Filemonitor

Use the filemonitor utility to check for changes of files (files that were either created or modified). This could be useful when, for example, you want to make sure that a file exists before running a job that processes that file. By defining a job that runs the filemonitor utility, you can implement file dependency, that is, a relationship between a file and an operation in which specific activity on the file determines the starting of the operation.

You can use the filemonitor utility as a stand-alone command, or you can set the filemonitor keywords as additional parameters for the start condition of a job stream, either in the Workload Designer or from the composer command line. For more information about the start condition, see Condition-based workload automation.

Syntax

filemonitor -V | -U

Arguments

-V

Displays the command version and exits.

-U

Displays command usage information and exits.

-path path_to_monitor

The path where the files to be processed are located. You can specify blank or special characters within double quotation marks. Wildcard characters are supported. To include more files in the monitoring process, store the files in a specific directory and specify the directory in the -path option. Paths containing spaces must be enclosed in double quotes. Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths are also supported with the following syntax types:

• \\server_name\share_name\directory_name\...
• \\?\UNC\server_name\share_name\directory_name
• \\?\path_name

where the question mark (? ) indicates extended-length paths.

-epath path_to_monitor

The path where the files to be processed are located, always specified with slashes (/) as separators. Backslashes (\) are not allowed as separators, even if you are indicating a Windows path. To include more files in the monitoring process, store all the files in the directory set with the -epath argument.

The following syntax rules apply:

• Paths containing blank or special characters must be specified within double quotation marks.
• Wildcard characters question mark (?) and asterisk (*) are supported.
• Any character other than backslash (\), question mark (?), asterisk (*), square brackets ([ ]) or a backslash at the end of the value (\) is intended exactly as it is written. For example, MYpath is not equivalent to mypath.
• Use the syntax [class description] to indicate a single character as follows:

  [range_of_characters]

  A range of characters separated by a minus sign (-). For example, A-B or 1-9.

  [list_of_characters]

  A string of characters. For example, ABC or 1aX.

• The characters exclamation mark (!) and caret (^) are used to reverse the sense. For example, [!A-Z] matches a single character that is not equivalent to any letter from A to Z. [!F] matches any character that is not F.

For example:

• -epath /mypath/myp?th/e[!1].txt
• -epath /mypath/my[1-9]path/e[A-Z].txt
• -epath c:/mypath/p?th/e[!1].txt

[-exitOnPathToMonitorNotFound]

Optionally, specify this argument to have the command exit if the specified path is not found.

-event {fileCreated | fileModified} [-modificationCompletedTime seconds]

The event type to be monitored. Supported types are fileCreated and fileModified. This argument is required when you specify -path. If you specify the fileCreated or the fileModified argument, you can optionally specify the -modificationCompletedTime option which is a time interval, in seconds that is used to determine when the event is sent.

-event fileCreated

As soon as the file is created , the event, FileCreated, is sent.

-event fileModified

As soon as the file is modified, the event, ModificationCompleted, is sent.

-event fileCreated -modificationCompletedTime <seconds>

When a file is created, the event is not sent immediately, but only after the interval of time specified by -modificationCompletedTime <seconds> has elapsed, and during which no subsequent changes were made to the file, which includes the file being deleted and recreated with the same name.

-event fileModified -modificationCompletedTime <seconds>

When a file is modified, the event is not sent immediately, but only after the interval of time specified by -modificationCompletedTime <seconds> has elapsed and during which no additional changes were made to the file.

-repositoryName repository_name

Optionally, specify a database where to log the status of the retrieved files.. By default, the name filemonitor.db is used if you do not specify any names.

-repositoryPath repository_path

The path to the filemonitor database. By default, the TWA_Home/TWS/stdlist/JM/filemonitor path is used, if you do not specify any paths. Paths containing spaces must be enclosed in double quotes. Wildcards are not supported.

-generateEventsOnFirstScan

All files retrieved during the first scan performed by filemonitor are considered as created or modified and can generate events. This argument is available only if you specify the repositoryPath argument.

-recursive

Include subfolders when monitoring files. This is an optional parameter.

-outputFile output_filename

An output file where to store the retrieved events. Ensure that the directory where the output file is to be created is already existing. The command output is also printed to standard output and stored in the job properties, if you launch the filemonitor command from a job. Paths containing spaces must be enclosed in double quotes. Wildcards are not supported. This is an optional parameter.

-scanInterval scan_interval

A period of time in seconds between two consecutive checks on the files being created or modified. The default value is 300 seconds. The supported range is 1-3600 seconds. This is an optional parameter.

-maxEventsThreshold max_events

The maximum number of events to be returned. The default value is 1. If you specify all, all events are returned. This is an optional parameter.

-minFileSize min_file_size

The minimum size in bytes that files must reach to be included in the scan. The default value is 0.

-timeout seconds

The maximum time, in seconds, that filemonitor waits for the event to occur. If you do not specify this parameter, filemonitor waits indefinitely. This is an optional parameter.

-preserveEventsOnDelete

Returns events on the specified file, also if the file was deleted in the meantime. If you do not specify this argument, when a file is deleted all events preceding the file deletion, if any, are discarded.

-reset

Resets the information collected. With this argument, you can optionally specify the -repositoryPath and -repositoryName arguments.

Configuring trace properties for filemonitor

To configure the trace properties for filemonitor, edit the [FileMonitor.Logging] section in the <TWAHome>/TWS/ITA/cpa/config/FileMonitor.ini file, and restart the filemonitor utility.

[FileMonitor.Logging.cclog]

FileMonitor.trhd.fileName

The name of the trace file.

FileMonitor.trhd.maxFileBytes

The maximum size that the trace file can reach. The default is 1024000 bytes.

FileMonitor.trhd.maxFiles

The maximum number of trace files that can be stored. The default is 3.

FileMonitor.trfl.level

Determines the type of trace messages that are logged. Change this value to trace more or fewer events, as appropriate, or on request from Software Support. Valid values are:

DEBUG_MAX

Maximum tracing. Every trace message in the code is written to the trace logs.

INFO

All informational, warning, error and critical trace messages are written to the trace. The default value.

WARNING

All warning, error and critical trace messages are written to the trace.

ERROR

All error and critical trace messages are written to the trace.

CRITICAL

Only messages which cause the agent to stop are written to the trace.

The output trace (by default, FileMonitor_trace.log) is provided in XML format, and is located in <TWA_Home>/TWS/stdlist/JM.

Return Codes

0

The operation completed successfully.

4

Filemonitor stopped running, because timeout expired. No results were returned.

-1

An error occurred. Search the trace log (by default, FileMonitor_trace.log) for additional details.

Comments

Any parameters defined with this command override the default values internally set by HCL Workload Automation.

If one or more files have been created or modified in between subsequent invocations, the modifications are detected. However, files already detected in a previous run are not listed again in subsequent invocations. Wildcards are supported in both filenames and directories names.