Apache Tomcat init script (or startup/controll script). Works fine for version 7/8. Read the comments for release history. Feel free to modify, copy and give suggestions. (c) GNU General Public License

Apache Tomcat 8 Start stop script init.d script

#!/bin/bash
#
# description: Apache Tomcat init script
# processname: tomcat  
# chkconfig: 234 20 80  
#
#
# Copyright (C) 2014 Miglen Evlogiev
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
# the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
# Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
# version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
# FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
# this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
#
# Initially forked from: gist.github.com/valotas/1000094
# Source: gist.github.com/miglen/5590986


RED="\e[00;31m"
GREEN="\e[00;32m"
BLACK="\e[00m"

#Location of JAVA_HOME (bin files)
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/latest
 
#Add Java binary files to PATH
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

JAVA_OPTS=
#JAVA_OPTS="-server -Xms256m -Xmx256M -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"

#CATALINA_HOME is the location of the bin files of Tomcat  
export CATALINA_HOME=/opt/apache-tomcat  
 
 #CATALINA_BASE is the location of the configuration files of this instance of Tomcat
export CATALINA_BASE=/opt/apache-tomcat

#TOMCAT_USER is the default user of tomcat, must be specified, enter non-existing user to always run as current user
export TOMCAT_USER=ott
 
#TOMCAT_USAGE is the message if this script is called without any options
TOMCAT_USAGE="Usage: $0 {${GREEN}start${BLACK}|${RED}stop${BLACK}|${RED}kill${BLACK}|${GREEN}status${BLACK}|${RED}restart${BLACK}}"
 
#SHUTDOWN_WAIT is wait time in seconds for tomcat java process to stop
SHUTDOWN_WAIT=20
KILL_ON_HANGING_SHUTDOWN=false

tomcat_pid() {
	# Org before alex edit:
	# echo `ps -fe | grep $CATALINA_BASE | grep -v grep | tr -s " "|cut -d" " -f2`
	echo `ps -fe | grep "catalina.base=$CATALINA_BASE" | grep -v grep | tr -s " "|cut -d" " -f2`
}

waitForStart() {
	# Check curl available
	which curl > /dev/null
	whichRes=$?
	# Check curl for lib-problem (code 127)
	curl 2> /dev/null
	curlRes=$?
	if (( whichRes == 0 && curlRes != 127 )) ; then
		until [ "`curl --silent --show-error --connect-timeout 1 -I http://localhost:8080 2>&1 | grep 'Coyote'`" != "" ];
		do
			echo "--- sleeping for 1 seconds"
			sleep 1
		done
		echo -e "${GREEN}Tomcat is ready!${BLACK}"
	fi
}
 
start() {
	pid=$(tomcat_pid)
	if [ -n "$pid" ]
	then
		echo -e "${RED}Tomcat is already running (pid: $pid)${BLACK}"
	else
		# Start tomcat
		echo -e "${GREEN}Starting tomcat${BLACK}"
		#ulimit -n 100000
		#umask 007
		#/bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER
		# If $TOMCAT_USER is specified and exists we always log in as that user
		if [ `user_exists $TOMCAT_USER` = "1" ]
		then
			# su requires login even if login to myself
			#/bin/su $TOMCAT_USER -c $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
			# -H to get Home of $TOMCAT_USER, -E to keep environment we have set here, such as JAVA_HOME
			sudo -H -E -u $TOMCAT_USER $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh $JAVA_OPTS
		else
			sh $CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh $JAVA_OPTS
		fi
		waitForStart
		status
	fi
	return 0
}
 
status(){
	pid=$(tomcat_pid)
	if [ -n "$pid" ] ; then
		echo -e "${GREEN}Tomcat is running with pid: $pid${BLACK}"
	else
		echo -e "${RED}Tomcat is not running${BLACK}"
		return 3
	fi
}

terminate() {
	pid=$(tomcat_pid)
	if [ -n "$pid" ]; then
		echo -e "${RED}Terminating Tomcat with pid=$pid${BLACK}"
		kill -9 $pid
	else
		echo -e "${RED}Tomcat is not running${BLACK}"
	fi
}

execStop() {
	if [ -z "$stop_exec_success" ]; then
		out=$($CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh 2>&1)
		echo
		echo "$out"
		isConnectionRefused=$(echo "$out" | grep "Connection refused")

		if [ -z "$isConnectionRefused" ];
		then
			stop_exec_success="true"
		fi
	fi
}

stop() {
	pid=$(tomcat_pid)
	if [ -n "$pid" ]
	then
		echo -e "${RED}Stopping Tomcat with PID=$pid${BLACK}"
		execStop
		let kwait=$SHUTDOWN_WAIT
		count=0;
		until [ `ps -p $pid | grep -c $pid` = '0' ] || [ $count -gt $kwait ]
		do
			echo -n -e "\n${RED}waiting for processes to exit${BLACK}";
			sleep 1
			# multiple execStop is probably not necessary if start script waits for start
			execStop
			let count=$count+1;
		done
		echo
		if [ $count -gt $kwait ]; then
			if [ "$KILL_ON_HANGING_SHUTDOWN" = "true" ] ; then
				echo -e "\n${RED}killing processes didn't stop after $SHUTDOWN_WAIT seconds${BLACK}"
				terminate
			else
				echo -e "\n${RED}Process didn't stop after $SHUTDOWN_WAIT seconds${BLACK}"
				exit 1
			fi
		fi
	else
		echo -e "${RED}Tomcat is not running${BLACK}"
	fi

	return 0
}
 
user_exists(){
	if id -u $1 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
		echo "1"
	else
		echo "0"
	fi
}
 
case $1 in
	start)
		start
	;;
	stop)
		stop
	;;
	restart)
		stop
		start
	;;
	status)
		status
		exit $?
	;;
	kill)
		terminate
	;;
	*)
	  echo -e $TOMCAT_USAGE
	;;
esac    
exit 0

Added wait for start using curl check.
Added max wait duration configuration at top.
Use sudo with keep environment to get JAVA_HOME across instead of su.
Repeated stop if first fails with connection refused.
Ability for jvm flags.