tomcat.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# tomcat7     This shell script takes care of starting and stopping Tomcat
#
# chkconfig: - 80 20
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: tomcat7
# Required-Start: $network $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $syslog
# Default-Start:
# Default-Stop:
# Description: Release implementation for Servlet 2.5 and JSP 2.1
# Short-Description: start and stop tomcat
### END INIT INFO

## Source function library.
#. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default

#I do not use this JAVA_OPTS so I comment this part on my init.d scripts
export JAVA_OPTS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 \
  -Dcatalina.logbase=/var/log/tomcat7 \
  -Dnet.sf.ehcache.skipUpdateCheck=true \
  -XX:+DoEscapeAnalysis \
  -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
  -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled \
  -XX:+UseParNewGC \
  -XX:MaxPermSize=128m \
  -Xms512m -Xmx512m"

export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
TOMCAT_HOME=/usr/share/tomcat7
SHUTDOWN_WAIT=20
TOMCAT_USER=tomcat

tomcat_pid() {
  echo `ps aux | grep org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap | grep -v grep | grep $TOMCAT_USER | grep $TOMCAT_HOME/ | awk '{ print $2 }'`
}

start() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ] 
  then
    echo "Tomcat is already running (pid: $pid)"
  else
    # Start tomcat
    echo "Starting tomcat"
    ulimit -n 100000
    umask 007
    /bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh
  fi


  return 0
}

stop() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Stoping Tomcat"
    /bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh

    let kwait=$SHUTDOWN_WAIT
    count=0;
    until [ `ps -p $pid | grep -c $pid` = '0' ] || [ $count -gt $kwait ]
    do
      echo -n -e "\nwaiting for processes to exit";
      sleep 1
      let count=$count+1;
    done

    if [ $count -gt $kwait ]; then
      echo -n -e "\nkilling processes which didn't stop after $SHUTDOWN_WAIT seconds"
      kill -9 $pid
    fi
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi
 
  return 0
}

case $1 in
start)
  start
;; 
stop)   
  stop
;; 
restart)
  stop
  start
;;
status)
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Tomcat is running with pid: $pid"
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi
;; 
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}"
exit 1
;;
esac    
exit 0

Installation instructions added (tested to work in RedHat).
Some changes to chkconfig settings.

#!/bin/bash
#
# tomcat7     This shell script takes care of starting and stopping Tomcat
# https://gist.github.com/nikband/7027101
#
# Priority and boot settings
# chkconfig: 345 95 20
#
# See installation instruction with /etc/init.d/tomcat -help command
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: tomcat7
# Required-Start: $network $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $syslog
# Default-Start:
# Default-Stop:
# Description: Release implementation for Servlet 2.5 and JSP 2.1
# Short-Description: start and stop tomcat
### END INIT INFO

## Source function library.
#. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/default

#I do not use this JAVA_OPTS so I comment this part on my init.d scripts
export JAVA_OPTS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 \
  -Dcatalina.logbase=/var/log/tomcat7 \
  -Dnet.sf.ehcache.skipUpdateCheck=true \
  -XX:+DoEscapeAnalysis \
  -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC \
  -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled \
  -XX:+UseParNewGC \
  -XX:MaxPermSize=128m \
  -Xms512m -Xmx512m"

export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
TOMCAT_HOME=/usr/local/tomcat7
SHUTDOWN_WAIT=20
TOMCAT_USER=apache

tomcat_pid() {
  echo `ps aux | grep org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap | grep -v grep | grep $TOMCAT_USER | grep $TOMCAT_HOME/ | awk '{ print $2 }'`
}

start() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Tomcat is already running (pid: $pid)"
  else
    # Start tomcat
    echo "Starting tomcat"
    ulimit -n 100000
    umask 007
    /bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/startup.sh
  fi


  return 0
}

stop() {
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Stoping Tomcat"
    /bin/su -p -s /bin/sh $TOMCAT_USER $TOMCAT_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh

    let kwait=$SHUTDOWN_WAIT
    count=0;
    until [ `ps -p $pid | grep -c $pid` = '0' ] || [ $count -gt $kwait ]
    do
      echo -n -e "\nwaiting for processes to exit";
      sleep 1
      let count=$count+1;
    done

    if [ $count -gt $kwait ]; then
      echo -n -e "\nkilling processes which didn't stop after $SHUTDOWN_WAIT seconds"
      kill -9 $pid
    fi
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi

  return 0
}

case $1 in
start)
  start
;;
stop)
  stop
;;
restart)
  stop
  start
;;
status)
  pid=$(tomcat_pid)
  if [ -n "$pid" ]
  then
    echo "Tomcat is running with pid: $pid"
  else
    echo "Tomcat is not running"
  fi
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}"
echo "Installation:"
echo Save this script as /etc/init.d/tomcat
echo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tomcat
echo /etc/init.d/tomcat status
echo RedHat
echo chkconfig --add tomcat
echo chkconfig --list tomcat
echo Ubuntu
echo sudo update-rd.d tomcat defaults
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0