tomcat web-inf/lib and soft links, how to make them live happy

[Narahari 'n' Savitha]

Friends:

I am sure the experts here have stumbled on this.  So please help.

I have an app where I have

myapp
   |_WEB-INF/lib/gson-2.3.1.jar

When I start tomcat it works fine.

NOw I do this

cd  webapps/myapp/WEB-INF/lib

ln -s ../../../thejars/gson-2.3.1.jar gson-2.3.1.jar

I then restart tomcat and the error comes up like this

java.io.IOException: Failed to access resource /WEB-INF/lib/gson-2.3.1.jar

so if I do a SOFT link in linux the app wont start.

On the other hand if I do a HARD link the app comes up fine.

Any ideas ?