{"id":11248,"date":"2022-04-25T10:17:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T17:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=11248"},"modified":"2022-04-25T10:17:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T17:17:29","slug":"version-13-3-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/version-13-3-released\/","title":{"rendered":"AlwaysUp 13.3 Introduces Log File Rollover and Expands the use of Variables"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"AlwaysUp<\/div>\n

AlwaysUp<\/a> version 13.3 was released to all customers on April 16, 2022.<\/p>\n

This update delivers a couple of significant improvements to help you run your programs as Windows Services — unattended and 24\/7.<\/p>\n

AlwaysUp accepts special variables in the “Arguments” and “Start in” fields<\/h2>\n

Do you run many instances of a single executable with AlwaysUp?<\/p>\n

And does each application’s configuration follow a predictable format?<\/p>\n

If so, you may be able to use special variables when defining your applications.<\/p>\n

For example, let’s take the case of the Alpha Five web server<\/a>. It’s common for customers to run multiple instances of Alpha<\/a> in AlwaysUp, each with its own configuration.<\/p>\n

In those situations, each entry in AlwaysUp will point to the same executable — A5ApplicationServer.exe. However, each instance will specify its own configuration file in the “Arguments” field.<\/p>\n

Here is what it looks like when creating an instance of Alpha Five in AlwaysUp:<\/p>\n

\"Alpha<\/a><\/div>\n

Since the name of the configuration file (C:\\AlphaFive\\Server1-config.xml) is based on the entry’s name in AlwaysUp (Server1), we can use the $ALWAYSUP_NAME variable in the “Arguments” field instead:<\/p>\n

\"Alpha<\/a><\/div>\n

Using a variable like that reduces errors and saves a few keystrokes when duplicating the entry. And that can come in very handy when you have to create and manage many instances!<\/p>\n

By the way, you can check out the full list of variables on page 78 of the AlwaysUp User’s Manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AlwaysUp can roll over log files when capturing your console application’s output<\/h2>\n

If you’re running a console application as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp, you may already know about the option to capture output to a file. That setting is available on the Extras tab<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In previous releases, the only option to limit the file’s size was by trimming. When the file grew larger than the given threshold, AlwaysUp would discard the oldest 25% of the file to make room for new entries. As such, there was no way retain all console output while limiting the file’s size.<\/p>\n

To address that shortcoming, AlwaysUp now supports rollover when the file gets too large. When the rollover option is enabled, AlwaysUp will copy a too-large log file to a name suffixed with the current date and restart capture with an empty file.<\/p>\n

For example, let’s say you’re logging to a file named “console-output.log” and limiting the size to 10 MB. And on April 20, 2022, the file exceeds the threshold. In response, AlwaysUp will:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Copy the file to “console-output_2022-04-20.log”, to preserve all entries recorded so far;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Zero out “console-output.log” and start writing new entries there.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Note that if there are many rollovers in a single day, AlwaysUp will add numeric suffix to produce a unique file name. That may result in files named “console-output_2022-04-20_01.log” or “console-output_2022-04-20_02.log” in the situation above.<\/p>\n

    You can activate the rollover option on the Extras tab. Check the Capture output…<\/b> and Automatically…<\/b> boxes and choose rollover<\/b> from the selector:<\/p>\n

    \"AlwaysUp:<\/a><\/div>\n

    Other fixes & improvements<\/b><\/h2>\n