Could not publish to the server. Tomcat 7.0 - eclipse

Question

I am getting below error when trying to deploy war file on Tomcat 7.0.28 server. My Eclipse is Eclipse Java EE IDE for Web Developers.Version: Indigo Service Release 2 Build id: 20120216-1857. I would appreicate if anyone can provide a solution/fix? Is it related to version of eclipse or tomcat compatability? Thanks.
java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.util.PublishHelper.copyFile(PublishHelper.java:501)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.util.PublishHelper.publishDelta(PublishHelper.java:435)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.util.PublishHelper.publishDelta(PublishHelper.java:459)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.util.PublishHelper.publishDelta(PublishHelper.java:459)
at org.eclipse.jst.server.tomcat.core.internal.PublishOperation2.publishDir(PublishOperation2.java:141)
at org.eclipse.jst.server.tomcat.core.internal.PublishOperation2.execute(PublishOperation2.java:82)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.performTasks(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:1290)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publish(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:933)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.model.ServerBehaviourDelegate.publish(ServerBehaviourDelegate.java:774)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.internal.Server.publishImpl(Server.java:3087)
at org.eclipse.wst.server.core.internal.Server$PublishJob.run(Server.java:345)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:54)
eclipse.buildId=M20120208-0800
java.version=1.6.0_32
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86, WS=win32, NL=en_US
Framework arguments: -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
Command-line arguments: -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product

Answer 1

If you using Eclipse or Myeclipse IDE's, Clean all projects like Project --> Clean --> Clean all projects --> Ok. Now its working fine

Answer 2

Following this thread lead me to a solution http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/m/526327/
It seems that the deployment config file for your application has become incorrect.
What happened for me is that if I modified my server options and unchecked "Serve modules without publishing" the server would start. With it check I got the error you mentioned.
For me the problem is that eclipse could not find my web.xml. My solution was that I had to go to my project settings and remove and add the reference to my webapp folder under Deployment Assembly. This brought up a dialog for the location of my deployment description. After Eclipse had that a restart got everything in order.

Answer 3

Seems to be a bug. Here is the workaround;
When adding a new server, do not add any web application to the server. Just add a server with no web module. After server was added, right click on server and "Add and Remove". This should now work.

Answer 4

had the same problem with Eclipse Neon 2 (4.6.2) and Tomcat 8.5. Workaround is working. Add a server, but do not add application to it. Then run application "Run on server" and it will start working. Also need to say that I deleted all Maven repository and restarted Eclipse. After restart Maven downloaded all dependencies. I did not like to delete repository, but it seems it is also important part for troubleshooting.

Answer 5

I faced the same issue. Just delete the server alone. Add the new server and projects into the server. Clean the tomcat work directory. Then start the server it will work fine