Need some help with a script to find 0 kb files in a directory

Hi,

So I'm looking for some help for setting up a custom Windows Script Monitor to help us find 0 kb files in a directory that are over 20 minutes old. We have an application that creates files based upon data from another application, but sometimes this application fails, leaving a bunch of 0 kb files lying around. I'd like to create an APM that looks for these and triggers an alert if there are 0 kb file over 20 minutes old, but not sure where to begin.

I tried using the built in File Size Monitor, but there are two issues:

1.) No way to specify how old the file must be before triggering.

2.) does not accept the *.* wildcard. The file names are randomly generated so I don't know what they are.

So that leaves a Windows Script Monitor. If anyone has a script they would like to share or some advice, please let me know! Thanks

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Accepted answers

jiri.tomek

Hello,
here is a simple VBscript that should do what you need.

Dim folderPath, maxFileAge, countFilesfolderPath = Wscript.Arguments(0)maxFileAge = Wscript.Arguments(1)countFiles = 0Set fs = WScript.CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")Set folder = fs.GetFolder(folderPath)For Each file In folder.Files	If file.Size = 0 And DateDiff("n", file.DateLastModified, Now()) > Int(maxFileAge) Then		countFiles = countFiles + 1	End IfNextIf countFiles > 0 Then	WScript.Echo "Message: There are empty files older than " & maxFileAge & " minutes"	WScript.Echo "Statistic: " & countFiles	WScript.Quit( 1 )Else	WScript.Echo "Message: There are no empty files older than " & maxFileAge & " minutes"	WScript.Echo "Statistic: " & countFiles	WScript.Quit( 0 )End If

Script expects two arguments - path to folder to monitor (use UNC path if monitoring remote folder) and maximum file age in minutes.

Example: script.vbs \\my-computer\my-share 20

If there is at least one file with zero size and age over specified limit, script returns DOWN (WScript.Quit(1)) code and in APM it become down (red). If no such file is found, script returns UP (WScript.Quit(0)) and in APM it is up (green). You can then set alerts on it. You can also modify script so it's always UP and set thresholds on number of "old files" that is reported as "Statistic". Then you can alert only when number of such files exceeds some limit.

All comments

jiri.tomek

Hello,
here is a simple VBscript that should do what you need.

Dim folderPath, maxFileAge, countFilesfolderPath = Wscript.Arguments(0)maxFileAge = Wscript.Arguments(1)countFiles = 0Set fs = WScript.CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")Set folder = fs.GetFolder(folderPath)For Each file In folder.Files	If file.Size = 0 And DateDiff("n", file.DateLastModified, Now()) > Int(maxFileAge) Then		countFiles = countFiles + 1	End IfNextIf countFiles > 0 Then	WScript.Echo "Message: There are empty files older than " & maxFileAge & " minutes"	WScript.Echo "Statistic: " & countFiles	WScript.Quit( 1 )Else	WScript.Echo "Message: There are no empty files older than " & maxFileAge & " minutes"	WScript.Echo "Statistic: " & countFiles	WScript.Quit( 0 )End If

Script expects two arguments - path to folder to monitor (use UNC path if monitoring remote folder) and maximum file age in minutes.

Example: script.vbs \\my-computer\my-share 20

JimboG

Hello Jiří,

Thanks very much for sharing that vbscript to search for 0kb files that are less than 20 minutes old on a given Windows file share - I am very interested in using some of your code if I may to assist me with a real headache I am trying to get around at the moment?

Basically, I am trying to find a way of identifying any file (possibly with a given file extension) that has a file size of 0 bytes but in a local directory - with a recursive search and the output in the form of a directory listing for each file.

The application I am working with stores its database as small flat files, and 0byte files are a sign of corruption on a particular object. If I can identify the files I can fix the broken object based on existing known trouble-shooting techniques.

The problem is that I can't find either an elegant nor efficient way to do this in DOS - and unfortunately I am not a programmer. As a last resort I started trawling for a possible vbscript that I could run to help with with this and came across your example above.

To be honest I don't posses the vb skill to even edit your example to suit my needs and was wondering if you might help me out?

I have about 300,000 files in a directory structure starting at:

C:\Program Files\Program\Database

I need to search for *.DAT files that are 0bytes and get their respective names and locations.

Is this something you might consider assisting me with?

I dare say that in return I can only offer my gratitude.

Thanks in advance for your consideration/assistance.

Kind regards,

James Gillies

JimboG

Hello Jiří,

As it happens I did a bit more hunting on the internet and found some examples of DOS commands that helped me build the following which turned out to be both elegant and efficient:

for %F in (*) do if %~zF==0 dir "%F" /S /B >>Results.txt

When ran from the top-level directory where the database resides it spits out a text file called "Results.txt" which contains something like this:

C:\Users\James\Documents\TestZero\zero.txt
C:\Users\James\Documents\TestZero\1\zero.txt

I created a dummy folder structure that contained a subdirectory with two files. A 0 bytes file called "zero.txt" was placed in the top-level folder and the sub directory "1" - the output text file shows a simple list of the two copies of "zero.txt" and where they reside.

My thanks to Joey below who gave the original examples which I used:

http://stackoverflow.com/users/73070/joey

I would still very much be interested to see how to do this in a vbscript however as it will be easier to automate this into other processes.

Thanks again!

Kind regards,

James Gillies

jiri.tomek

Hello James,
below you can find modified script. It lists all empty files in specified folder. If you need any modifications, just let me know, we can look at it.

Jiri

' Script to list empty files in specified folder and subfolders.' Script can list all empty files or only those older than specified number fo minutes.'' Examples:'	cscript list_empty_files.vbs C:\Logs'		List all empty files in C:\Logs directory and subdirectories''	cscript list_empty_files.vbs C:\Logs 60'		List empty files older than on hour (60 minutes) in C:\Logs directory and subdirectories' Check argumentsIf Wscript.Arguments.Length < 1 Then	WScript.Echo "Usage: cscript.exe list_empty_files.vbs folderPath [minFileAgeInMinutes]"	WScript.QuitEnd If' declare variablesDim folderPath, minFileAge' by default list all empty filesminFileAge = 0folderPath = Wscript.Arguments(0)' Set minimum file age if specified (age of file in minutes)If Wscript.Arguments.Length > 1 Then	minFileAge = Wscript.Arguments(1)End IfSet fs = WScript.CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")' Get empty file recursively from specified folderGetEmptyFiles fs, folderPath, minFileAge' Get empty files from folder and subfolders that are older than minFileAgeSub GetEmptyFiles(fs, path, minFileAge)	' open folder	Set folder = fs.GetFolder(path)	' list files and test if they are emoty and older than minFileAge	For Each file In folder.Files		If file.Size = 0 And DateDiff("n", file.DateLastModified, Now()) > Int(minFileAge) Then			' write file path to console			WScript.Echo file.Path		End If	Next		' Process all subfolders inb current folder recursively	For Each subFolder In folder.SubFolders		GetEmptyFiles fs, subFolder.Path, minFileAge	NextEnd Sub

list_empty_files.zip

dwsmithjr

I admit to being a novice. How do you go about using the VB script in Orion?

Bronx

To get the monitor you need, navigate thusly: Settings > APM Settings >Component Monitor Library, then select the monitor you want:

Open the monitor, then edit the script, for example:

This will bring you to the Edit screen where you can paste your code. Hope this helps. For more information, see this link.

aLTeReGo

Please note that output of Jiri's script is not in proper APM format. It will return the path and file names of those files that are zero bytes in size, but APM requires a numerical statistic and an optional message string to be returned by the script. So as it is written currently it may satisfy your requirements when run from the command line through cscript, but it will not work properly as-is when run as a Windows Script Monitor in APM.