ctmfw File Watcher utility

The ctmfw (Control-M File Watcher) utility, enables you to detect the successful completion of a file transfer activity and to create or delete a file. You can use it before activating a job or before performing a task, such as sending a shout message or adding/deleting conditions, which is dependent upon a created file.

NOTE: The Control-M File Watcher utility does not support files with a modify time older than 50 years.

The ctmfw utility runs as a process on a client computer. The process waits for the creation or deletion of a specified file. The ctmfw utility does the following:

• File transfer activity: When the file is detected, the job continues to monitor the size of the file. When the file reaches a specified minimum size and does not increase in size for a specified period of time, the File Watcher utility either finishes with a status of OK or executes a specified DO action. DO actions can consist of adding or deleting conditions or executing a command.
• File creation: The file size is ignored if a wildcard is specified as part of the file name unless the mon_size_wildcard parameter is set to Y.
• File deletion: ctmfw must first detect the existence of the file before it can detect its deletion.

The ctmfw utility can be run from the command line or be invoked to detect a single file or multiple files. For more information, see Watching a single file and Watching multiple files.

You can create a File Watcher job, as described in Creating a job, by using the File Watcher job parameters. Variables can be used in parameter fields.

NOTE: You cannot run a File Watcher job on a remote host.

There are two usages for this utility:

• Service: As a service, ctmfw takes its parameters (rules) during startup from the rull.dat file whose full path name is specified in <Control-M/Agent>\data\ctmfw.cfg. For more information, see ctmfw utility - Usage as a Service.
• Running as a utility: ctmfw is invoked from the command line. Rules can be provided in the command line or by a rule file. You can watch a single or multiple files. For more information, see ctmfw - usage as a utilty

  To allow other users to run ctmfw, they must have write permissions to $CONTROLM and the CONTROLM environment variable must be set. For more information, see Running Control-M/Agent utilities as other users on UNIX. For details about ctmfw processing and return codes issued after detecting if a file is created or deleted in the specified time frame, see ctmfw utility processing and Return codes.

To view a detailed File Watcher overview video, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZZCUWOQt-E.