Apache Tomcat Upstart script

tomcat.conf

description "Tomcat Server"

  start on runlevel [2345]
  stop on runlevel [!2345]
  respawn
  respawn limit 10 5

  # run as non privileged user 
  # add user with this command:
  ## adduser --system --ingroup www-data --home /opt/apache-tomcat apache-tomcat
  # Ubuntu 12.04: (use 'exec sudo -u apache-tomcat' when using 10.04)
  setuid apache-tomcat
  setgid www-data

  # adapt paths:
  env JAVA_HOME=/opt/java
  env CATALINA_HOME=/opt/apache-tomcat

  # adapt java options to suit your needs:
  env JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Xms512M -Xmx1024M -server -XX:+UseParallelGC"

  exec $CATALINA_HOME/bin/catalina.sh run

  # cleanup temp directory after stop
  post-stop script 
    rm -rf $CATALINA_HOME/temp/*
  end script

Thank you so much for this dude, and for anyone reading this, the key to this is the run parameter versus the start parameter. I'd imagine that the latter causes it to fork in a way that breaks upstart (well documented).

Stumbling upon this saved my eyeballs a pending gouging. ;)