> > Yes, but is there a technical, i.e. JVM, reason that two running > instances of tomcat can't concurrently use the same shared libraries?
None at all. Further, you can have both a $CATALINA_HOME/lib and a $CATALINA_BASE/lib with BASE always taking priority over HOME. Therefore, use HOME by default and override on a per instance basis if you need to. Is the override on a wholesale basis, or on a per jar basis?
