Is Tomcat 5.5 compatible with Java 7?

Question

My server runs a legacy Debian 4, Tomcat 5.5 and JDK 5. I plan to (if possible) install JDK 7 on the server and let Tomcat 5.5 runs on JDK 7, without upgrading Tomcat.

Is there any compatibility problems I should be aware of?

Thanks.

Answer 1

According to this page , Tomcat 5.5 only depends on a >= 1.4 JDK. So you should be just fine with Java 7.

Answer 2

There should be no problem with running Tomcat 5.5 on Java 7.0 (modulo the normal advice of using a version of Java with the latest security patches.) See the link in Greg's answer for the Tomcat platform requirements.

Running Tomcat 5.5 and / or an ancient Debnian release are more concerning though. I'd be surprised if you still getting security patches for those platforms. I'd advise upgrading to Tomcat 6 or 7 and a recent OS release.