Automic File Transfer (FT) Wildcard Resolution Inconsistent on OS Java Agents (v24.x vs. v21.x)

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Issue/Introduction

Problem:
Automic File Transfer (FT) jobs configured to use wildcard variables (&1, &2, etc.) in destination paths exhibit inconsistent and incorrect parsing behavior from source filenames when comparing newer Java-based OS Agents (v24.x) with older C-based OS Agents (v21.x, v12.3.x). This leads to files being transferred to unexpected locations or with incorrectly named directories/files.

Symptoms:

• FT jobs complete, but target directories and filenames are created with incorrect values derived from wildcard substitution.

• The issue is consistently reproducible.

• Example Scenario:

  • Source Filter: /opt/a/b/c/d/e/0021710/*-*-*_*_name2.log.gz
  • Source Filename: 2025-07-01_12-56-56.444_name1_name2.log.gz
  • Destination Path: /opt/a/b/c/d/e/0021710/&1-&2-&3/&1-&2-&3_&4_name2.log.gz

• Observed Behavior (Automic Java OS Agent v24.x - INCORRECT):

  • Wildcard variables are parsed as:
    • &1 = 2025-07-01_12
    • &2 = 56
    • &3 = 56.444
  • This results in destination paths like: /opt/.../2025-07-01_12-56-56.444/...

• Expected Behavior (Automic C-based OS Agent v21.x/v12.3.x - CORRECT):

  • Wildcard variables were parsed as:
    • &1 = 2025
    • &2 = 07
    • &3 = 01
    • &4 = 12-56-56.444
  • This results in destination paths like: /opt/.../2025-07-01/...

Environment

CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Cause

The internal wildcard matching mechanism implemented in the Java-based OS Agents (v24.x) differs in its "greediness" and parsing logic compared to the original C-based agents (v21.x, v12.3.x). This discrepancy leads to an altered interpretation of substrings when multiple delimiters are present in the source filename, resulting in incorrect variable substitution for the target path.

Resolution

Solution:

Update to a fix version listed below or a newer version if available.

Components:

• Agent Unix
• Agent Windows

Fixed Versions:

• Automation.Engine 24.4.2 HF1 - Available 

The fix addresses the incorrect parsing of wildcard variables, restoring the expected behavior as observed in v21.x and v12.3.x agents.

Additional Information

This is a product defect (Defect ID: DE176029).