Can a java .war file contain a webserver

java, jenkins, servlets

Solution

Yes, the war file contains the built-in Winstone servlet container, and running that command will start it and make it listen for requests on port 8080.

Edit: Jenkins 1.535 and above bundles Jetty (rather than Winstone). You can still run it with `java -jar jenkins.war`.

Problem

I'm looking into installing Jenkins, in the instructions it says "Easy installation: Just java -jar jenkins.war, or deploy it in a servlet container. No additional install, no database." I understand the servlet container method, but does the above statement mean that just installing Java and running the .war file will somehow spinup a webserver and start serving http request ?

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