Just as the conf/web.xml file is the place to add global settings to all webapp web.xml files, the conf/context.xml file is the place to add global settings for all context XML fragment files. The format of this file is exactly the same as the format of other context XML fragment files. It should contain one Context element and potentially elements nested within Context.

This file should be useful in cases where you need to add a portion of configuration to all webapps that run in your Tomcat instance. You can put that configuration in just conf/context.xml and maintain it centrally.