Tomcat5.5 클래스 로딩 순서

Bootstrap classes of your JVM
System class loader classses (described above)
/WEB-INF/classes of your web application
/WEB-INF/lib/*.jar of your web application
$CATALINA_HOME/common/classes
$CATALINA_HOME/common/endorsed/*.jar
$CATALINA_HOME/common/i18n/*.jar
$CATALINA_HOME/common/lib/*.jar
$CATALINA_BASE/shared/classes
$CATALINA_BASE/shared/lib/*.jar

Tomcat5.0 클래스로딩 순서

Bootstrap classes of your JVM
System class loader classses (described above)
/WEB-INF/classes of your web application
/WEB-INF/lib/*.jar of your web application
$CATALINA_HOME/common/classes
$CATALINA_HOME/common/endorsed/*.jar
$CATALINA_HOME/common/lib/*.jar
$CATALINA_BASE/shared/classes
$CATALINA_BASE/shared/lib/*.jar

Tomcat4.1 클래스로딩 순서

/WEB-INF/classes of your web application
/WEB-INF/lib/*.jar of your web application
Bootstrap classes of your JVM
System class loader classses (described above)
$CATALINA_HOME/common/classes
$CATALINA_HOME/common/endorsed/*.jar
$CATALINA_HOME/common/lib/*.jar
$CATALINA_BASE/shared/classes
$CATALINA_BASE/shared/lib/*.jar

출처 : http://www.jakartaproject.com/article/jsptip/111456818395700