IncludeDirectory

IT Asset Management (Cloud)

Command line | Registry

Important: This preference cannot be set manually in the registry for Microsoft Windows, nor in the config.ini file for UNIX-like devices. Any value set manually in the [pseudo-]registry is overwritten each time that device policy is downloaded from an inventory beacon. Preferences for the installed and policy-managed FlexNet Inventory Agent follow your settings in the web interface for IT Asset Management at Discovery & Inventory > Settings (see the discussion of default values below). You may override the saved values by using a custom command-line, as shown below.

IncludeDirectory targets a specified folder for scanning for files to include in inventory. If Recurse is True, then all subfolders are also included.

Important: The FlexNet Inventory Agent never follows symbolic links (on UNIX-like platforms) or NTFS junction points (on Microsoft Windows). This restriction cannot be changed. On some UNIX servers, for example, /bin is a symbolic link to /usr/bin. On such a system, if you specified IncludeDirectory=/bin, no inventory would be collected, because the symbolic link cannot be followed. Changing the preference on such a system to IncludeDirectory=/usr/bin solves the problem, since there is now no intermediate symbolic link. On UNIX-like systems, check for symbolic links with the ls -l command.

For UNIX-like platforms, a setting of "/" scans the entire file system. For Microsoft Windows platforms, when the value of this entry is set to "\", it means "include all drives", with the exception of $(WindowsFolder) and its subfolders. (To change this default exclusion, see ExcludeDirectory.) Notice that "include all drives" means all fixed drives and all local drives (such as USB sticks or USB-connected external drives), but does not include network shares.

Restriction: IncludeDirectory sets the folder(s) that the FlexNet Inventory Agent is to scan for software inventory, and in particular for file evidence. However, this setting does not control scanning for Oracle Fusion Middleware (for which see PerformOracleFMWScan). As required by Oracle, a scan for Oracle Fusion Middleware must cover the entire file system; but scanning is optimized so that each folder is scanned only once. There are two possible outputs from this scan:

• For folders declared within IncludeDirectory, standard file evidence is uploaded (as always)
• For folders where Oracle Fusion Middleware is discovered, the specific data required by Oracle is structured, zipped into an archive, and included as a blob of binary data in the uploaded .ndi file.

For the collection of regular file evidence, IncludeDirectory can accept multiple values, separated by commas or semi-colons.

Tip: Comma separators can be used freely. If you use semi-colon separators, it is mandatory on UNIX-like platforms to enclose the list of values in either single or double ASCII quotation marks. (Be careful that any copy/paste doesn't switch to 'smart quotes', and use only plain ASCII quotation marks.)

If a folder is identified in both the ExcludeDirectory and IncludeDirectory preferences, it is excluded. Exclusions (of the same thing) always override inclusions.

Note: Inclusions and exclusions can cover folders (and optionally their sub-folders), file name extensions, specific file names, and specific MD5 digest values. To resolve conflicting specifications, the specifications of folders provides a data set to which the following specifications are applied as filters, prioritized from lowest to highest as:

• File extension
• File name
• MD5 value.

For example, if file extension exe is included, filename xcopy.exe excluded, and MD5 value 123456... (the MD5 for xcopy.exe) is included, then the inventory agent includes all files with extension exe except for all versions of xcopy.exe that do not have an MD5 value 123456....

Keep in mind the potential interaction between the following preferences:

• IncludeDirectory
• IncludeNetworkDrives
• IncludeFileSystemType and ExcludeFileSystemType (on UNIX-like systems only).

Of these, IncludeDirectory has lowest priority, and priority increases down the list. This means that, on UNIX-like systems, IncludeFileSystemType (the highest priority) can be an exception to the general rule that "exclude overrides include". The following table illustrates cases where the other settings may over-ride the IncludeDirectory preference, where that specifies a network drive. The first three cases fit the general rule, but the fourth is a special case:

...FileSystemType	IncludeNetworkDrives	IncludeDirectory	Result
Not specified (including Microsoft Windows)	False (this setting operates like an "exclude")	A network share (or subdirectory thereof) on any file system type.	No inventory returned.
Not specified (including Microsoft Windows)	True	A network share (or subdirectory thereof) on any file system type.	Software inventory from the specified directory.
ExcludeFileSystemType=XXX	Either True or False (here, a True setting is over-ridden by the exclude)	A network share (or subdirectory thereof) on file system type XXX (here, the setting is over-ridden by the exclude).	No inventory returned.
IncludeFileSystemType=XXX	Either True or False (here, a False setting is over-ridden, because the file system type has higher precedence)	A network share (or subdirectory thereof) on file system type XXX.	Software inventory from the specified directory.

Tip: IncludeDirectory is not the only preference that causes folders to be scanned. See also EmbedFileContentDirectory.

Values

Values / range

Valid folder(s)

Default value

Different defaults for different cases:

• For the full FlexNet Inventory Agent driven by policy downloaded from an inventory beacon, the value reflects the current settings displayed in the web interface (navigate to Discovery & Inventory > Settings > File inventory). The standard setting on that page triggers scanning of the entire file system.
• For the lightweight FlexNet Inventory Scanner case (including ndtrack.sh on UNIX-like platforms), the default is blank. This means that no files are included in inventory gathering by default when you use the FlexNet Inventory Scanner. Reported inventory then relies entirely on installer evidence. If you wish the FlexNet Inventory Scanner to collect file evidence for any reason, it is mandatory to set an appropriate value for IncludeDirectory.

Example value

C:\Program Files

Command line

Tool

Inventory component (ndtrack)

Example

-o IncludeDirectory=C:\Temp

Registry

Installed by	Installation of FlexNet Inventory Agent on a managed device (computer preference), or manual configuration
Computer preference	[Registry]\ManageSoft\Tracker\CurrentVersion