line override configuration file settings. So, for example, you could set the context path for the webapp inside the context xml file, and use the `--path` switch to override it on the command line.

#### Changing the default port

By default the `jetty-runner` will listen on port 8080. You can easily change this on the command line using the `--port` command. Here’s an example that runs our simple.war on port 9090:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --port 9090 simple.war

#### Using jetty.xml files

Instead of, or in addition to, using command line switches, you can use one or more `jetty.xml` files to configure the environment for your webapps. Here’s an example where we apply two different `jetty.xml` files:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --config jetty.xml --config jetty-https.xml simple.war

#### Full configuration reference

You can see the fill set of configuration options using the `--help` switch:

    > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --help

Here’s what the output will look like:

    Usage: java [-Djetty.home=dir] -jar jetty-runner.jar [--help|--version] [ server opts] [[ context opts] context ...]
    Server opts:
     --version                           - display version and exit
     --log file                          - request log filename (with optional 'yyyy_mm_dd' wildcard
     --out file                          - info/warn/debug log filename (with optional 'yyyy_mm_dd' wildcard
     --host name|ip                      - interface to listen on (default is all interfaces)
     --port n                            - port to listen on (default 8080)
     --stop-port n                       - port to listen for stop command
     --stop-key n                        - security string for stop command (required if --stop-port is present)
     [--jar file]*n                      - each tuple specifies an extra jar to be added to the classloader
     [--lib dir]*n                       - each tuple specifies an extra directory of jars to be added to the classloader
     [--classes dir]*n                   - each tuple specifies an extra directory of classes to be added to the classloader
     --stats [unsecure|realm.properties] - enable stats gathering servlet context
     [--config file]*n                   - each tuple specifies the name of a jetty xml config file to apply (in the order defined)
    Context opts:
     [[--path /path] context]*n          - WAR file, web app dir or context xml file, optionally with a context path

Printing the version

  Print out the version of Jetty and then exit immediately.

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --version

Configuring a request log

  Cause Jetty to write a request log with the given name. If the file is prefixed with `yyyy_mm_dd` then the file will be automatically rolled over. Note that for finer grained configuration of the request log, you will need to use a Jetty xml file instead.

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --log yyyy_mm_dd-requests.log  my.war

Configuring the output log

  Redirect the output of jetty logging to the named file. If the file is prefixed with `yyyy_mm_dd` then the file will be automatically rolled over.

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --out yyyy_mm_dd-output.log my.war

Configuring the interface for http

  Like Jetty standalone, the default is for the connectors to listen on all interfaces on a machine. You can control that by specifying the name or ip address of the particular interface you wish to use with the `--host` argument:

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --host 192.168.22.19 my.war

Configuring the port for http

  The default port number is 8080. To configure a https connector, use a Jetty xml config file instead.

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --port 9090  my.war

Configuring stop

  You can configure a port number for jetty to listen on for a stop command, so you are able to stop it from a different terminal. This requires the use of a "secret" key, to prevent malicious or accidental termination. Use the `--stop-port` and `--stop-key` parameters as arguments to the `jetty-runner`:

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --stop-port 8181 --stop-key abc123

  Then, to stop Jetty from a different terminal, you need to supply the same port and key information. For this you’ll either need a local installation of Jetty, the jetty-maven-plugin, the jetty-ant plugin, or a custom class. Here’s how to use a Jetty installation to perform a stop:

      > java -jar start.jar --stop-port 8181 --stop-key abc123 --stop

Configuring the container classpath

  With a local installation of Jetty, you add jars and classes to the container’s classpath by putting them in the `{$jetty.base}/lib` directory. With the `jetty-runner`, you can use the `--lib`, `--jar` and `--classes` arguments instead to achieve the same thing.

  `--lib` adds the location of a directory which contains jars to add to the container classpath. You can add 1 or more. Here’s an example of configuring 2 directories:

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --lib /usr/local/external/lib --lib $HOME/external-other/lib my.war

  `--jar` adds a single jar file to the container classpath. You can add 1 or more. Here’s an example of configuring 3 extra jars:

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --jar /opt/stuff/jars/jar1.jar --jar $HOME/jars/jar2.jar --jar /usr/local/proj/jars/jar3.jar  my.war

  `--classes` add the location of a directory containing classes to add to the container classpath. You can add 1 or more. Here’s an example of configuring a single extra classes dir:

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --classes /opt/stuff/classes my.war

Gathering statistics

  If statistics gathering is enabled, then they are viewable by surfing to the context `/stats`. You may optionally protect access to that context with a password. Here’s an example of enabling statistics, with no password protection:

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --stats unsecure my.war

  If we wished to protect access to the `/stats` context, we would provide the location of a Jetty realm configuration file containing authentication and authorization information. For example, we could use the following example realm file from the Jetty distribution:

      jetty: MD5:164c88b302622e17050af52c89945d44,user
      admin: CRYPT:adpexzg3FUZAk,server-administrator,content-administrator,admin
      other: OBF:1xmk1w261u9r1w1c1xmq,user
      plain: plain,user
      user: password,user
      # This entry is for digest auth.  The credential is a MD5 hash of username:realmname:password
      digest: MD5:6e120743ad67abfbc385bc2bb754e297,user

  Assuming we’ve copied it into the local directory, we would apply it like so

      > java -jar jetty-runner.jar --stats realm.properties my.war

  After navigating to http://localhost:8080/ a few times, we can point to the stats servlet on http://localhost:8080/stats to see the output:

      Statistics:
      Statistics gathering started 1490627ms ago

      Requests:
      Total requests: 9
      Active requests: 1
      Max active requests: 1
      Total requests time: 63
      Mean request time: 7.875
      Max request time: 26
      Request time standard deviation: 8.349764752888037

      Dispatches:
      Total dispatched: 9
      Active dispatched: 1
      Max active dispatched: 1
      Total dispatched time: 63
      Mean dispatched time: 7.875
      Max dispatched time: 26
      Dispatched time standard deviation: 8.349764752888037
      Total requests suspended: 0
      Total requests expired: 0
      Total requests resumed: 0

      Responses:
      1xx responses: 0
      2xx responses: 7
      3xx responses: 1
      4xx responses: 0
      5xx responses: 0
      Bytes sent total: 1453

      Connections:
      org.eclipse.jetty.server.ServerConnector@203822411
      Protocols:http/1.1
      Statistics gathering started 1490606ms ago
      Total connections: 7
      Current connections open: 1
      Max concurrent connections open: 2
      Total connections duration: 72883
      Mean connection duration: 12147.166666666666
      Max connection duration: 65591
      Connection duration standard deviation: 23912.40292977684
      Total messages in: 7
      Total messages out: 7

      Memory:
      Heap memory usage: 49194840 bytes
      Non-heap memory usage: 12611696 bytes

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