title: Tomcat - CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME variables
body: <p>I have multiple instances of tomcat 6 running on the same server (Linux) and it works as expected. I am trying to find out what the standard practice is with regards to setting the <code>CATALINA_HOME</code> and <code>CATALINA_BASE</code> variables.</p>
  
  <p>In my tomcat installation, I have setup <code>CATALINA_HOME</code> to point to a "common" folder (say <code>/tomcat6</code>) and the <code>CATALINA_BASE</code> variable varies depending on the instance name (say <code>/tomcat_instance1</code>, <code>/tomcat_instance2</code>)</p>
  
  <p>My question is this:  </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Do I really need two variables?</li>
  <li>Or Can I just have one <code>CATALINA_HOME</code> and do away with
  <code>CATALINA_BASE</code> (or vice-versa) ?</li>
  </ul>