Properties Reference - GIserver Control Files:

Please Note: A recent change to GIserver renamed prop.fpserver and fpserver.cfg to giserver.cfg and changed the config.username files and config.default to username.cfg and default.cfg GIserver will first look for the .cfg files and then if it can't find them it will look for the older naming convention files.

The server is contained in the GIserver.jar (formerly server.jar) file and is run using the GIserver script file file or Icons created during the installation on Windows systems. The server is controlled by it's configuration file giserver.cfg which it looks for in the lib directory under the directory that GIserver is executed from.

You can use the GIadmin Gui Interface to edit the giserver.cfg file and to create, edit and/or modify the default.cfg and username.cfg files. Setting up Properties with the Configuration Editor

giserver.cfg configuration values:

The giserver.cfg file is used to specify various server operating parameters:

Configuration VariableDefault valuesDescription
adminName The login name of the server administrator. Defaults to blank thus preventing remote administration. Enter the administrators name to allow remote administration.
adminPort4450The administrative connection port.
checkInterval60000Controls how frequently the server checks for hung clients. Enter the frequency in milliseconds.
debugfalseIf set to true, GIserver will create and maintain a debug log in giserver/logs named giserver.dbg The debug logging is extensive. Every message is logged in detail, as well a number of other pieces of information generated by the receipt and delivery of every message. As a result, debug logging significantly slows the performance of the server and should only be used when absolutely required.This is a property that the server administrator must specify by directly editing the giserver.cfg file.
execfpdaemon_win[windows]
fpdaemon_sco[Unix]
The program to be exec'd by the server to run the filePro programs.
A full path should be provided if this program is not in the system path. This is a property that the server administrator must specify by directly editing the giserver.cfg file.
expires0The number in days that a user password automatically expires. If set to 0, user passwords do not expire. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
forcePasswordfalseIf set to true, the fileProGI client must change the user password the very first time it logs in. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
idleout0The Idleout property is used by GIserver to check for users that are unresponsive, for example someone who went home while still logged in to the server. If idleout is in effect for that user - when the idleout time has been exceeded without any client activity the user will be logged out. By default idleout is turned off. For it to be in effect for any user there must be an idleout value set (in minutes) in the server properties. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell. Individual users can be excluded from this feature by setting a doIdleOut=false property in their usename.cfg files .
licensePort4550The license manager connection port. Currently monitored only for client to license manager passthrough messages. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
logtrueGIserver will create and maintain an activity log in giserver/logs named giserver.log if set to true. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
password The encrypted administrator password.
port4350This specifies the port on which the server listens for connections. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
recall1The amount of time in minutes that GIserver will wait for a response to an ARE YOU AWAKE message to a fileProGI client before it considers that the client has hung up or disconnected. This is a property that the server administrator must specify by directly editing the giserver.cfg file.
remoteShutdownfalseDefaults to false. If set to true, it allows server to be shutdown from the remote administrative module.
serverAddress[address]The address the server reports for itself when a remote administrative module connects. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
serverName[name]The name the server uses to identify itself when a remote administrative module connects to the server. It is specified by the server administrator using the GIserver GUI Administrative Shell.
timeout3The amount of time in minutes that GIserver will wait for no fileProGI client activity until it sends an ARE YOU AWAKE message to it. This is a property that the server administrator must specify by directly editing the giserver.cfg file.

Examples of giserver.cfg:

fileProGI User Log In

When a client connects to the server a message is sent back to the client requesting a login. fileProGI prompts for the User Name. This name is used to find and read a username.cfg   in the giserver/users directory.

The user password (if any) is read from this file. If a password is required for this user it is prompted for and compared to the stored value. If it matches, the exec program is run and is passed the startcmd specified in the username.cfg config file. If a startdir property is set in either default.cfg or username.cfg   the command will be executed in the directory specified by startdir. This is a simplification, but from that point on the server basically does nothing more than relay messages between the fileProGI client and filePro.

User configuration

The configuration for each user is detailed in the default.cfg and username.cfg files contained in the giserver/users directory. These files take the form of succesive lines of key=value. Lines beginning with # are ignored as comments. The user config files serve two purposes (1) to control the server treatment of the client session; and (2) to set the environment which is passed to the exececuted filePro programs.

The default.cfg file provides a default configuration for each user and the username.cfg files can add to and/or override entries in the default.cfg file.

All entries in the default.cfg file are automatically added to the username.cfg entries unless they have been overriden by entries with the same key from the username.cfg file. For example, if an administrator wanted PFDATA=C: set for nearly all users then he would place that in the default.cfg file. If the administrator wanted user name joe to get his data from the D drive then he would override this setting by placing PFDATA=D: in joe.cfg

It is important to note that the environment which is passed to the filePro programs (and any programs they may execute) is WHOLLY specified by the entries in the config file(s). If a setting is not in the config file it will NOT be part of the filePro environment. This includes PATH, TERM, COMSPEC, etc. Please Note that two very important environment variables: SystemDrive and SystemRoot associated with Windows NT and Windows 2000 [W2k} must be included in the default.cfg otherwise GIserver will not work.

default.cfg and username.cfg User config settings used by GIserver
Configuration VariableValueDescription
debuglogfalseAcceptable settings are true and false. This controls if a client specific debug log file is created and used. the name of the log file is automatically generated based on username+session_id+user_ip_address.dbg.
doIdleOutfalseAcceptable settings are true and false. In order to enable the GIserver Idleout function, the doIdleOut property must be set to true in default.cfg. It can be over-ridden for an individual user by have a doIdleOut property set to false in its username.cfg file.
logfalseAcceptable settings are true and false. This controls if a specific user log file is created and used. the name of the log file is automatically generated based on username+session_id+user_ip_address.log.
password The user password. This is an encrypted value. The install shield allows you to built a non-encrypted password. To encrpt it, you must use the GIserver GUI Administration tool and load this user configuration file and then save it. The password will not be encryped.
startcmd The command passed the the 'exec' program (fpdaemon_nt) which is in turn exec'd by that program. For example "p dpromenu". If this command has embedded spaces it must, like the example, be enclosed in quotes.
startdir If startdir is present, the command specified by startcmd will be executed in the directory specified by the startdir property.

Examples of default.cfg: