GoogleAppEngine: couldn't start server - jetty

Question

Jetty did not start, and the following errors occurred. What is the cause?

(OS)

Mac OS X 10.6.6

(Java)

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_24-b07-334-10M3326)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 19.1-b02-334, mixed mode)

(GAE) Version 1.4.2

admin$ dev_appserver.sh --port=8080 /Users/admin/projects/sample1/war
####: Logging to JettyLogger(null) via com.google.apphosting.utils.jetty.JettyLogger
com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineConfigException: Supplied application has to contain WEB-INF directory.
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.JettyContainerService.determineAppRoot(JettyContainerService.java:320)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.JettyContainerService.initContext(JettyContainerService.java:146)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.AbstractContainerService.startup(AbstractContainerService.java:146)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerImpl.start(DevAppServerImpl.java:219)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain$StartAction.apply(DevAppServerMain.java:164)
at com.google.appengine.tools.util.Parser$ParseResult.applyArgs(Parser.java:48)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.<init>(DevAppServerMain.java:113)
at com.google.appengine.tools.development.DevAppServerMain.main(DevAppServerMain.java:89)

Answer 1

Supplied application has to contain WEB-INF directory

If you build/package under windows, make sure WEB-INF is called WEB-INF, not web-inf. Java tools are ignoring the difference under Windows (since directory can be found just fine), but when deploying to unix environment it fails with a weird error messages like this.

I don't know if it is really a cause, I experienced it under Sun ONE server.

Answer 2

So the first line of the exception is:

com.google.apphosting.utils.config.AppEngineConfigException: Supplied application has to contain WEB-INF directory.

Do you have a WEB-INF directory? Is it in the correct format?