DIR Control

To control and monitor the AFD source directories there is an X11 interface, which can be called via dir_ctrl. It can take the following parameters: 

     
    -w <work_dir>
    -p <user profile>
    -u[ <fake user>]
    -no_input
    -f <numeric font name>
    -t <title>
    -bs
It needs to know in which directory AFD is running. Usually it gets this information via AFD_WORK_DIR environment. If not set you can set this via -w <work dir>. When there more then one user monitoring this AFD it can be helpful if each user can have its own profile. This can be done with -p <user profile>. The profile name can be any string, but it is a good if it tells which user it is because any changes will be logged under this name. Good example could be donald@work or donald@home. This way Donald can keep different font settings for his home and work computer and one can see from where he committed any changes. For the option -u[ <fake user>] please see documentation in AFD_CONFIG. If you want a dialog without any controls you can start it with the -no_input parameter. The font size can be changed via -f <numeric font name>. The title can be set with -t <title>. Some X servers have a broken backing store implementation. By default dir_ctrl uses backing store. This can be turned off with the -bs option.

The dir_ctrl dialog has the following appearance:

[labeled picture of dir_ctrl dialog]

As shown this dialog is divided into three main areas: menu, heading and source.

Menu

The menu area has three pull down buttons: Dir, View and Setup. If your dir_ctrl window does not have all buttons shown and described here, then the system administrator did not allow you to use this function, see afd.users for more details.



[popup of Dir button]
Handle event This allows one to acknowledge an error situation, put an error situation offline or unset the acknowledge and/or offline setting. You must select one or more directories to get the handle_event popup. In the reason text field one can enter a reason which will then show up in the event log via the show_elog dialog. Acknowledging pink (). If the host is put offline it will turn Steelblue () and errors and warnings will be marked as offline in the logs. [Dialog to handle event]
Start/Stop Allows you to start or stop the selected source. AFD will no longer scan this source for files to be distributed. It will however delete any files when the directory option delete unknown files or delete queued files is set for this source.  
Enable/disable Allows you to enable or disable the selected source. This source will no longer be monitored/scanned by AFD. When the directory is disabled the field containing the directory alias will turn white.  
Rescan When pressed this will force a rescan of the selected directories. This can be useful when the time option is set and you do not want to wait for the next scan time.  
Search + (De)Select This allows to search for a given directory (alias and real) name, with wild cards. The found directory will then be selected. [Search and select dialog]
Load Load shows the current load of either: Files send per second, KBytes send per second, Connections done per second and the number of Active-Transfers. [Choice of different loads]
Exit Exit will close the dir_ctrl window and all other windows that have been started from this dialog.  


[popup of View button]
System Log System Log opens the system dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Event Log Event Log opens the event dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Receive Log Receive Log opens the receive dialog See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Transfer Log Transfer Log opens the transfer dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. When one or more hosts where selected the output shown will only show data of these hosts.
Input Log Input Log opens the input dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Production Log Production Log opens the production dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output.
Output Log Output Log opens the output dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. If one or more hosts are selected, these will be entered in Recipient field of the dialog.
Delete Log This opens the delete dialog. See Log Files for a more detailed description of the output. If one or more hosts are selected, these will be entered in Recipient field of the dialog.
Queue Queue opens the queue dialog. Here you can see all files being queued by AFD.
Info The Info button opens the afd_info dialog for this host.
Configuration Shows the DIR_CONFIG configuration of the selected host.


[popup of Setup button]
Font size Pressing Font size will give you a list of fonts which, when selected, will be used for the dir_ctrl window and all other windows called from it. It might be that your X server does not support all fonts shown on the right hand, then you will be shown less fonts. [Fonts that can be selected]
Number of rows Number of rows allows to change the maximum number of rows to be displayed for one column. [list of row numbers that may be selected]
Line Style Line Style allows to change the appearance of a single line. You can currently choose three different items: 'Bars only', 'Characters only' and 'Characters and Bars'. Default will be that all three items will be visible. If you do have a very large number of directories you can deselect some items to reduce the window size of the dir_ctrl dialog. [Possible line styles that can be selected]
Other options Other options just has one option 'Force shift select'. Normally one can select a line by just pressing that line with the left mouse button. This can however lead to accidentally pressing a line and one can force the user to use the shift button together with the left mouse button to select a line. [Force shift select]
Save Setup Save Setup will save the above settings in the file .dir_ctrl.setup.@. in the users home directory. So when you start dir_ctrl again it will start with these settings.  


Heading

[closeup of the heading]

The heading is just a quick reminder of what the fields in the connection area mean:

DIR The source alias where the files are to be fetched from.
F Full dir flag, is set when a * is shown.
fd The total number of files in the directory.
bd The total number of bytes in the directory.
fq The number of files queued in the directory.
bq The number of bytes queued in the directory.
pr The number of active process this directory.
tr Transfer rate.
fr File rate.
ec The number of errors that have occurred for this directory.

Source

The source area is the actual area which monitors and controls the source directories of the AFD. The meaning of each field is shown below:

[closeup of one line of dir_ctrl dialog]
1 Source alias This field holds the name of the source alias. The background color indicates the current status of the source:
Normal status. Waiting for files to come.
Source active. Files are currently being handled.
Warn time has been reached. This only happens when in AFD_CONFIG the parameter DEFAULT_DIR_WARN_TIME is set or in DIR_CONFIG warn time has been set for this source.
Errors acknowledged. Files cannot be retrieved from the source.
Errors offline. Files cannot be retrieved from the source. Error and warnings have been put offline.
Error. Files cannot be retrieved from the source.
This source is disabled. AFD will no longer monitor this directory.
This source is stopped. AFD will no longer scan this directory for files to be distributed. It will however delete any files when the directory option delete unknown files or delete queued files is set for this source.
2 Full Dir Flag Full dir flag, is set when a * is shown. This means that there are still files in the directory to be fetched. Remember AFD will only fetch a specific number of files before it continues with the next directory. This can be controlled with MAX_COPIED_FILES option in AFD_CONFIG file, or the max files option in DIR_CONFIG.
3 Protocol The protocol used to retrieve data for this source. Currently the following have been implemented:
LOC Local directory.
FTP Remote FTP directory. Files are retrieved via FTP protocol, either via SSL sockets or normal sockets.
SFTP Remote SFTP directory. Files are retrieved via SFTP protocol.
HTTP Remote HTTP source. Files are retrieved via HTTP protocol, either via SSL sockets or normal sockets.
4 Total number of files in the directory Total number of files that still have are in the directory. The numbers will be shown up to 9999 files, after this a character will be added: m for Mega Files (1000 * 1000 files), g for Giga Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 files), t for Tera Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 files), p for Peta Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 files) and e for Exa Files (1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 files).
5 Total number of bytes in the directory Total number of bytes that are in the directory. The last character always shows the current unit: B for Bytes, K for Kilo Bytes (1024 Bytes), M for Mega Bytes (1024 * 1024 Bytes), G for Giga Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes), T for Tera Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes), P for Peta Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes) and E for Exa Bytes (1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes).
6 Number of files queued The number of files queued for this source. This can happen either by user interaction when the user stops the queue (eg. afd_ctrl) or automatically because the destination is unreachable.
7 Number of bytes queued The number of bytes queued for this source.
8 Number of active process The number of process active doing something for this directory, eg. exec option.
9 Transfer Rate The number of bytes transferred per second. Unit is the same as in 5 above.
10 File Rate The number of files transferred per second.
11 Errors The number of errors that have occurred.
12 File Rate Bar Displays a green bar to display the file rate from this source.
13 Byte Rate Bar Displays a yellow bar to display the transfer rate from this source.
14 Warn Time Bar Displays an orange bar to display how much of the specified warn time have been used up.

Selecting can be done by either holding down the shift key and pressing the left mouse button (temporary selection) or by holding the ctrl key and the left mouse button (permanent selection). The background of the line will change to black or grey respectively.

Copyright © 2006 - 2023 by H.Kiehl
Holger.Kiehl@dwd.de
Last updated: 26.10.2023
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