The automatic reloading of servlets in Tomcat 4.1.27 fails after one or more 
newer servlet versions are directly copied to the context. Backtracked to 
Tomcat 4.1.24 and the problem goes away. I have also used 4.1.12 and 4.1.18 
successfully. 
Whether Tomcat 4.1.27 is configured with a CATALINA_BASE env variable or not, 
the problem occurs.
The following error is generated in the context log for each servlet defined in 
its deployment descriptor (web.xml): (Note that the log excerpt below was 
edited with generic servlet and context names.
2003-10-13 13:40:04 StandardWrapper[/ContextName:ServletName]: Marking servlet 
ServletName as unavailable
2003-10-13 13:40:04 StandardContext[/ContextName]: Servlet /ServletName threw 
load() exception
javax.servlet.ServletException: Wrapper cannot find servlet class 
ContextName.package.ServletName or a class it depends on
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet
(StandardWrapper.java:891)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load
(StandardWrapper.java:823)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup
(StandardContext.java:3421)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.reload
(StandardContext.java:2568)
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappLoader$WebappContextNotifier.run
(WebappLoader.java:1369)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)
----- Root Cause -----
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: ContextName.package.ServletName
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass
(WebappClassLoader.java:1444)
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader.loadClass
(WebappClassLoader.java:1289)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.loadServlet
(StandardWrapper.java:885)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.load
(StandardWrapper.java:823)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.loadOnStartup
(StandardContext.java:3421)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.reload
(StandardContext.java:2568)
	at org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappLoader$WebappContextNotifier.run
(WebappLoader.java:1369)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)