Summary
This articles discusses how to ensure that the inventory agent scans these without having to change the IncludeDirectory switch each time.
Question
I have several directories that can change within a given format e.g. on non-windows, mount points can be created from /a001 to /a999 so how can I ensure that the inventory agent scans these without having to change the IncludeDirectory switch each time?
Answer
The inventory agent on Windows (ndtrack.exe) and on non-Windows (ndtrack.sh) are capable of using wildcards within the IncludeDirectory and ExcludeDirectory options using either '*' or '?' as in the following example:
ndtrack -t machine -o IncludeDirectory=C:\s*
In the tracker.log (either in Windows\Temp\ManageSoft or %TEMP%\ManageSoft) you should see something similar to the text below at the start of the inventory scan:
[01/10/2013 13:58:14 (G, 0)] {3460} ************************************************************
[01/10/2013 13:58:14 (G, 0)] {3460} Searching directories that matches 'C:\S*' wild card directory path
[01/10/2013 13:58:14 (G, 0)] {3460} Found directory 'C:\SCCM images' that matches 'C:\S*' wild card directory path
[01/10/2013 13:58:14 (G, 0)] {3460} Found directory 'C:\Shared' that matches 'C:\S*' wild card directory path
[01/10/2013 13:58:14 (G, 0)] {3460} Found directory 'C:\System Volume Information' that matches 'C:\S*' wild card directory path
[01/10/2013 13:58:14 (G, 0)] {3460} Program arguments are 'C:\Program Files (x86)\ManageSoft\Tracker\ndtrack.exe -t machine -o IncludeDirectory=C:\S*'
Further down the log you should also see:
[01/10/2013 13:58:33 (G, 0)] {3460} File tracking looking for files in directories 'C:\SCCM images;C:\Shared;C:\System Volume Information'
These both prove that the wildcards are being used to filter directories based on the wildcard criteria.
Additional Information
The wildcard characters are the same on both Windows and non-Windows so there's no difference in their usage.
