An AutoSys file watcher on Windows job ran to success yet the file it was looking for had not yet arrived.

Products

• CA Workload Automation AE - Business Agents (AutoSys)
• CA Workload Automation AE - Scheduler (AutoSys)
• Workload Automation Agent

Issue/Introduction

Review the job definition to confirm if the watch_file setting includes wildcards.
This can result in the file watcher job matching the pattern of a valid file the user may not be aware of.
The 8dot3 Windows naming convention is an example:

The following job is looking for a file that starts with CL and includes a .CLP extension.

Example:
C:\z8dot3>autorep -q -J fw1
 
/* ----------------- fw1 ----------------- */
 
insert_job: fw1   job_type: FW
machine: autosysj
owner: [email protected]
watch_file: c\:\z8dot3\CL*.CLP
watch_interval: 60
 
A normal "dir" shows no such file exists yet in the watched directory.
---
C:\z8dot3>dir
 Directory of C:\z8dot3
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK1
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK2
               3 File(s)             18 bytes
 
But if the partial wildcard pattern is included results are displayed.
---
C:\z8dot3>dir CL*.CLP
 Directory of C:\z8dot3
 
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK1
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK2
               3 File(s)             18 bytes
 
The reason the files are returned is due to the 8dot3 names.
To see the 8dot3 names run "dir/x".
---
C:\z8dot3>dir/x
 Directory of C:\z8dot3
 
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI012~1.CLP CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI012~2.CLP CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK1
04/01/2013  11:05 AM                 6 CLI012~3.CLP CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK2
               3 File(s)             18 bytes

This is expected Windows behavior. If Windows sees CLI0120130221.1644.CLP_WORK as matching the pattern CL*.CLP the agent will as well as it uses Windows system calls to look for the file(s).

Environment

Release: ATSAGE99000-11.3-Workload Automation AE-Remote Agent
Component: