I am using Tomcat under Linux. What file ownership/permissions should I use for my java classes and JSP pages?

Usually, all the classes (not the servlets) are placed under the $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/<aliasnm>/WEB-INF directory. The JSP files will also be under $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/<aliasnm>, with <aliasnm> being defined in the "tomcat.conf" and "server.xml" files.

Through the browser, no one can access this directory. As far as the "*.java" files are concerned, you can keep them anywhere. Just copy/move the classes to the above directory.

As for permissions, you will be ok with 755 (-rwxr-xr-x) permissions for both JSP and the classes.