File Bundles

A File bundle is a collection of one or more files that can be grouped together for viewing. Permissions to users are always granted based on file bundles.

Consider the following scenario as an example:

• You want to view log files generated by your web server
• This web server saves every log file to C:\IISLogs\DailyLogs folder.
• The files are stored with a *.log extension

In this case you can create a file bundle called IIS Logs with a File path of C:\IISLogs\DailyLogs\*.log

IMPORTANT: Ensure the path you specify for a file bundle exist on the machine. SynTail will NOT create any folders or files on your machine.

Server-side rules

Once you create one or more file bundles, you can specify server-side rules by clicking the Modify link next to an existing File Bundle. Using server-side rules administrators can terminate client sessions automatically when certain conditions are met.

Max file size

When a maximum file size is defined, SynTail will ensure the user session is terminated as soon as the file size goes beyond the specified value.

The value for this field can be defined using following formats:

• 1234567890 An integer representing file size in bytes.
• 1234567 kb An integer followed by the letters "kb" represents a number in kilo-bytes
• 1234 mb An integer followed by the letters "mb" represents a number in mega-bytes
• 1.2 gb An integer followed by the letters "gb" represents a number in giga-bytes
• 1.2 tb An integer followed by the letters "tb" represents a number in tera-bytes

When is this limit useful?
At runtime, SynTail opens the desired file in read-only mode, allowing other processes to write to it. On Microsoft Windows, if a process opens a file even for reading purposes, the operating system will not allow any other process to delete that file (writing is allowed). This creates problems if the application writing to the file wants to delete it for any reason.

By specifying a maximum file size for this value, SynTail closes every file handle that is opened for this file so that it can be deleted by any other process.

This problem does not exist on Linux, UNIX or Mac OS X. Therefore, specify a value for Max file size on these operating systems is not very useful.

Max time limit in SynTail

The maximum time limit in SynTail can be used to simulate a session timeout. When a normal user connects to SynTail to view file contents, the client browser sends HTTP requests in the background using AJAX. Since all of these HTTP requests are received on the same session, the client session never times out.

In normal circumstances this is not a problem. However, users often leave their browser open even when they are away from their computer. In such cases, resources on the server go wasted and putting a time limit on a user session prevents this.

Max time is always specified in minutes.