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How to build rpm from war

I have been reading about building rpm from war files & use them for installation. As part of it I downloaded sample war and trying to create rpm. My tomcat version is 7.0. I ran rpmdev-setuptree which creates the directory hierarchy needed for rpm build. All I intend to do by installing the rpm is : stop tomcat, delete the sample.war & sample folder from webapps, copy new war to webapps & start tomcat. Can I accomplish it? or rather I would like to know, is this the correct way of using rpm build from the war? Or am I missing something?

If you are using maven you can use the RPM maven plugin

Java Dynamic Web project with Maven and Eclipse

I have several questions about creating a Java Web application with Maven and Eclipse:
How do I create a Java web project with servlets, jsp, and other classes with Maven?
It creates a simple directory structure, src->main->java. Where and how do I put the web-inf folder?
Do I need to add the jdbc-drivers manually to the folder inside the web-inf/lib, or is it ok just to point out the dependency?
Is there a way to test the servlets with junit?

Wow that's a lot of questions at once. I admit that setting up a webapp project with Maven and Eclipse can be tricky, so I'll try to answer them all.
Creating a Web application project with Maven
How do I create a java web project with servlets jsp and other classes with maven? It creates a simple directory structure, src->main->java.
When you are creating a Java web project, the final product should be a WAR or EAR file. WAR and EAR files are JAR files with a specific structure that can be deployed in an application server or servlet container.
As mentioned, the easiest way to set up a Maven project for web applications is to use archetypes:
mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp
If we create a project with this archetype then a simple directory structure and pom.xml are generated. This project follows the standard Maven directory layout you mention, with /src/main/java/, /src/test/java, etc. Maven generates the WAR file from this structure with the war:war goal.
Note that this archetype is for a very simple (outdated) web application, but it's the best available starting point. You probably want to discard the web.xml file and create a new one that supports Servlet 3.0.
WEB-INF location
Where and how do I put the web-inf folder?
By default, Maven expects resources that should go in the root of the WAR file -- such as images, html pages and the WEB-INF directory -- to reside in /src/main/webapp/. So the WEB-INF folder should be located at /src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/. If you use the maven-archetype-webapp this directory is automatically created, along with a sample web.xml file.
Eclipse integration
You mentioned Eclipse in the question title, and it is indeed possible to develop Mavenized web applications in Eclipse with the m2eclipse plugin. Eclipse has good support for Web applications through WTP (Web Tools Platform).
Although many guides on the internet (wrongly) recommend it, you should not use the mvn eclipse:eclipse command to create the Eclipse project. This plugin can only generate WTP projects for very old Eclipse versions (WTP 2.0 is the maximum). Instead, use the m2eclipse plugin as described here.
Dependencies
Do I need to add the jdbc-drivers manually to the folder inside the web-inf/lib, or is it ok just to point out the dependency?
There is no need to do this manually, since one of the key strengths of Maven is dependency management. If you add a dependency in the pom.xml with a scope of compile or runtime, the JAR file will be automatically included in the WEB-INF/lib/ directory of the WAR file. For example to add the Postgresql JDBC driver dependency, add this to your pom.xml:
<dependency>
<groupId>postgresql</groupId>
<artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
<version>9.1-901.jdbc4</version>
</dependency>
Since the scope is unspecified Maven will assume it is in the the default scope compile. The result is that Maven will include WEB-INF/lib/postgresql-9.1-901.jdbc4.jar in the WAR file.
Testing
Is there a way to test the servlets with junit?
This question has been asked (and answered) on Stackoverflow:
Unit testing a Java servlet
Unit testing servlets
References
Hello World with JSF 2.0, Glassfish 3, Maven, SVN and Eclipse.

You should create a project based on the webapp Maven archetype, not the default one you're using.
I'm using SpringSource Tool Suite, which, for this exercise, is the same as Eclipse with m2e. Create a new Maven project and make sure you select the following archetype:
The Maven the command-line way of doing this is:
mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.mycompany.app -DartifactId=my-webapp -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp
This archetype will put the WEB-INF folder in the correct location (under src/main/webapp).
You can find more information at http://maven.apache.org/guides/mini/guide-webapp.html

Just create a normal "Dynamic Web Project". Then right click the project name and select Configure > Convert To Maven Project. It can take up to a minute to complete the conversion, so be patient. See the following article:
http://aykutakin.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/create-eclipse-dynamic-web-project-with-maven-2/
If that doesn't work, try this:
http://crunchify.com/how-to-create-dynamic-web-project-using-maven-in-eclipse/

Step 1: create your web app folder.
Step 2: Move to that folder in command prompt.
Step 3: use following command:
mvn archetype:generate -DgroupId=com.helloworld -DartifactId=HelloWorldDemo -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp -DinteractiveMode=false
DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp will create a maven web project.
Step 4: Now on command prompt go inside the project folder and use this command:
mvn eclipse:eclipse -Dwtpversion=2.0 to make your project a dynamic web project for eclipse, now import this newly created project as an "Ëxisting project"
Use m2eclipse plugin of eclipse to enable MAVEN in eclipe.
Web.xml will be at \src\main\webapp\WEB-INF

Maven: How to generate a standalone application?

I am using Maven to manage a console application project. On my machine, I type mvn exec:java and Maven handles everything. What I want is, however, to execute the same application on a different machine without the help of Maven.
In NetBeans, Ant projects have a dist directory with all the necessary files. All you have to do is to type java -jar dist/App.jar. How can I make Maven generate such distributable directory or archive?
PS: Although seems relevant, this is not a duplicate of Create a standalone application with Maven.

I have used in maven.
http://mojo.codehaus.org/appassembler/appassembler-maven-plugin/
The Application Assembler Plugin is a Maven plugin for generating scripts for starting java applications. All dependencies and the artifact of the project itself are placed in a generated Maven repository in a defined assemble directory. All artifacts (dependencies + the artifact from the project) are added to the classpath in the generated bin scripts.
and http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-assembly-plugin/
The Assembly Plugin for Maven is primarily intended to allow users to aggregate the project output along with its dependencies, modules, site documentation, and other files into a single distributable archive.

You can build an executable jar file with the maven-jar-plugin; more info on their examples page here: http://maven.apache.org/shared/maven-archiver/examples/classpath.html
That will simply create an all-in-one jar that can be executed through java -jar

How to have tomcat use folder with extension .jar as jar files?

I have in Eclipse web application project that depends from other projects.
When I run debug on embedded Tomcat in lib folder that Eclipse copied not jars, but folders with names like:
dependent_lib1.jar
dependent_lib2.jar
dependent_lib3.jar
....................
So web application don't start because didn't found some files. When I manually deleted all these folders and manually copy jar files - all works.
Does it possible ask Eclipse (or maven - this is maven project) to copy jars or ask Tomcat use folders like jars?
Thanks.

Here is how I think it should be done with maven:
If the other projects are also maven projects, export them as maven artifacts in your local repository. A nice article is Maven Deploy Plugin - If they are not maven projects you should manually generate the jar files and add them to the repository, some information can be found at Best way to create a maven artifact from existing jar
Add the exported artifacts as dependencies to your project. A lot of details can be found at Introduction to the Dependency Mechanism
Hope this helps.

Eclipse cannot do it as its just an IDE, you would need use A BUILD SCRIPT using ANT(Copy tag should do it) and run it before you start your server.
Check this for more details:
http://www.javabeat.net/tips/103-writing-simple-ant-build-script.html

Eclipse and SubClipse: How to deploy my own package with svn to a TomCat server?

I'm using SubClipse for Eclipse for my project.
And in this project I've added my own package "com.mytestpkg.www"
I then use TortoiseSVN to deploy my project on the TomCat server where the project is running, because i the easily can update the site with "SVN Update".
But using this method I always have to manually update my package by copying it from my Eclipse workspace build path to the WEB-INF folder classes/com/mytestpkg/www.
Is there a way to make Subclipse/SVN update this file directly with the other files?

Why don't you do this a more conventional way; e.g.
get Eclipse to create and deploy a WAR file
use Ant or Maven to build the WAR file and deploy it by hand. (The Maven way of building WAR files is really slick!)
Doing a checkout into a Tomcat server's webapps directory is ... weird. And you've got the problem of stopping the world seeing the .svn directories.