The application uses the work directory to store some persistent data and configuration.
For example, the file storage mechanism by default uses the filestorage subdirectory of the work directory. Besides, the Middleware block writes generated persistence.xml and orm.xml files into the work directory on startup.
Work directory location is determined by the cuba.dataDir application property. In case of fast deployment in Tomcat, it is a subdirectory with the name of the web application in the tomcat/work directory. For other deployment scenarios, the work directory is located inside the application home.