Whitespace removed or altered in agent INI file after authentication - Automic agent.

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine
• Automic SaaS

Issue/Introduction

After performing agent authentication (e.g., through Client 0 or using Centralized Agent Upgrade), the following symptoms are observed:

• The ucxjxxx.ini file is completely rewritten or repopulated.
• Whitespace characters between parameters and equal signs are removed or standardized.
• Trailing spaces or tabs at the end of lines are deleted.
• Comparison tools (like diff or checksum) flag numerous changes, making manual verification of functional configuration difficult.

Environment

• Automic Automation Engine 24.x
• All Automic OS Agents

Cause

This is intended software behavior. The Automic Agent’s internal INI parser and authentication routines are designed to repopulate the configuration file when updates occur (such as adding a private key or updating the JCPLIST). During this process, the parser normalizes the file format, which involves trimming trailing spaces and standardizing whitespace for consistency. This does not impact the functional operation of the agent.

Resolution

Confirm that the re-population of the .ini file is expected behavior. To perform consistency checks that ignore these cosmetic whitespace changes, use a comparison command that strips trailing spaces and carriage returns.

Example command for Linux/Unix: diff <(sed 's/[[:space:]\r]*$//' <old_ini_file>) <(sed 's/[[:space:]\r]*$//' <new_ini_file>)

This command utilizes sed to normalize both files by removing trailing spaces, tabs, and carriage returns (\r) before performing the diff.

Additional Information

For updates on specific agent versions or related defect fixes, recommend subscribing to this article per Article 275360.