How to get the latest Tomcat version?

Question

If one checks the Tomcat homepage then one could see some versions, but not only the latest. Off course I could parse the website and find the version, but I am looking for a Tomcat API that shows the latest version to prevent that I have to create a script that is error prone.

Why?

I would like to automate the update of our internal tomcat packages. At the moment someone is checking the latest version and create the debian package manually, but I want to see that that is automated.

What has been tried?

• The github mirror does not show the latest version https://github.com/apache/tomcat/releases
• The official tomcat html could be parsed, but that does not seem to be the easiest solution

• curl https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/releases/latest returns:

  {
    "message": "Not Found",
    "documentation_url": "https://developer.github.com/v3/repos/releases/#get-the-latest-release"
  }
  

Answer 1

Get the latest version of Tomcat:

$ curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/tags?per_page=1' | jq -r .[].name
9.0.20

Get the latest version of Tomcat 9:

$ curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/tags?per_page=100' | jq -r '.[] | .name' | sort -V | grep ^9 | tail -n 1
9.0.20

Get the latest version of Tomcat 8.5:

$ curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/tags?per_page=100' | jq -r '.[] | .name' | sort -V | grep ^8.5 | tail -n 1
8.5.41

Get the latest version of Tomcat 7:

$ curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/tags?per_page=100' | jq -r '.[] | .name' | sort -V | grep ^7 | tail -n 1
7.0.94

These all currently match the latest versions listed at http://tomcat.apache.org/

Answer 2

Indeed, releases don't appear to have been registered on GitHub, the releases list returned by the REST is empty, most likely explaining the 404 returned for releases/latest:

curl -i https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/releases
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...

[

]

There are however tags registered, including some apparently mapping to the 9.0.X versions:

curl -i https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/tags | & grep '"name"'
    "name": "TONCAT_9_0_0_M23",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_5",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_4",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_3",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_2",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_1",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_0",
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_0_m27",
    ...
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_0_M6",

Example of a tag info, which might be of use:

  {
    "name": "TOMCAT_9_0_5",
    "zipball_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/zipball/TOMCAT_9_0_5",
    "tarball_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/tarball/TOMCAT_9_0_5",
    "commit": {
      "sha": "e0fdefed3d9e2a4dbfd36a5a79e75e0eadaa201d",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/apache/tomcat/commits/e0fdefed3d9e2a4dbfd36a5a79e75e0eadaa201d"
    }
  },

But the info doesn't appear consistent with the info on the Tomcat homepage you referenced:

• the 9.0.5 version isn't listed as released on the homepage
• only 9.X versions show up, older ones don't

So I'm not sure if this is helpful.

Answer 3

Today 8.5.49 was returned as a 'stable' version, while it should have been 8.5.47. The following:

URL=https://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi
curl -s $URL  | grep "8\.5\.[0-9]\+</a>" | sed -e 's|.*>\(.*\)<.*|\1|g'

returns:

8.5.47

Answer 4

Using Powershell's Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet:

$Links=$(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi' | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Links)
$($Links | Where-Object -Property href -Match '#8.5.[0-9]+').href.substring(1)

Returns:

8.5.54

This command works on Windows/Linux/MACOS

Answer 5

I created a script to download, unzip, install tomcat 9.0.latest

sample.war and deploy

curl <>/sample/

Here is the information that I assume you're wanting, below:

# PATHS #
# DO NOT END DIRECTORY PATHS WITH \ PLEASE!
$WORKING_DRIVE="C:"
$DOWNLOADS_DIRECTORY="${WORKING_DRIVE}\DOWNLOADS"
$TOMCAT_VERSION_NUMBER="9"
$TOMCAT_SUB_VERSION_NUMBER="0"
$TOMCAT_DIRECTORY="${WORKING_DRIVE}\Tomcat${TOMCAT_VERSION_NUMBER}${TOMCAT_SUB_VERSION_NUMBER}"


# Script will automatically download the tomcat file if one is not found in folder
$Links=$(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://tomcat.apache.org/download-${TOMCAT_VERSION_NUMBER}${TOMCAT_SUB_VERSION_NUMBER}.cgi" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Links)
$TOMCAT9_LATEST_VERSION=$($Links | Where-Object -Property href -Match "#${TOMCAT_VERSION_NUMBER}.${TOMCAT_SUB_VERSION_NUMBER}.[0-9]+").href.substring(1)
$TOMCAT9_LATEST_ZIP_FILE="apache-tomcat-${TOMCAT9_LATEST_VERSION}-windows-x64.zip"
$TOMCAT_DOWNLOAD_URL="https://dlcdn.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-${TOMCAT_VERSION_NUMBER}/v${TOMCAT9_LATEST_VERSION}/bin/${TOMCAT9_LATEST_ZIP_FILE}"
Write-Output "Downloading latest Tomcat ${TOMCAT9_LATEST_VERSION} file:`n${TOMCAT_DOWNLOAD_URL}"
Invoke-WebRequest -URI ${TOMCAT_DOWNLOAD_URL} -OutFile "${DOWNLOADS_DIRECTORY}\${TOMCAT9_LATEST_ZIP_FILE}"

# https://tomcat.apache.org/download-90.cgi
# https://dlcdn.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.74/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.74-windows-x64.zip
# ^ 12MB

#################################

POWERSHELL OUTPUT:

Downloading latest Tomcat 9.0.74 file: https://dlcdn.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.74/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.74-windows-x64.zip