Debugging Java web applications

Debugging Java web applications is often necessary, but setting it up on different vendors can be difficult.
However, there is a generic, easy way to do this by setting the JVM running the web server in debug mode.

Jetty and Maven


export MAVEN_OPTS="-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=4000,server=y,suspend=n"
mvn jetty:run

Set up your IDE for remote debugging on port 4000 and you’re laughing!

Remote debugging applications running from Eclipse with IntelliJ

I’m not an advocate for using Eclipse or any of it’s relatives (IBM RAD). But on some projects, I can’t avoid having to use it because the project only works on in Eclipse.
As often as I can, I will try to use IntelliJ because of its superior user interface. But when the code can’t run from IntelliJ, I’ve set up a quick tutorial to setting up cross IDE debugging.