SEVERE: Parse error in application web.xml file

Question

I'm trying to deploy an application on tomcat 7.0.23 (the web app is all compiled and built), and I've been getting this error in catalina.out:

INFO: validateJarFile(/Library/Tomcat/webapps/app2/WEB-INF/lib/javaee-api-6.0.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class
Jan 5, 2012 10:28:41 PM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader validateJarFile
INFO: validateJarFile(/Library/Tomcat/webapps/app2/WEB-INF/lib/javaee.jar) - jar not loaded. See Servlet Spec 2.3, section 9.7.2. Offending class: javax/servlet/Servlet.class
Jan 5, 2012 10:28:41 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig parseWebXml
SEVERE: Parse error in application web.xml file at jndi:/localhost/app2/WEB-INF/web.xml
java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file
    at java.util.zip.ZipFile.open(Native Method)
    at java.util.zip.ZipFile.<init>(ZipFile.java:127)
    at java.util.jar.JarFile.<init>(JarFile.java:135)
    at java.util.jar.JarFile.<init>(JarFile.java:72)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.jar.URLJarFile.<init>(URLJarFile.java:72)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.jar.URLJarFile.getJarFile(URLJarFile.java:48)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.jar.JarFileFactory.get(JarFileFactory.java:70)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.jar.JarURLConnection.connect(JarURLConnection.java:104)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.jar.JarURLConnection.getInputStream(JarURLConnection.java:132)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLEntityManager.setupCurrentEntity(XMLEntityManager.java:653)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLEntityManager.startEntity(XMLEntityManager.java:1315)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLEntityManager.startDTDEntity(XMLEntityManager.java:1282)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDTDScannerImpl.setInputSource(XMLDTDScannerImpl.java:283)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$DTDDriver.dispatch(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:1194)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$DTDDriver.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:1090)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$PrologDriver.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:1003)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:648)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:511)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:808)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:737)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:119)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(AbstractSAXParser.java:1205)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(SAXParserImpl.java:522)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1537)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.parseWebXml(ContextConfig.java:1742)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.webConfig(ContextConfig.java:1174)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.configureStart(ContextConfig.java:828)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig.lifecycleEvent(ContextConfig.java:302)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:90)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5148)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.start(ManagerServlet.java:1247)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.start(HTMLManagerServlet.java:747)
    at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.doPost(HTMLManagerServlet.java:222)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:641)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.CsrfPreventionFilter.doFilter(CsrfPreventionFilter.java:187)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.filters.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:108)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:224)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:169)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:581)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:168)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:98)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:928)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:987)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:539)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:298)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Jan 5, 2012 10:28:41 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ContextConfig configureStart
SEVERE: Marking this application unavailable due to previous error(s)
Jan 5, 2012 10:28:43 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Error getConfigured
Jan 5, 2012 10:28:43 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
SEVERE: Context [/app2] startup failed due to previous errors

I can't find anything on this error by googling, please help.

Solution

It seems you have duplicate jars in classpath due to which tomcat couldn't able to load java-ee.jar which ultimately led to web.xml parse error. Make sure you have only one java-ee.jar available in classpath.

Comments

[Artem]

Your web.xml file seems to be not valid. Could you post it somewhere(e.g. on pastebin.com) and give a link?

[David Zhao]

I know for sure this is a valid web.xml, because I had the app running just a while ago, and nothing changed. why does tomcat needs ziputils for an xml file?

[David Zhao]

Thank, it seems that this was the problem, I did have multiple java-ee.jar files in classpath, plus antoher javaee-6-api.jar