On OS X, the JAVA_HOME environment variable must be set to /Library/Java/Home directory, which in turn is a symbolic link that points to the current version of Java SDK you are running.
Add the following lines to the .bash_profile file:
Note: DO NOT PUT A TERMINATING SLASH at the end of these lines - e.g. /Library/Java/Home/
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home export CATALINA_HOME=/Library/Tomcat/Home
Afterwards, save file and restart terminal.
Execute an env command to make sure JAVA_HOME and CATALINA_HOME are set correctly.
env
Download Tomcat 6 Binary Distribution Core (tar.gz) and Deployer (tar.gz) from the Apache Tomcat 6 Downloads Page. Download the Core apache-tomcat-6.0.x.tar.gz.
Create the Tomcat folder in an appropriate directory - /Library or /usr/local is recommended, but for development convenience Tomcat can be also installed in your home directory.
Execute the following commands in Terminal:
Change directories to Library or /usr/local
cd /Library
Create the Tomcat directory and set an appropriate owner and group
mkdir Tomcat chown <username> Tomcat chgrp admin Tomcat
Change directories to the newly created Tomcat directory and unpack the tar.gz files
cd Tomcat tar -xvzf ~/Downloads/apache-tomcat-6.0.x.tar.gz
Create a symbolic link that will always point to the current version Tomcat directory
ln -s apache-tomcat-6.0.x Home
Execute the following commands in Terminal:
Change directories to the Tomcat configuration directory
cd Home/conf
Edit the tomcat-users.xml file
nano tomcat-users.xml
Add the following, where <admin> is the administrator name you assign and <password> is the password.
<user username="<admin>" password="<password>" roles="standard,manager,admin"/>
The tomcat-users.xml file should look something like this:
<tomcat-users> <!-- <roll rollname="tomcat"/> <roll rollname="role1"/> <user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat" /> <user username="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1" /> <user username="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1" /> --> <user username="<admin>" password="<password>" roles="standard,manager,admin"/> </tomcat-users>
Save the tomcat-users.xml file and quit the editor
Change directories to where the Tomcat startup scripts are located
cd ../bin
Remove the .bat scripts and .exe executables
rm *.bat *.exe
Execute the Tomcat startup script
./startup.sh
From your web browser go to the URL http://localhost:8080/
You should see the Tomcat welcome screen.
Use the ./shutdown.sh script to stop Tomcat.
This information taken from http://www.malisphoto.com/tips/tomcatonosx.html. It has much more information and is very good.