Liferay Home

Liferay Home is the folder from which Liferay DXP/Portal launches applications, reads and applies configurations, loads JAR files, generates logs, and more.

Liferay Home’s location varies depending on installation type:

• In a Liferay Tomcat bundle, Liferay Home is the installation’s top-level folder and it contains the application server.
• In an installation on an application server, the Liferay Home folder varies by application server. If you’re installing on an application server, please refer to the article covering that app server (e.g., Installing on [app server]) for the Liferay Home location.

Liferay Home Structure

DXP/Portal installations use this folder structure regardless of application server:

[LIFERAY_HOME]
    ├── data
    ├── deploy
    ├── elasticsearch-sidecar // Named 'elasticsearch7' in 7.3. Not included in 7.2 and earlier.
    ├── license
    ├── logs
    ├── osgi
    │   └── configs
    │   └── [core] // Included only in 7.2 and earlier
    │   └── marketplace
    │   └── modules
    │   └── portal
    │   └── portal-war // Not included in 7.3 and earlier
    │   └── state
    │   └── static
    │   └── wabs
    │   └── war
    ├── patching-tool // (Subscription)
    ├── tools
    └── [work] // Included only in 7.2 and earlier

Note

These folders are created as needed, so not all are created on startup.

Liferay Home Reference

Here is each folder’s purpose:

• data (if HSQL database is selected): Stores an embedded HSQL database, DXP’s file repository, and search indexes. The embedded HSQL database is configured by default, but it’s intended for demonstration and trial purposes only. The portal property jdbc.default.url sets the Hypersonic embedded HSQL database location.

• deploy: By default, this folder auto-deploys plugins. Auto-deploy supports application .lpkg files from Liferay Marketplace, plugin .war files, and plugin .jar files. You can configure an alternative path for the deploy folder by setting the portal property auto.deploy.deploy.dir.

• elasticsearch-sidecar: Holds an Elasticsearch node that starts with DXP/Portal. The folder is called elasticsearch7 in 7.3. The folder is not included in 7.2 and earlier. See Using the Sidecar or Embedded Elasticsearch for details.

• license: Copyright and version files are here.

• logs: DXP/Portal creates this folder and writes log files here. Examine them as you diagnose problems. portal-impl.jar’s portal-impl/src/META-INF/portal-log4j.xml file sets the log file location. To override the log file location, you must use an ext-impl/src/META-INF/portal-log4j-ext.xml file in an Ext plugin.

• osgi: All the JAR files and a few configuration files for the OSGi runtime belong in this folder. The portal property module.framework.base.dir sets the OSGi folder location. Here are its subfolders:

  • configs: Deploy component configuration files here.

  • [core]: Exists only in 7.2 and earlier. It holds the core modules.

  • marketplace: Marketplace applications and application suites.

  • modules: Modules you’ve deployed.

  • portal: Non-core modules.

  • portal-war: Out-of-the-box WAR plugins.

  • state: Contains OSGi internal state files for such things as OSGi bundle installation, bundle storage, and more.

  • static: Deploy customizations as JAR files here.

  • wabs: Copies of generated WABs. See Deploying WARs (WAB Generator).

  • war: WAR plugins you’ve deployed.

• patching-tool: (Subscription) This folder holds patches and utilities for installing the patches.

• tools: Stores the Database Upgrade Tool and target platform indexer.

• [work]: Exists only in 7.2 and earlier. It holds module Jasper work files.

Note

If DXP cannot create resources in the Liferay Home folder or when DXP runs on certain application servers, it creates a folder called liferay in the home folder of the operating system user that is running DXP. In this case, that liferay folder becomes Liferay Home. For example, if your operating system user name is jbloggs, the liferay folder path is /home/jbloggs/liferay or C:\Users\jbloggs\liferay.