Cannot undeploy application on Tomcat

Question

I'm trying to undeploy an application in Tomcat manager web UI but not success.

I've deleted all.war files and folders in both webapps and work/catalina but when I list application, I still can see it on the list. Tomcat say "OK" but the application cannot be remove. Can someone tell me why, please?

Answer 1

You have a form of memory leak. The application (or possibly a library it is using) has opened a file but failed to close it. The open file(s) and any directories that contain it/them can not be deleted. Tomcat therefore auto deploys them as a new web application on the next auto deploy check.

Work-arounds / solutions depend on exact Tomcat version (which you failed to state in your question).